Winner: 2021 Corday-Morgan Prize
Junwang Tang
University College London
For the discovery of efficient photocatalysts for clean and renewable fuel synthesis.
Professor Tang's research focuses on the discovery of efficient photocatalysts for renewable fuel synthesis and chemical recycling and chemical systems to address the supply of renewable energy and environmental purification. His research group uses two key synthesis processes to produce renewable fuel: splitting water to produce H2 and converting CO2 to produce alcohol. Both processes are driven by solar energy. The group is also exploring the conversion of shale gas/natural gas to high value chemicals to provide a low carbon process for chemical synthesis. Another area they are working on is the decomposition of plastics into feedstock using catalysts driven by microwave energy.
Biography
Professor Junwang Tang is a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the ÀË»¨Ö±²¥ and Professor of Materials ÀË»¨Ö±²¥ and Engineering at the Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London (UCL). He received his BSc in ÀË»¨Ö±²¥ from the Northeastern University (1995), MSc in Materials from the Institute of Metal Research (1998), and PhD in Physical ÀË»¨Ö±²¥ from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in China (2001). After completing his JSPS fellowship at the National Institute for Materials Science, Japan (2005), he became a senior research associate in chemistry at Imperial College London (2009). Professor Tang joined UCL's Department of Chemical Engineering in 2009 as Lecturer and was later promoted to Senior Lecturer (2011), Reader (2014), and Full Professor (2017). Professor Tang's research interests encompass photocatalytic small molecule activation and microwave catalysis (eg plastic recycling), as well as the investigation of the underlying charge dynamics and kinetics of state-of-the-art spectroscopies. He is also exploring the design of the chemical reactors for these processes which has resulted in ~170 papers published in Nature Catalysis, Nature Energy, Chemical Reviews, Chemical Society Reviews, Materials Today, Nature Communications, JACS, and Angewandte Chemie, with over 16,000 citations. His awards include runner-up of the IChemE Research Project 2020, IChemE Business Start-Up Award 2019 and the 2018 IPS Scientist Award. He also sits on the editorial board of four international journals: Applied Catalysis B (Editor), Journal of Advanced Chemical Engineering (Editor-in-Chief), Chinese Journal of Catalysis (Associate Editor), and Asia-Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering. He also sits on the advisory board of seven other journals.
In the past, an individual could generate a solution to a challenging topic. Nowadays, the challenges we face are so complicated that multidisciplinary knowledge is crucial […] collaboration and cooperation between team members are critical for an efficient solution.
Professor Junwang Tang
Q&A with Professor Junwang Tang
What motivates you?
Nature is the best teacher, motivating me to work on the artificial photosynthesis for a renewable fuel.
What advice would you give to a young person considering a career in chemistry?
Select a challenging area if you want to be an academic.
Can you tell us about a scientific development on the horizon that you are excited about?
To use solar energy as the primary or the major energy source for our economy is the most exciting for me.
How are the chemical sciences making the world a better place?
The chemical sciences not only explores reactions at molecular level but also discovers new processes, contributing to a circular economy.
Why do you think teamwork is important in science?
In the past, an individual could generate a solution to a challenging topic. Nowadays, the challenges we face are so complicated that multidisciplinary knowledge is crucial […] collaboration and cooperation between team members are critical for an efficient solution.