Frontiers of catalysis and photocatalysis for energy chemistry

James Durrant is Professor of Photochemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London and Sêr Cymru Solar Professor, College of Engineering, University of Swansea. His research addresses the photochemistry of new materials for solar energy conversion – targeting both solar cells (photovoltaics) and solar to fuel (i.e.: artificial photosynthesis). It is based around employing transient optical and optoelectronic techniques to address materials function, and thereby elucidate design principles which enable technological development. His group is currently addressing the development and functional characterisation of organic and perovskite solar cells and photoelectrodes for solar fuel generation with funding from the EPSRC, WAG, EC, ESF and industry. More widely, he founded the UK Solar Fuels Network and leads Imperial’s Centre for Plastic Electronics and the Welsh government funded Sêr Cymru Solar initiative. He has published over 400 research papers and 5 patents, which have been cited over 40,000 times, leading to an h-index of 114. He was elected to a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2017.

Talk title - In operando spectroelectrochemical studies of water oxidation kinetics on metal oxide electrodes and photoelectrodes

Kyung Byung Yoon received his B.S. from the Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University in 1979. In 1981, he obtained his M.S. from the Department of Chemistry, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Seoul, where his research field was hydrogenation reactions over metal-doped zeolites. From 1981 to 1984 he was employed by an engineering company, Seoul, Korea. In 1989, he earned his Ph.D. degree in inorganic chemistry from the Department of Chemistry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, and his research field was photo-induced charge transfer reactions in zeolites. From 1989 he has been an Assistant, Associate (1993) and full Professor (1998) to the present. He had served as the President of the Korea Photoscience Society (2011), Councilors for International Zeolite Association (2007-2013) and Asian Photochemistry Association (2007-present), and as Secretary General, Chairman of Scientific Affairs, Chairman of Publications of the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS) (2005-2013). Since 2009, he has been the Director of the Korea Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (KCAP) supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology. He is also serving as a member of the Editorial Board of Energy and Environmental Science (EES), Section Editor of Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science. He is currently Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry and Global Fellow of American Chemical Society.

Talk title - Pilot Scale Artificial Cactus 

Hiromi Yamashita has been a professor of Osaka University since 2004. He received PhD degree from Kyoto University in 1987. He was an assistant professor of Tohoku University, an associate professor of Osaka Prefecture University, and an invited professor of University Pierre and Marie Curie. He was also visiting research fellows of the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Texas at Austin, California Institute of Technology. He is now an editor of Applied Catalysis B, associate editor of Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C, a vice-president of Catalysis Society of Japan and a vice-president of Asia-Pacific Association of Catalysis Societies (APACS). He received awards from Catalysis Society of Japan, Japanese Photochemistry Association, Japan Society of Coordination Chemistry, the Japan Petroleum Institute, the Japan Institute of Metals and Materials. His research interests include the design of single-site photocatalysts and nanostructured catalysts.

Talk title - Application of Plasmonic Catalysts for Efficient H2 Production from Hydrogen Carrier Molecules

Koichi Eguchi is a professor, Department of Energy and Hydrocarbon Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University. He is the author of more than 300 papers (h-index=64).
He received PhD from Kyushu University in 1984. He became an associate professor and professor of Kyushu University in 1986 and 1998, respectively. He was assigned at the current position in Kyoto University from 2000. He also joined the The University of Tokyo as a guest professor of Graduate School of Engineering in 1998-2002.
He is currently serving as the program officer of “Energy Carrier” Project CREST/PREST (Japan Science & Technology Agency) from 2013. He is the president of Japan Petroleum Institute of FY 2018-19.

Talk title - Activation of Hydrogen Carriers on Fuel Electrode of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Qiang Xu received his PhD in 1994 from Osaka University. He is Director of AIST-Kyoto University Chemical Energy Materials Open Innovation Laboratory (ChEM-OIL), Adjunct Professor at Kobe University/Kyoto University, Professor at Yangzhou University, and Distinguished Honorary Professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received the Thomson Reuters Research Front Award in 2012 and was recognized as a highly cited researcher (2014-2018) in Chemistry, Engineering and Materials Science by Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics. His research interests include the chemistry of nanostructured materials and their applications, especially for catalysis and energy. He has published more than 300 papers with citations > 24000 and an h-index > 80 (Web of Science). He is on a number of editorial/advisory boards of journals, including EnergyChem (Elsevier, Editor-in-Chief), Coordination Chemistry Reviews (Elsevier; Associate Editor), Chem (Cell Press), Chemistry-an Asian Journal (Wiley) and Advanced Sustainable Systems (Wiley). He is a Fellow of European Academy of Sciences (EurASc), National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI) and Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). 

