York, North Yorkshire · 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 Dual citizen CHNO
AlastairMitchell
Chemistry & Applied Science student with a strong preference for organic chemistry over the physical end of the discipline. Shotokan Karate 1st Dan, aspiring to work at the intersection of organic chemistry, biology, and medicine. Curious about how carbon-based molecules make life possible.
About me
Chemistry, precision,
and applied science
I'm a BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Applied Science student at York College, with a strong focus on chemistry — specifically organic chemistry, the area I find most interesting by some distance. Physical chemistry has its place; organic chemistry is where I want to spend my career. The question that keeps me genuinely occupied: how do relatively simple carbon-based molecules give rise to something as staggeringly complex as a living cell?
Outside formal study, I train Shotokan Karate — the long-form discipline of it maps well onto laboratory work. As a dual British and American citizen, I'm open to university opportunities on either side of the Atlantic.
Organic Chemistry
Where my head is. Carbon frameworks, reaction mechanisms, functional groups, and the molecular architecture of life.
Primary focusApplied Science
BTEC Extended Diploma at York College — biology, chemistry, and physics across a rigorous two-year programme.
York CollegeShotokan Karate
1st Dan Black Belt. Nearly a decade of training in one of the most demanding traditional karate styles.
1st Dan · BSKADual Citizen
British and American — eligible to live and work on both sides of the Atlantic without sponsorship or visa complications.
🇬🇧 🇺🇸Chemistry
Organic systems &
biochemical thinking
My interest in chemistry isn't abstract — it's specifically the organic and biochemical end: how carbon scaffolds become enzymes, how drug molecules interact with receptors, how the metabolic pathways inside a cell are essentially organic chemistry operating at extraordinary scale and precision.
To be direct about it: I much prefer organic chemistry over physical chemistry. The maths-heavy, thermodynamics-and-quantum end of the discipline is well and good, but it's organic — the synthesis, the mechanisms, the molecular architecture — that I find genuinely compelling. Physical chemistry explains the rules; organic chemistry builds things with them.
This is why biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, and chemical biology are the directions I'm targeting for university. The intersection of organic chemistry and medicine is, to put it mildly, an interesting place to be right now.
Microbiology is another area I've spent real time with — from light and electron microscopy technique through to the classification, structure, and clinical significance of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. Understanding how organisms like E. coli and Streptococcus pneumoniae function at the molecular level, and how that knowledge drives vaccine development and drug design, is exactly the kind of applied science that holds my attention.
Biochemistry
Proteins, enzymes, metabolic pathways — chemistry as the operating language of living systems. This is the direction of travel.
Medicinal Chemistry
How molecular structure determines biological activity. Drug design is, at its core, applied organic chemistry.
Microbiology
Bacterial classification, gram staining, microscopy technique, and the biology of pathogens. From E. coli's role in genetic engineering to how Plasmodium invades red blood cells.
Synthesis & Analysis
Hands-on organic synthesis, recrystallisation, and multi-method purity analysis — TLC, melting point, IR spectroscopy. There's something genuinely satisfying about starting with reagents and finishing with a compound that works.
Practical chemistryReaction Mechanisms
Understanding why reactions happen, not just that they do. Electron pushing has a certain elegance to it.
Martial arts
Shotokan Karate —
nearly a decade on the mat
I've trained in Shotokan Karate for close to ten years under Sensei Ady Gray, progressing through the kyu grades to receive my 1st Dan Black Belt (BSKA Diploma) on 26 November 2023. Shotokan is known for its linear, powerful technique, rigorous kata, and an unforgiving standard for form.
The mindset required to reach black belt — consistent long-term effort, learning to fail productively, the relentless long view — maps usefully onto laboratory work. I'm working towards 2nd Dan; which is to say: still very much on the mat.
1st Dan Black Belt — BSKA
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Bronze done.
Going straight for Gold.
I've completed the Bronze Award and I'm targeting Gold directly — the most demanding level, requiring volunteering, physical activity, a skill, an expedition, and a residential project. Silver was not a stop on this particular itinerary.
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Academic interests
What I'm actually
thinking about
Clinical Science
The applied end of biochemistry — how laboratory science functions inside a healthcare system. Diagnostic testing, pathology workflows, and the chain from sample to clinical decision. My upcoming pathology placement is directly relevant here.
Drug Discovery
How organic chemistry becomes medicine — lead optimisation, structure-activity relationships, and the long road from a promising compound to something you can actually prescribe. The intersection of chemistry and biology where I most want to work.
Life Sciences
The more I learn about cellular and molecular biology, the more extraordinary it seems that any of it functions at all. I've spent time on microbiology in depth — microscopy techniques, bacterial and viral structure, gram staining, and how pathogens like Streptococcus pneumoniae drive medical research. The chemistry underlying all of it is what pulls me toward biochemistry and chemical biology.
The Outdoors
DoE expeditions aside, North Yorkshire offers no shortage of reasons to get out — moors, dales, and good walking country all within reach of York.
Experience
Hands in the lab,
eyes on the result
There's a considerable gap between reading about a reaction and actually running one. Practical lab work has a way of teaching you things that a textbook simply cannot — including what a 78% yield feels like when the reference says 95–98% and you know exactly which transfer steps cost you the difference.
Aspirin Synthesis
Full synthesis of acetylsalicylic acid from salicylic acid and acetic anhydride — esterification under acid catalysis at 60–70°C, recrystallisation from hot water for purification, and purity characterisation via TLC (Rf = 0.6 vs reference), melting point determination (134°C; reference: 135°C), and IR spectroscopy confirming the C=O ester stretch at ~1750 cm⁻¹ with absence of the salicylic acid O–H band. Lab yield: 78%.
Organic synthesis · York CollegeNHS Pathology — Work Experience
Upcoming placement in a clinical pathology laboratory — an overview of NHS diagnostic laboratory practice, sample handling workflows, and the working environment of applied biomedical science. Details to follow once the placement begins.
Upcoming · NHS · PathologyWhat's next
University &
beyond
I'm targeting undergraduate programmes in Biochemistry, Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Biomedical Science, and Chemical Biology. My interest sits firmly at the chemistry end — how molecules build and sustain living systems. Universities currently on my radar:
- University of EssexBiochemistry & biomedical programmes
- York St John UniversityHealth & applied sciences, close to home
- University of YorkStrong chemistry & biochemistry dept — conveniently local
- University of ManchesterMedicinal chemistry & biochemistry — consistently highly ranked
- University of NottinghamMedicinal & biological chemistry — strong industry links
- University of SheffieldBiochemistry & chemistry — welcoming to BTEC applicants
Still weighing options — open to wherever the right programme is. If you're here because of a shared interest in chemistry, biochemistry, or karate, feel free to get in touch.
Get in touch
Say hello
Whether you want to talk chemistry, biochemistry, or discuss kata technique.
I do read my email. Response times may vary.