Sir John Stranger Holman (born 16 September 1946) is an English chemist and academic. He is emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of York, senior advisor in education at the

Gatsby Foundation The Gatsby Charitable Foundation is an endowed grant-making trust, based in London, founded by David Sainsbury in 1967. The organisation is one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, set up to provide funding for charitable causes. Although the ...

, founding director of the National STEM Learning Centre, Chair of the Bridge Group, past president of the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Royal Instit ...

(RSC), and of The Association for Science Education (ASE).

Education

Holman was educated at the

Royal Grammar School, Guildford The Royal Grammar School, Guildford (originally 'The Free School'), also known as the RGS, is a selective independent day school for boys in Guildford, Surrey in England. The school dates its founding to the death of Robert Beckingham in 1509 who ...

, and

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of t ...

, where he was awarded a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree with Honours in 1967.

Career

Holman served as a Headteacher of

Watford Grammar School for Boys Go Forward with Preparation , established = 1884 ( Single-sex) , type = partially selective academy , religious_affiliation = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Ian A. Cooksey , r_head_label = , ...

between 1994 and 2000, and was the British government's National STEM Director from 2006 to 2010 (STEM referring to the academic disciplines of Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). He served as president of the

from 2016 to 2018, and was a trustee of the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

(2011–2019). He was the founding director of Salters' Advanced Chemistry programme, and is the author of numerous chemistry textbooks. Holman is author of the ''Good Career Guidance'' report for the Gatsby Foundation, which is the basis for the English government's national strategy for career guidance in schools: ''Careers strategy: making the most of everyone's skills and talents''. He is independent strategic adviser on careers guidance to ministers in the Department for Education. (2021 - ) Holman also authored the ''Good Practical Science'' report and was the lead author of Improving Secondary Science guidance report for the Educational Environment Foundation (2018). He is a member of the Wolfson Foundation's School Panel. (2020)

Awards and honours

Holman was Knighted in the

2010 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2010 were announced on 31 December 2009 in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Barbados, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Christopher and NevisSaint Christ ...

. In 2014 the Royal Society of Chemistry awarded him the Lord Lewis Prize "in recognition of his extensive influence over

chemistry education Chemistry education (or chemical education) is the study of teaching and learning chemistry. It is one subset of STEM education or discipline-based education research (DBER). Topics in chemistry education include understanding how students lea ...

policy". Holman was named in 2014 by the Science Council as one of the UK's 100 leading practising scientists, and was the 2014 recipient of the Royal Society's biennial Kavli Education Medal, "in recognition of his significant impact on science education within the UK". He was elected President of the

Yorkshire Philosophical Society The Yorkshire Philosophical Society (YPS) is a charitable learned society (charity reg. 529709) which aims to promote the public understanding of the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the archaeology and history of York and Yorkshire. ...

in 2018.

References

1946 births Living people English chemists People educated at Royal Grammar School, Guildford Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Academics of the University of York Presidents of the Royal Society of Chemistry People from Bath, Somerset Knights Bachelor Presidents of the Association for Science Education Members of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society {{England-scientist-stub