On 14 April 2015 Catalysis@Cambridge hosted the first Showcase and Networking Event which brought together a number of Cambridge academics, researchers and around 50 industry representatives, including from GlaxoSmithKline, Shell, Pfizer, Sabic, Aramco, Merck, and Johnson Matthey. The event was supported by Energy@Cambridge Strategic Research Initiative and funded through the EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account. Leading academics highlighted recent discoveries and new approaches to catalysis and catalytic reaction engineering in a series of short presentations, and chaired a series of parallel round table discussions exploring challenges in catalysis in several key areas including energy, materials science, biocatalysis, synthesis and continuous processing; which will feed into future industrial consortium projects.
Led by Professor Matthew Gaunt, Department of Chemistry, and Professor Alexei Lapkin, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Catalysis@Cambridge, as a virtual centre, incorporates over 30 academics from the Schools of Physical Sciences and Technology and aims to create an international flagship for training and research. It seeks to provide a transformative approach to catalysis and synthesis research by harnessing the world-leading expertise from across the University of Cambridge to develop and apply new pioneering catalysis concepts that will have a future impact on health, energy, the environment and new materials.
The showcase event ended with a drinks reception and poster session where around 30 PhD students and post-doctoral researchers working in various departments across the University and collaborative partners from the National University of Singapore networked with the industry participants.
“Today’s event underlines the importance of catalysis research in both academia and industry and we hope our centre can provide a platform for exciting new collaborations.”- Professor Matthew Gaunt and Professor Alexei Lapkin
Catalysis@Cambridge will provide future opportunities for collaborative activity and training, workshops with industry, engagement opportunities for students and entrepreneurship experience. Enquiries about the Catalysis@Cambridge centre should be directed to: catalysis@ch.cam.ac.uk