Prof Paul Chirik, Princeton
University, USA. 
Eminent visitor PL1

The 31st CATSA conference eminent visitor is Prof Paul Chirik, who currently holds the position of Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry at the Princeton University, United States of America. In summary, Prof Chirik obtained his PhD in 2000 under the supervision of Prof John Bercaw, studying the mechanism of metallocene-catalyzed olefin polymerization and hydrometallation at California Institute of Technology, USA. Prof Chirik’s current research areas is in the sustainable and environmentally –friendly catalysis with earth abundant elements. He was appointed Editor-in-Chief of Organometallics journal in 2015 and has received numerous accolades including the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, and Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award among others. Prof Chirik has co-authored over 250 research articles in reputable journals such as Nature, Journal of American Chemical Society, Inorganic Chemistry, Angewandte, ACS Catalysis, Organometallics among others, with over 10 000 citations and an h-index of 55. He has supervised over 30 PhD candidatesand 200 postdoctoral associated. His research areas in sustainable catalysis using earth abundant elements and renewable resources (for instance, 2019 Nature paper, A fresh approach to ammonia syntheses) is thus in line with the theme of the conference and in general to the current focus on managing global warming and climate change.

Prof Justin Hargreaves

University of Glasgow, Scotland

Plenary speaker PL2

Justin Hargreaves is currently Head of School and Professor of Catalytic Materials Chemistry at the School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow where I have been since 2002.   Justin graduated in Chemistry at the University of Liverpool (1987) where he also undertook a PhD (awarded 1990) under the supervision of Professors Richard Joyner and Graham Hutchings CBE FRS.   He then undertook postdoctoral research at ETH Zurich working with Professor Dr Roel Prins and then back at the University of Liverpool with his PhD supervisors.   He then spent 6 years as a Senior Research Fellow at Nottingham Trent University, before joining University of Liverpool as Principal Scientist in the Leverhulme Centre for Innovative Catalysis, working with Professor Eric Derouane.  Justin is currently an Editor of Applied Catalysis A: General, Editor in Chief of the RSC Catalysis book series, Treasurer of the International Association of Catalysis Societies, UK representative (and former Secretary 2015-2019) to the European Federation of Catalysis Societies and UK Representative on the International Advisory Board of the International Conference on Environmental Catalysis conference series.  He has published >140 papers to date and have supervised over 25 research students to completion.

Title: Ammonia synthesis – towards a new generation of catalysts

Prof Werner Thiel,

TUK, Germany

Keynote speaker

Werner R. Thiel was born in 1961 in Munich (Germany) and studied from 1981 chemistry at TU München. In 1990 he received his Ph.D. under the mentorship of Wolfgang A. Herrmann. After having spent a postdoc year as a Feodor-Lynen-Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation in the labs of Didier Astruc at the Université de Bordeaux I, he came back to TU München to start his scientific career. In 1997 he finished his habilitation in chemistry and in 2000 he was appointed associate professor at the TU Chemnitz. He left Chemnitz in 2004 for a full professor position in inorganic chemistry at the TU Kaiserslautern, where he is running an active research group until now. Between 2008 – 2020 he was spokesman of the state research unit NanoKat (Nanostructured Catalysts) at the TU Kaiserslautern, 2006-2017 he was head of the center for teachers education at the TU Kaiserslautern, 2017 – 2020, he was dean of the D

epartment of Chemistry and since Sept. 2020 he is vice-president for science and technology of the TU Kaiserslautern. Werner R. Thiel is an author of about 200 publications, most of them devoted to aspects of catalysis. His scientific interests are located in homogeneous catalysis and heterogeneous catalysis with immobilized and structurally well-defined catalytically active centres. In this context the development modification of support materials plays an important role.

Title: Janus-type materials as heterogeneous catalysts

Prof Omotayo Arotiba

University of Johannesburg,

Keynote speaker

Omotayo Arotiba received his PhD in 2009 from the University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa. He carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Cape Town and the University of Johannesburg, before joining the University of Johannesburg, in 2011, where he is currently a Professor and the Director of the Centre for Nanomaterials Science Research. Prof Arotiba is the current Chairman of the Electrochemistry Division (ElectrochemSA) of the South African Chemical Institute (SACI). He is a C1 rated researcher by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. His research interest is on the application of electrochemistry to solving challenges in environmental, water, materials and biomedical fields. His research focus is on the development of photo-electrochemical water treatment technologies; electrochemical sensors & biosensors; materials electrochemistry and nano-electrochemistry. Prof Arotiba has published about 121 papers with h index of 31 and over 3859 citations. Today, he has Graduated 12 and 19 MSc students. He is an Editorial Board Member of Frontiers in Sensor (Associate Editor), Current NanoScience and Materials Focus Journal. Prof Omatoyo has been a Guest Editor for Electrocatalysis (2018) and Electroanalysis (2020) and currently for Catalysis (2021). He is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), International Society of Electrochemistry and a Fellow of the Chemical Society of Nigeria.

Title: Visible Light Driven Photoelectrocatalytic Semiconductor Heterojunction Anodes for Water Treatment Applications

Prof Norah H De Leeuw

Leeds University, UK

Keynote speaker

Title:

Prof Samuel Dagorne

CNRS -Strasbourg, France

Keynote speaker

Title: