Professor Watts graduated from the University of Bristol (UK) in 1995 with a first-class BSc in Chemistry. He continued his studies at Bristol, obtaining a PhD in bio-organic natural product chemistry in 1999. His PhD focussed on the synthesis of isotopically labelled compounds for use in determining biosynthetic pathways to polyketide-derived natural products. He subsequently worked at the University of Hull (UK) where he led the micro reactor and continuous flow technology group, being promoted to full professor in August 2011. He has published nearly 100 papers in the field and regularly gives lectures on the topic at worldwide conferences. He is on several editorial boards and is an associate editor of the Journal of Flow Chemistry.