Gerry Pattenden is an organic chemist who has served the University of Nottingham as Sir Jesse Boot Professor (1988–2005), Head of Chemistry, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research (1997–2003). He has been a Member or Chairman of numerous committees, including those of research councils, the Royal Society and industrial bodies. He has also advised the Commonwealth Fellowship Board, overseas research councils, the Leverhulme Trust and universities worldwide, and acted as a consultant to the chemical industry and an expert witness.

Gerry has published more than 490 research papers and reviews, focused on synthetic organic chemistry and the total synthesis of natural products. He was Scientific Editor for the journal Perkin Transactions 1. He has received many awards and honours, including the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Corday–Morgan Medal and Tilden Lectureship, the Indian Chemical Society’s Gurbakhsh Singh Memorial Award, and the Maison de la Chimie Natural Product Synthesis Award. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary University of London in 1999 and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Nottingham in 2015.