Chemists and Chemical Engineers

About the lecture

In the first mini-lecture, we begin the discussion of the role of chemists and chemical engineers in the modern world. Certain perceptions of the field of chemistry can linger, and to begin this lecture we address some of the more common ones. For example, what does a ‘chemical free zone’ actually mean? We then move on to discuss the state of the world as it moves from a linear economy to a circular one, and from fossil fuels to renewable resources. We then discuss the ways in which chemistry impacts our society the most, beginning with the Haber-Bosch process: the most energy demanding reaction in the world, responsible for 1% of the global energy consumption. We talk about the necessity to reduce our ammonia usage, before moving onto show how chemistry has impacted medicine and drug design in the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

About the lecturer

Following degrees (BSc and PhD) at Edinburgh University, David Cole-Hamilton worked with Nobel Laureate Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson at Imperial College, where he developed a strong interest in organometallic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis. He moved from Liverpool University (Lecturer and Senior Lecturer) to be Professor of Chemistry at the University of St. Andrews in 1985 (Emeritus, 2014). He has won several prizes from the Royal Society of Chemistry as well as 5 prizes for teaching. In 2017 he was awarded the Alwin Mittasch Prize of the German Catalysis Society and was made a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, but resigned in 2022 as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a past President (2013-2017) of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS),he led a team celebrating the International Year of the Periodic Table, which developed the new version of the Periodic Table.