Two CMC-funded researchers have been recognized for their outstanding achievements by the Royal Society of Canada in its fall 2014 announcements.
Dr. David Wilkinson
David Wilkinson, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of British Columbia, was named a RSC Fellow. Wilkinson was lead PI on the CMC project Development of Novel Nanostructured Photocatalysts for Highly Efficient Solar Photocatalytic Reduction of CO2 to Fuels.
This has been year of recognition for Wilkinson. In April, a research team he leads was one of 24 selected as a first-round winner of the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation’s (CCEMC) Grand Challenge: Innovative Carbon Uses. The UBC research team, which includes team members Dr. Arman Bonakdarpour, Dr. Alfred Lam and PhD Candidate Saad Dara in collaboration with Simon Fraser University’s Professor Steven Holdcroft, received $500,000 in funding from the CCEMC to further the new technology towards commercialization. The project was one of 24 finalists chosen from over 344 international submissions. The CCEMC project is titled A coupled CO2 and waste water treatment process to create high value gas-oil field chemicals.
Dr. Josephine Hill
The RSC also recognized Dr. Josephine Hill, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary, in its newly established College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists – the country’s first national system of multidisciplinary recognition for an emerging generation of Canadian intellectual leadership. The Royal Society is launching the College to help it “benefit from the participation of exceptionally talented individuals in the earlier period of their careers.”
Dr. Hill is co-lead (with Naoko Ellis of the University of British Columbia) on a project titled Gasification with CO2 Capture Sorbents and/or Catalysts. Hill’s research on catalysts — substances that increase reaction rates — is helping to increase the energy efficiency of processes using natural resources, thus decreasing impacts on the environment. Her world-class research facility develops, characterizes and tests catalysts used in fuel cells, hydrotreating and gasification.