Stephen Faulkner

Fellow and Tutor in Inorganic Chemistry
Associate Head of the Chemistry Department
Sub-Warden
Dean 2014–2017

Stephen Faulkner has been at Keble since 2008 as tutor in Inorganic Chemistry, and is currently sub-Warden—a role that feels like a cross between a shop steward and a sheepdog (particularly when organising the election of a Warden).

Steve grew up in the Lake District near Keswick, and remains slightly bewildered that he has now spent more than half his life south of the Dunmail Raise (though he is grateful for the social mobility that seems to have accompanied geographical mobility). His early life was defined by people and place, in a world that was rapidly changing, and defined in large part by his father being out of work for several years.

Academic life wasn’t really something that entered young Steve’s head, and he was lucky to develop through secondary school from someone near the bottom of the class to someone who “got” subjects when they seemed interesting. The idea of Oxford first surfaced when Peter Neumann (then Admissions Tutor at Queen’s) toured Cumbrian comprehensive schools asking to speak to promising pupils, and suggested trying for the entrance examination.

After undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Oxford, Steve’s academic career took him to Durham, Surrey and Manchester before he came to Keble. Steve remains delighted that being a researcher allows him to follow what he thinks interesting (and occasionally relevant) and loves exploring the chemistry that links areas as diverse as medical diagnosis and nuclear reprocessing and remediation. The challenge for a chemist in the modern era is to use their imagination to help interpret the things they don’t understand.

You only really appreciate your calf-country when you leave it: that was certainly true of the Lake District, but has been equally true of Oxford. Keble provides a frame in which to talk to people who do different things, and explore new ideas that cross boundaries, and sets life within an academic discipline in a broader context.