Michael Freemantle is a science writer and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). After a post-doctoral research fellowship at Oxford University (1967-1969), he worked in the chemical industry for two years. From 1971 to 1985, he taught chemistry at various levels both in the UK and abroad. In 1985, he was appointed Information Officer for IUPAC (International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry). His duties included editing the IUPAC news magazine Chemistry International. From 1994 to 2007 he was European Science Editor/Senior Correspondent for Chemical & Engineering News - the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society. He was then appointed Science Writer in Residence, a part-time post, at Queen's University Belfast and Queens University Ionic Liquid Laboratories for three years until 2010. Freemantle has written numerous news reports and articles on chemistry, the history of chemistry, and related topics. He is the author, co-author, or editor of more than ten books on chemistry and related subjects including Chemistry and the Environment - the IUPAC Programme (editor), IUPAC, 1990; An Introduction to Ionic Liquids, RSC Publishing, 2009; and Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! How Chemistry Changed the First World War, The History Press, 2012.