Postdoctoral Research Associate in Chemistry (Heterogeneous Catalysis)

A World Top 100 department, the Department of Chemistry at Durham is one of the very best in the UK, with an outstanding reputation for excellence in research, teaching and employability of our students. We are an active and vibrant department, with a strong cohort of early career academics and future leaders. We hold an Athena Swan Silver Award, recognising our commitment to gender equality. Our undergraduate programmes are ranked fifth in the Complete University Guide 2023. At postgraduate level, our students come from all over the world to carry out research.

Our research strategy is focussed around three interdisciplinary grand challenge themes: Chemistry for Health; Chemistry for Sustainability; and Chemistry for Change.

There is a strong culture of collaboration within the department and with other departments and institutes within the University, including the Biophysical Sciences Institute, the Durham Energy Institute and the Institute for Data Science. There are also other multidisciplinary centres of excellence in the university that the appointee can interact with including the Centre for Global Infectious Diseases, the Durham Crop Centre and centres in Sustainable Chemistry and Soft Matter. We have strong links with many universities, research centres, and a long tradition of working closely with industry both in the UK and overse as.

A PDRA post in heterogeneous catalysis, encompassing catalyst preparation, characterization and kinetic testing, is available from 1^st October 2024 or as soon as possible thereafter, for a period of 18 months, to work in association with Dr Simon Beaumont. The post is to work on “CANMILK” an exciting EU Horizon Europe consortium project (funded through Innovate UK under the UK Horizon Europe guarantee scheme) exploring new ways to tackle agricultural methane emissions, specifically from dairy barns (). The postholder will be responsible for research on adsorbent and catalyst materials in a component of the project closely associated with the company partner Johnson Matthey. The key challenge is focussed on overcoming the difficulties associated with oxidation of dilute methane feedstreams through non-conventional catalysis. Other project partners include Durham University’s Engineering Department, VTT and Valio (Finland), University of Antwerp, University of Maastricht, and Steinbeis Europa Zentrum and the postholder will be excepted to actively engage in collaborative activities including those focussed towards dissemination / exploitation of project results.

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