John Derek Woollins FRSC FRSE is a chemist who was Provost of Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi having previously been Vice Principal (Research and Innovation), Provost of St Leonard's College, at the University of St Andrews.
[5] Prior to being appointed Vice Principal of Research, Woollins was the Head of Chemistry[6] for two terms.
[7] He returned to the United Kingdom where he worked under Norman Greenwood at the University of Leeds before becoming a lecturer at Imperial College London.
From September 2019 he became Provost at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi; he left this post in April 2020.
His work on sulfur-nitrogen rings and cages, as well as selenium and tellurium chemistry, has led to development of new molecular devices including precursors to new single source II-VI semiconductors.
Derek's work on phosphorus-sulfur and phosphorus-selenium chemistry resulted in Woollins' reagent that has been manufactured on a commercial scale for use in organic synthesis.
[17] He has written several books on chemistry, the most popular of which is Inorganic Experiments, first published in 1994 and which has four editions to date.