Dr Helen Coulshed is a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry Education in the Department of Chemistry, King’s College London.

Helen holds an MSci from Queen Mary College, University of London (UK) (2009). She conducted a notable summer project funded by EPSRC and GSK, focusing on molecularly imprinted polymers for statin side chain synthesis. The project involved polymer synthesis, template imprinting, and aldol reactions for 2,4-pentadione production. Her excellence earned her Marie Curie funding to attend the NASCENT Physical Chemistry Winter School in Warsaw.

For her master's project, Helen worked with Professor Adrian Dobbs and Homerton Hospital, improving the synthesis of the trans isomer of Vitamin D3 for use as an analytical standard and exploring its potential medical applications.

As a part of the University of Bristol Chemical Synthesis Centre for Doctoral Training (BSC CDT), Helen engaged in a PhD project with Professors Duncan Wass and Paul Pringle, focusing on diphosphoamine ligand design and catalysis.

Throughout her academic journey, Helen actively contributed to teaching and mentoring. She excelled in laboratory demonstrations and provided guidance to undergraduates, summer school students, and non-native English-speaking peers. Her expertise extended to Sheffield Hallam University, where she facilitated practical classes, demonstrated for undergraduates and pharmaceutical science master's students, designed undergraduate practical courses, and managed electron ionization mass spectrometry service (EIMS) before starting at King’s in 2015 as a Teaching Fellow. Helen has since become a lecturer on the academic education pathway and won a King’s Teaching award for Inclusive Education due to her extensive work in developing the Chemistry Outreach Program. In 2020, Helen successfully applied to become chair of the Faculty of Natural Mathematical and Engineering Sciences Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee.

Research Interests

Helen is interested in evaluative judgement and understanding how chemistry students determine what high-quality means in the context of chemistry assessments. Her research focusses on how students develop their evaluative judgement during their chemistry degree programme and developing methods where staff and students can co-create a shared understanding of what quality means in the context of an assessment.

Teaching

• 4CCC0020 Inorganic chemistry 1 (Module lead, Transition Metal Chemistry)
• 5/6AALGNDR Gender Action Innovation Module (Module co-lead, academic mentor)
• 6CCC0025 Advanced Analytical Chemistry (Separation Science) 6CCC0150 Research
• Methods (Module lead, Organophosphorus and caffeine quantitation HPLC Project lead, literature review mentor)
• 7CCC0051 Importance of diversity in STEM (Core skills)

External Roles

• External Roles King’s college London representative on the LiDo EDI committee External
• Examiner for Open University Chemistry module

Publications

• Emerging insights from a peer-to-peer social justice careers education programme
• Addressing the Attainment Gap through Inclusive Curriculum Design and Student Data Analysis
• How to embed service to society within the educational experience