Howell Edwards is Professor Emeritus of Molecular Spectroscopy at the University of Bradford. He read Chemistry at Jesus College in the University of Oxford  and after completing his B.A and B.Sc. degrees he studied for his doctorate there and then took up a Research Fellowship at Jesus College, University of Cambridge. He joined the University of Bradford as a Lecturer in Structural and Inorganic Chemistry, becoming Head of the Department of Chemical and Forensic Sciences and was awarded a Personal Chair in Molecular Spectroscopy in 1996. He has received several international awards ( Sir Harold Thompson Award ; Charles Mann Award of the FACSS ; Boricky Medal of Charles University Prague ; Norman Sheppard Award of the Infrared and Raman Discusion Group ) in a spectroscopic career which has resulted in the publication of 1300 research papers in Raman spectroscopy and the characterisation of materials, along with six books on the application of this technique to art, archaeology and forensic analysis. He has had a lifelong interest in the porcelains of William Billingsley, especially those from the Derby, Nantgarw and Swansea china factories. He has authored three major books on Nantgarw and Swansea Porcelains: Swansea and Nantgarw Porcelains: A Scientific Reappraisal, Nantgarw and Swansea Porcelains: An Analytical Perspective and Porcelain to Silica Bricks: The Extreme Ceramics of William Weston Young, 1776-1847, all published by Springer, Dordrecht. He has also produced several monographs on the personalities involved in these factories: William Billingsley - The Enigmatic Porcelain Artist, Decorator and Manufacturer, Nantgarw Porcelain - The Pursuit of Perfection, Swansea Porcelain - the Duck-Egg Translucent Vision of Lewis Dillwyn and Derby Porcelain: The Golden Years,1780-1830. Howell Edwards is Honorary Scientific Adviser to the de Brecy Trust on the analytical scientific evaluation of artworks and paintings.