Professor Phil Blower

Biography

Since 2006 Phil Blower has been at King’s College London as Chair in Imaging Chemistry, with research interests in “molecular imaging” mainly using inorganic chemistry tools. As Head of the Imaging Chemistry and Biology Dept, he has built a large interdisciplinary research team with wide interests covering radiopharmaceutical chemistry and biology for PET, SPECT and radionuclide therapy, applying inorganic chemistry from all parts of the periodic table to nuclear medicine.

Most recently he focused on use of PET to study metallomics and in vivo cell tracking. He stepped down as Head of the department in 2023 and although semi-retired since 2021 he continues to lead the EPSRC MITHRAS Programme (2019-2025) and helped set up the Radionuclides for Health UK advocacy network.

He has published >230 peer-reviewed papers and supervised 43 successful PhD students. He played a leading role in setting up the new Chemistry Dept and its undergraduate programme at King’s in 2012 and served as its first interim Head. He has served on various peer review panels for international grant awarding bodies and journals and as Editor in Chief of Nuclear Medicine Communications. He was awarded the Norman Veall Medal by the British Nuclear medicine Society in 2020. His path to this point followed a BA in Natural Sciences (Cambridge, 1981) and DPhil in Chemistry (Sussex, 1984), and postdoctoral experience in inorganic chemistry at Indiana University and Oxford University. His first academic post was a joint appointment (1987) at Kent and Canterbury Hospital (Radiopharmacy) and the University of Kent (Biosciences).