Alex receieved an MSci in Physics from Durham University in 2005. He went on to do a PhD in the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds. After one postdoctoral position within the same group, in 2012 he took up a postdoctoral position within the Nanocatalysis group at Aarhus University, Denmark.

In 2015 he took his present post of Research Fellow within the school of Chemistry, University of Manchester.