Fraser Armstrong, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, obtained his BSc and PhD at the University of Leeds. Before moving to Oxford in 1993 he was Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. He carries out research on the mechanisms of biological redox reactions involving transition metals and has developed a suite of electrochemical techniques called Protein Film Electrochemistry to investigate complex electron transfer and catalytic reactions in enzymes. He is particularly interested in how metalloenzymes are so efficient in catalysing redox conversions of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide, an area that has important implications for future renewable energy. In 2008 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has received many awards, including the 2010 Joseph Chatt Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry (bioinorganic chemistry), the 2012 Barker Medal (electrochemistry) and the 2012 Davy Medal of the Royal Society.