Robert Scanes

Robert joined Carpmaels & Ransford in 2020 as a Trainee Patent Attorney after completing his DPhil at University College, Oxford. Prior to this, he was at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he studied Natural Sciences specialising in later years in Chemistry. His studies there were distinguished by receiving the highest mark in his year for Organic Chemistry finals, being awarded six different named scholarships and prizes from the university, and representing his college on University Challenge.

Robert’s doctoral studies focused on the chemical origins of life and involved the creation of transient self-replicating lipid aggregates to study the chemical evolution of synthetic replicators through time and protocell motion. Before this, Robert’s research focused on asymmetric synthesis, developing during his master’s project a highly enantioselective phosphine catalyst for a novel intramolecular Rauhut–Currier reaction. Other projects included work on copper-catalysed Diels–Alder reactions and nickel-catalysed reductive cross-couplings.

Outside the office Robert can be found in late gothic churches, rare book rooms and country auctioneers, pursuing his interest in all things historical.