Simon Lancaster has taught Chemistry at the University of East Anglia since his appointment as a lecturer in 2000. He won a National Teaching Fellowship and an RSC Higher Education Teaching Award in 2013 for 'blurring the boundaries between the internet and the lecture theatre'. Simon was promoted to a chair in Chemistry Education in 2014.

He was selected as one of RSC's 175 face of diversity in 2016 and championed inclusion and diversity as President of the Education Division Council from 2017-2020. He is a passionate advocate for active learning, in demand as a keynote speaker well beyond the chemistry arena. He has led UEA's chemistry provision as Director of Learning and Teaching since 2015 and has accelerated their implementation of blended learning in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.