Simon Nicholas Platts, Ph.D., P.Chem., is a British-Australian-Canadian chemist.  He obtained an Honours degree at Monash University, majoring in Chemistry, where his 4th-year concentration was in Structural Chemistry by XRD methods, under the direction of the renowned mineral & crystal chemist, Dr. Bryan M.K.C. Gatehouse (1932-2014).  He was introduced to the 'Origin-of-Life' problem in Chemistry by Prof. Ronald D. Brown (1927-2008) in 1986.  Inspired by the multidisciplinary example set by British geologist Prof. Michael J. Russell, it was the British chemist Prof. Stephen F. Mason (1923-2007) who advised looking to the U.S. for graduate school.  In 1996, Prof. Gerald F. Joyce kindly let him attend a Gordon Research Conference (Ventura, Calif.), to hear discussion of the state of research across the 'Origin-of-Life' field.  He relocated from Australia to the U.S. in 1999 to pursue pre-doctoral studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY), under Prof. James P. Ferris (1932-2016), also coming under the influence of Prof. John W. Delano (SUNY-Albany).  While at RPI, he improved a photochemical apparatus for generating Titan 'haze' analogue materials, in support of the Cassini-Huygens mission in-flight for the Saturn system.  In 2002, he moved to the Geophysical Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution (Wash., D.C.), on fellowship to work in the Organic Geochemistry lab of Dr. George D. Cody.  While at the GL, he was kindly given the tools, time, and peaceful surroundings which then collaboratively led to the long-missed 'end run' conceptual breakthrough that later became known as the (RPI-Carnegie-NASA) "PAH World" model [a name that was kindly coined for it by Dr. Robert M. Hazen] for a logical nexus mechanism between the physical sciences and earliest-recognizable pre-RNA oligomeric materials that could've been produced abiogenically on the early (prebiotic) Earth.  Prior to coming to North America, he taught senior Chemistry (along with middle-school Science & a Religious Studies class) at Melbourne Grammar School.  In the U.K., he taught Chemistry at Oundle School (Salters' & GCSE).  In industry, he's worked on environmental remediation projects (soil & water), and has even 'slung pipe' in the oilpatch to be able to observe applied chemical aspects of 'fracking' operations first-hand.  He's currently at RPI, giving-back to his doctoral alma mater by teaching Chemistry to undergraduates from an industrial & practical problem-solving viewpoint.

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