Dr David Palmer

Reader

Pure and Applied Chemistry

Personal statement

I am a Reader in Chemistry at the University of Stratchlyde. I was born in London, but grew up in Cumbria in north west England. After obtaining a Masters degree in Chemistry from the University of Sheffield, I worked as a synthesis chemist for Norbrook Laboratories before reading my PhD in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Between 2008 and 2011, I was a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark and then at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig, Germany. In 2012 I was awarded a Marie Curie Research Fellowship and returned to the UK to join the Department of Physics at the University of Strathclyde. I started as a Lecturer in the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry in 2014. I was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2019, and to Reader in 2022.

Expertise

Has expertise in:

Theoretical and computational chemistry
Solvation Thermodynamics
Molecular Simulation
Cheminformatics/Bioinformatics
Drug Discovery
Biochemistry
Machine Learning

Prizes and awards

Trustee: Recipient; 1/1/2016
Chemical Structures Association Trust Grant: Recipient; 2/6/2014
Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF - 272391 - IETSOL): Recipient; 1/2/2012

More prizes and awards

Publications

Recurrent neural networks for time domain modelling of FTIR spectra : application to brain tumour detection: Antoniou Georgios, Conn Justin J A, Smith Benjamin R, Brennan Paul M, Baker Matthew J, Palmer David S; Analyst (2023); https://doi.org/10.1039/D2AN02041F
Solvation entropy, enthalpy and free energy prediction using a multi-task deep learning functional in 1D-RISM: Fowles Daniel J, Palmer David S; Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics Vol 25, pp. 6944-6954 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1039/D3CP00199G
Liquid biopsies : the future of cancer early detection: Connal Siobhan, Cameron James M, Sala Alexandra, Brennan Paul M, Palmer David S, Palmer Joshua D, Perlow Haley, Baker Matthew J; Journal of Translational Medicine Vol 21 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-023-03960-8
Blinded predictions and post-hoc analysis of the second solubility challenge data : exploring training data and feature set selection for machine and deep learning models: Conn Jonathan G M, Carter James W, Conn Justin J A, Subramanian Vigneshwari, Baxter Andrew, Engkvist Ola, Llinas Antonio, Ratkova Ekaterina L, Pickett Stephen D, McDonagh James L, Palmer David S; Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling , pp. 1-15 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.2c01189
Accurately predicting solvation free energy in aqueous and organic solvents beyond 298 K by combining deep learning and the 1D reference interaction site model: Fowles Daniel J, McHardy Rose G, Ahmad Abdullah, Palmer David S; Digital Discovery Vol 2, pp. 177-188 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1039/d2dd00103a
Pocket-size near-IR spectrometers for rapid examination of contaminated textile fibres at the crime-scene: Rashed Hamad S, Parrott Andrew J, Nordon Alison, Baker Matthew J, Palmer David S; Vibrational Spectroscopy Vol 123 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vibspec.2022.103464

More publications

Research interests

The main focus of my research is the development and application of molecular simulation and molecular informatics methods to solve industrially relevant problems at the interface between biochemistry and chemical physics. Recent examples have included the development of new methods for computational drug discovery (in collaboration with AstraZeneca, GSK, and Pfizer) and the design of an enzyme for use in food manufacturing (in collaboration with Chr. Hansen A/S). I am Founding Director of the cancer diagnostics company, Dxcover (formerly ClinSpec Diagnostics Ltd)

Professional activities

AI for Drug Discovery: Speaker; 8/11/2022
Machine learning from continuous functions: applications to solvation thermodynamics and cancer diagnostics: Speaker; 5/9/2022
Solvation Descriptors for Modelling Chromatographic Retention Times: Speaker; 22/2/2022
Engage with Strathclyde 2021: Invited speaker; 20/5/2021
Engage with Strathclyde 2021: Invited speaker; 20/5/2021
2020 ScotChem Computational Chemistry Virtual Symposium: Participant; 26/8/2020

More professional activities

Projects

Afon Technology. Short Project: Palmer, David (Principal Investigator); 01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2023
DTP 2224 University of Strathclyde | Fyfe, Calum: Reid, Marc (Principal Investigator) Palmer, David (Co-investigator) Fyfe, Calum (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2022 - 01-Jan-2026
Doctoral Training Partnership 2020-2021 University of Strathclyde | Taylor, Madeleine: Palmer, David (Principal Investigator) Reid, Marc (Co-investigator) Taylor, Madeleine (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2021 - 01-Jan-2025
Development of molecular-solvent interaction descriptors to improve accuracy of Quantitative Structure Retention Relationship model: Palmer, David (Principal Investigator); 01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2025
Solvation thermodynamics of non-aqueous solvent in the 3D Reference Interaction Site Model (3D-RISM).: Palmer, David (Principal Investigator); 256000 CPU hours awarded on Cirrus (EPSRC Tier-2 National HPC Facility at University of Edinburgh); 27-Jan-2021 - 27-Jan-2022
Understanding the Reliability and Transferability of Machine Learning: Nelson, David (Principal Investigator) Palmer, David (Co-investigator) Reid, Marc (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2024

More projects

Address

Pure and Applied Chemistry
Thomas Graham

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