Andrea Sella
Andrea Sella is a UCL chemist, broadcaster and Classic Kit writer who brings chemistry to life through demonstrations, stories and citizen science.
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Latest
Andrea’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus his backstory and Starbook, where fans write.
Known for
Chemistry World
Live science
Royal InstitutionOverview
- Work
- Chemist, educator, broadcaster and writer
- Based at
- University College London
- Education
- University of Toronto, then doctoral work at Oxford
- A wider audience
- BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific featured him in September 2012
- Signature writing
- Classic Kit, exploring chemistry through instruments and their inventors
Mini bio
How it started.
Andrea began staging chemical performances while studying at the University of Toronto, where he graduated in 1984. He later did doctoral work in organometallic chemistry with Malcolm Green at Oxford, building the research background that runs through his public demonstrations.
Finding an audience.
By 2011, he was curating an Elements-themed evening at London’s Wellcome Collection and performing experiments for public audiences. BBC Radio 4 devoted an episode of The Life Scientific to him in September 2012, introducing listeners to both his rare-metals research and theatrical chemistry demonstrations.
Stories behind the apparatus.
His Classic Kit columns tell the history of chemistry through scientific instruments and the people who made them. Alongside writing and broadcasting, he works on citizen science and on reducing the environmental impact of university life.
A prize and a principle.
The Royal Society awarded him its Michael Faraday Prize in 2014 for science communication. He returned it in June 2025, explaining his objections to the Society’s response to Elon Musk’s membership in a first-person article.
Creditschronological, newest first
Writing
- 2026Classic Kit: Tillyer’s lensesColumnist, Chemistry World
- 2025Why I returned the Faraday prize to the Royal SocietyAuthor
Live science
- 2026Science in ActionPresenter with Ted Hill, UCL and the Royal Institution
- 2025Strange IceSpeaker, RSC Belgium
Radio
- 2012The Life Scientific: Andrea SellaInterview guest, BBC Radio 4
Awards
Quotes
Toronto was where I first staged chemical performancesAndrea Sella, U of T Magazine
In a 2011 profile, Andrea recalled where his public chemistry demonstrations began.
Trivia
- His publisher biography says he does not drive and is seldom seen without a bicycle.
- He delivered one of his 2010 RSC Belgium demonstration lectures in French.
- In the Royal Institution’s Rubber band cannons film, his own children help investigate how projectiles move.
Find Andrea
Read Andrea’s blog, explore his UCL profile and follow his Mastodon updates.
Are you Andrea Sella?
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