Prizes Awarded at 5th UK Solar Fuels Symposium
Over one hundred researchers from across the UK and overseas gathered at Newcastle University on 26th and 27th January 2017 for the 5th UK Solar Fuels Symposium, chaired by Dr Pau Farras and Prof Andy Benniston.
Postdoctoral researchers and PhD students presented their work during the PG Symposium. Congratulations to Isaac Gentle (Imperial College London) on winning the Talk Prize, for his presentation on “Modelling of membrane-free photo-electrochemical reactors hydrodynamic product separation”, and to Charlotte Smith (University of Liverpool) the best Flash Presentation, on her poster “Conjugated microporous polymers for the support of CO2 reduction with [Mn(bpy)(CO)3Br]”! The quality of the presentations was excellent, and attendees took advantage of the numerous networking and discussion opportunities.
The 5th UK Solar Fuels Symposium featured invited talks by
Prof Michael Grätzel (EPFL) – Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize Lecture
Dr Mark Symes (University of Glasgow): “Distinguishing Genuine Catalysis from the Effects of Adventitious Impurities during Electrocatalytic Water Splitting”
Prof Sophia Haussener (EPFL): “Multi-scale design guidelines for photo-electrochemical fuel processing reactors”
Prof Devens Gust (Arizona State University): “40 Years of Artificial Photosynthesis Research”
Several other members of the Solar Fuels Network also gave talks: Dr Katharina Brinkert (European Space Agency), Dr Robert Godin (Imperial College London), Dr Laia Francas (Imperial College London), Dr Moritz Kuehnel (Cambridge University), Gaia Neri (University of Liverpool), Dr Ludmilla Steier (Imperial College London), and Dr Sebastian Sprick (University of Liverpool). Congratulations to Moritz on winning the prize for best oral presentaion, and to Yvonne Choo (Newcastle University) for winning the Poster Presentation Prize! Yvonne has written a blog post about the event. Many thanks to the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journals, Sustainable Energy & Fuels and Energy & Environmental Science for sponsorship of these prizes!
RSC Centenary Prize Awarded to Prof Michael Grätzel
Prof Mercedes Maroto-Valer (Heriot Watt University; Chair of the RSC Energy Sector) presented Michael with his RSC Centenary Prize Award during the Symposium. This prize was awarded in recognition of his pioneering contributions in molecular photovoltaics and mesoscopic solar cells.
Solar Fuels Network Prize Awarded to Prof Tony Harriman
Devens Gust opened his invited talk by admitting that he was not going to talk about 40 years of solar fuels research undertaken in his labs. Instead, he revealed, he would talk about the substantial contributions that Tony Harriman had made to solar fuels research during his career. Devans’ entertaining and enlightening talk concluded with the presentation of an SFN Award to Tony. This prize was awarded in recognition of Tony’s contributions to solar fuels research, and also his very active contribution to the SFN as a member of the Advisory Board.
Erwin Reisner Announced as New SFN Director
Prof James Durrant, formerly SFN Director, formally handed over Directorship to Dr Erwin Reisner during the Symposium. Erwin thanked James for his leadership over the past four years.
Find out more about the event and other past SFN events on our events archive.
Many thanks to Pau for his excellent organisation of this event! Thanks also to our sponsors: Royal Society of Chemistry (Sustainable Energy & Fuels and Energy & Environmental Science journals), Newcastle University, Alvatek, Nature Energy, and Sigma Aldrich.