Lead developer of the Open Source Java project JSpecView for the display of spectroscopic data.
Webmaster of the Department of Chemistry website where I make extensive use of Jmol and JSpecView to highlight areas of general interest such as: the development of informative web articles on the chemistry of Jamaican fruits, vegetables and spices, the prospects of teaching chemistry via the World Wide Web, multimedia computer applications in chemistry, use of JCAMP-DX file formats on the Web.
Microwave Oven Reaction Enhanced (MORE) Chemistry.
The coordination chemistry of transition metal ions, in particular with N-heterocycles, α-amino acids, diamines and macrocyclic ligands.
The History of the Chemistry Department at UWI, Mona, Jamaica. Published in 2010 with Professor Emeritus Kenneth E Magnus and available from Amazon.
The History of the Turner Family of Clarendon. Edward Turner was the first Prof of Chemistry at the University of London (1827-1837) and Wilton George Turner obtained a PhD in chemistry from Justus von Liebig at Geissen in 1838.
The History of the Blyth Family of Westmoreland. John Buddle Blyth was the first Prof of Chemistry at Queen's College, Cork, Ireland
Prof. Robert Lancashire's research is in the field of computational chemistry which has been broadly described as anything that requires the use of computers in chemical research. This interest deepened in 1994 with the establishment of the first web site in the Caribbean at the Chemistry Department at Mona. Since then he has acted as its web master.
For the past 15 years, he has been involved with creating and maintaining the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) spectroscopic data formats (JCAMP-DX) through their sub-committee on electronic data standards (SEDS). Software designed to read and display spectral data was developed at Mona and licensed to a USA-based firm in November 1997 and they subsequently distributed over 2 million free copies. In 2006, a version was released as Open Source (JSpecView) and in 2012, the code was merged with an Open Source molecular graphics programme (Jmol). The software is now in use by both the RSC and ACS. The most recent change was to enable the code (JSmol) to run on all major platforms, including Windows, MAC, UNIX, Android, iOS etc.
To continue promoting and developing new JCAMP-DX standards requires reviewing new spectroscopic software when it appears, as well as chemical instruments to formulate appropriate mechanisms to transmit data in a suitable format.
Other areas of research include:
Setting up a sensor network islandwide with small computers distributed in high schools, etc. to measure seismic conditions, temperature, pressure, light, wind, etc.
Coordination compounds of transition metal ions
The history of early Jamaican scientists, such as Prof. Edward Turner and Prof. John Buddle Blyth.
Prof. Lancashire has published 35 journal articles on his research.
