Professor Tony Cheetham is widely known for his work on the synthesis and characterization of functional inorganic and hybrid materials. Early work focused on the development of methods by which unknown crystal structures could be obtained from polycrystalline materials using high-resolution synchrotron X-ray and neutron powder diffraction. These methods, complemented by magic-angle spinning NMR and electron microscopy, were applied to a wide range of new materials, including aluminosilicate zeolites, nanoporous nickel phosphates, new materials for natural gas conversion, and phosphors for solid state lighting. Later work in the area of both porous and dense metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) led to the discovery of multiferroic and amorphous/glassy MOFs, as well as lead-free hybrid perovskites for optoelectronic applications.