Talk title - Metal-organic frameworks for catalysis and energy

Tatsumi Ishihara, Dr. Eng.
Professor, International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I2CNER), Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering
Kyushu University
Address: 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
E-mail: ishihara@cstf.kyushu-u.ac.jp
Education: 1984 B.Sc., 1991 Dr. Eng., Kyushu University
Professional Carrier:
1985-1988      Assistant Prof., Kyushu University
1988-2003    Assistant Prof. Lecturer, Associate Prof., Oita University
 2003-              Professor, Kyushu University
Research Fields:
Catalyst, Solid State Electrochemistry, and Solid State Ionics
Development of energy related materials like fuel cells, rechargeable battery and photocatalyst.  Environment catalyst like deNOx and low temperature PM oxidation catalyst for automobile.

Talk title - ​Inorganic-bio photocatalyst for H2 production

Takato Mitsudome received his Ph.D. (2006) from Osaka University, After obtaining his Ph.D., he joined the group of Profs. Kiyotomi Kaneda and Koichiro Jitsukawa as an assistant professor in 2007 in the Graduate School of Engineering Science at Osaka University, and was promoted to an associate professor in 2016. His research interest is a design of nano-structured heterogeneous catalysts for environmentally benign and selective molecular transformations. He has published more than 90 papers in reputed journals

Talk title - Hybrid Metal Nanoparticles for Green Sustanable Hydrogenation of Amides

Mio Kondo is Assistant Professor at Department of Life and Coordination-Complex Molecular Science of Institute for Molecular Science. She received his PhD in 2017 from the University of Tokyo under the supervision of Prof. Hiroshi Nishihara. In 2008, joined the group of Prof. Susumu Kitagawa as a postdoctoral researcher. From 2011, she was assigned at the current position in Institute for Molecular Science. She also worked as a JST ACT-C Researcher from 2012-2018. Her current research interests include the development of metal-complex based catalytic system for small molecule conversion.

Talk title - Function-Integrated Metal Complex Catalysts for Small Molecule Conversion

Akinobu Nakada is Assistant Professor (special appointment with CREST/JST) at Department of Energy and Hydrocarbon Chemistry of Kyoto University. He received his PhD in 2017 from Tokyo Institute of Technology under the supervision of Profs. Osamu Ishitani and Kazuhiko Maeda. In 2014, he visited The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Prof. Thomas J. Meyer) as a research scholar for three month. In 2017, he joined the group of Prof. Ryu Abe at Kyoto University as a Postdoctoral Fellow, and was promoted to an Assistant Professor in the same year. He received the Seiich Tejima Doctoral Dissertation Award at Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2018. His research interests include metal complex and semiconductor photocatalysts for energy and chemical conversion.

Talk title - Band engineering of layered bismuth oxyhalides for visible-light-driven water splitting

Magda Titirici has a PhD from University of Dortumnd, a German Habilitation from the Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and University of Potsdam and is currently a Professor of Sustainable Materials Chemistry at Queen Mary University of London.
Magda is the author of around highly cited 150 publications (h-index=62) in the field of sustainable materials for energy storage and conversion, several book chapters and two edited books. She is an associate editor for J. Mater. Chem. A (RSC).
Magda has been awarded the Rosenhain Medal and Price from the Institute of Materials and Mines in London in recognition of distinguished achievements in materials science under the age of 40 in 2016, she is the USERN laureate in physical sciences 2017 as well as the recipient of an honoray PhD from University of Stockholm in 2017, the Chinese Academy of Science President’s Fellowship in 2018 as well as the Royal Society of Chemistry Corday Morgan Prize 2018.

​Talk title - The secret life of carbon in electro-and photocatalysis