Mark Isaacs graduated with an MChem from Cardiff University in 2010, before undertaking a PhD with Profs Adam Lee and Karen Wilson in the development of silver-based nanocomposites for antibacterial applications. He moved to Aston university as a PDRA in 2014, developing hierarchically porous catalysts for domino or cascade reactions and running the XPS laboratory, before joining University College London and HarwellXPS in 2018. His current research interests include developing composite oxide porous nanomaterials and the study of nanomaterial formation by XPS and related surface analysis techniques. He is the current chair for the Society of Chemical Industry's early career materials science committee.