Andy Extance fuses chemistry and physics – and many other elements – into words, thanks to a career infused with both fields. He has been a freelance science writer since 2003, working for employers ranging from prestigious scientific media like Nature and New Scientist to companies like Tate and Lyle and Strategy Analytics. Prior to going independent he was news editor for Compound Semiconductor magazine, when it was owned by Institute of Physics Publishing. Before that, he worked in industrial chemistry, briefly working with adhesives and rubber after spending six and a half years working at Tripos Discovery Research, a company seeking to apply computational methods to drug discovery – a precursor of current AI-led efforts. He studied chemistry at the University of Southampton, gaining an MChem in 1999. He’s on the board of the Association of British Science Writers and a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, as well as a Chartered Chemist and Chartered Scientist.
