Glenn was born and raised in Western Sydney in the antipodean enclave of Liverpool (known as ‘Livo’ in local lingo). Glenn completed his undergraduate studies in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Wollongong in 1996. In 1995, Glenn was awarded a summer vacation scholarship to conduct research towards the total synthesis of mitomycin C in Martin Banwell’s laboratory at the Australian National University. This research experience led to Glenn staying on in Wollongong to conduct post-graduate research in fullerene chemistry with Paul Keller and Stephen Pyne. After completing PhD studies in 2000, secured a post-doctoral position in the Fullerene Science Centre at the University of Sussex under the guidance of Roger Taylor and Sir Harry Kroto (2001-2003). He was then awarded an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship and spent 3 years in Thomas Carell’s lab at the Ludwig Maximilian’s University in Munich (2004-2006). Glenn moved to the University of Leicester in 2007 to begin his independent career as an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow, before moving north of the border to the University of Strathclyde in 2011.