Biographical note

Craig Banks holds a Personal Chair at Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester UK in electrochemical and nano technology. He researches the electrochemical properties of 2D materials and has pioneered new screen-printing methods for electrodes used in chemical analysis. This work has applications ranging from batteries to clinical diagnostics and is described in over 400 publications. Craig is named inventor on 18 patent families. Craig’s work is highly cited and his h-index is 65. In addition to this he has published four books and 20 book chapters. Craig is a lifelong Honorary Professor at Central South University, China. He has spun out two companies from his research and was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize (2011) for his contributions to the understanding of carbon materials, in particular, graphene and its application as an electrode material. Dale Brownson is a Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry at Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester UK. His research involves graphene engineering and graphene electrochemistry, wherein he has published over 45 papers (h-index of 23) and has contributed to numerous book chapters and 1 book, ‘The Handbook of Graphene Electrochemistry’. Dale’s work has focused particularly on expanding the horizons of graphene electrochemistry, which encompasses the exploration of fundamental understanding in addition to applications in sensing and energy related devices. In addition to his fundamental interests regarding fabricating, characterising and investigating advanced carbon (nano)materials for beneficial implementation within electrochemical devices, his other research interests include the fabrication, characterization and utilisation of various other 2D (nano)materials. Dale received the RSC Ronald Belcher Award (2013) for "achievements towards the fundamental understanding of graphene as an electrode material and for contributions to the implications of this knowledge for the evolution of improved electroanalytical sensors" and he is a Ramsay Memorial Fellow (2015-2017).