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Dr David Palomas Dona

Dr David Palomas Dona is a Lecturer (Teaching) in Chemical Sustainability at UCL East.

David Palomas Dona

3 February 2025

When did you join UCL and where were you before?

I joined UCL in April 2023. Before that, I was a researcher in several academic institutions and the industry in Spain and Germany. 

I first came to the UK in 2013 to work with an industrial postdoctoral fellowship at Imperial College – Royal Dutch Shell. I started my career in Higer Education in 2015 at QMUL, where I climbed the ranks from Teaching Labs Manager in the Department of Chemistry to Lecturer in Materials Science and Chemistry Education in the joint Transnational Education programme of The Queen Mary University of London Engineering School (QMES) and the Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xian (China).

Tell us about your work at UCL - how do you spend your days, and what makes your role different to similar positions elsewhere?

I feel very fortunate in my role. I was recruited to help build our new MSc in Sustainable Chemistry at UCL East. It is very exciting when you can start a new project, especially in the areas of green and sustainable chemistry which are very close to my heart.  

Over the past two years, I have had the opportunity to wear many hats. I have been doing lots of curriculum development while creating three new modules for our programme and helping put together our brand-new teaching wet labs.

I work mainly in postgraduate teaching. This year we have our second cohort in our MSc in Sustainable Chemistry. I lead the lab-based module Chemical Sustainability Research Skills, where we prepare our students for interdisciplinary research in the areas of Organic Chemistry, Biocatalysis and Green and Sustainable Chemistry. 

I am also a lecturer in the module Core Concepts in Chemical Sustainability and supervise research projects in the module Advanced Research Project: Chemical Sustainability.

I also work with undergraduate students, doing tutorials in Organic Chemistry for second year students and with my role as Personal Tutor, which allows me to get to know better some of our amazing students and support them in their careers. 

What are some of your favourite things about working at UCL? How have you found it different to previous jobs?

At UCL, compared with other teaching-based roles I had in the past, I can combine my teaching duties with my research interests in education. The Chemistry Department and MAPS Faculty have a very welcoming and supportive community of educators. 

I love that UCL, and particularly UCL East, has a very strong focus on sustainability. We have a vibrant community of staff and students with many different backgrounds and the opportunities for collaboration are endless. 

Can you tell us about any projects that you’re currently working on?

I left my country (Spain) 16 years ago, and since then, I have always been part of international communities everywhere I go. I am very invested in improving the experience of our community of international students. 

International students often struggle to adapt from traditional, lecture-based education to the active learning environments we use in the UK. During the last year I have been working on an approach based on sports to make active learning more relatable for our students, and also for staff involved in education that have little or no previous experience with active learning. 

This year is special because I will have the opportunity to present my research to the wider education community at the Advance HE Teaching and Learning Conference 2025. 

Have you always been based in London? If not, when did you move here, and how did you find adapting to living in London?

I arrived in the UK in 2013. When you move to a different country, everything is new, and there is a learning curve, but London is a different story, it has always felt easy. I have lived as a proper East Londoner since 2014 and it has been great, no wonder I ended up working at UCL East! 

Finally, tell us about your non-work life. Do you have any hobbies, or favourite places to go in London?

I have a young daughter and when I am not an academic, I am a proud dad. I enjoy family time with my wife and my daughter. I have a not-so-secret passion for all things related to tennis and I enjoy reading and watching vampire-themed books and movies.