Welcome to the Wann / Rankin Website

Derek Wann, who holds a prestigious EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship, is performing electron diffraction research in Edinburgh, with the aim of carrying out experiments that include time resolution. Click below for more information. The study of plants and soils is the domain of David Rankin. For more information about his past and present research in this field please click below.

Molecular structure

Plants and soils

Vibrating nitromethane molecule (1171 cm-1 mode)
Rhododendron hippophaeoides
Our group determines the structures of small molecules both by experiment and by theory. The main experimental method used is electron diffraction and molecular-orbital calculations and other experimental data are used to aid the determination of a structure.
The group always welcomes the chance to determine the gas-phase structures of new molecules.
We study the relationship between availability of metals in soil and their transfer into and utilisation in plants. We also use analysis of leaf waxes as a means of identifying plants, particularly rhododendrons.