On 10 May, the Advanced Research Center Chemical Building Blocks Consortium (ARC CBBC) officially started. The research centre occupies an excellent position to play a leading role in research towards issues such as the circular economy, sustainable chemical processes and clean energy. The main priorities are the three research lines Energy Carriers, Functional Materials and Coatings.

“ARC CBBC should become the beating heart of chemical research in the future”, according to Scientific Director Prof. Bert Weckhuysen (Utrecht University).

Read more news on the website of Utrecht University
Hundreds of millions for chemical building blocks, Chemisch2Weekblad, 8 December 2015
Chemical building blocks for a sustainable future, NWO Hypothese, March 2016

Bert Weckhuysen appears in a series of five lectures at the ‘Universiteit van Nederland’ (University of the Netherlands), in which he explains all about catalysis: from fuels, food and plastics to air pollution control.

This week, every day a lecture will appear online:

“Hoe komt het dat uitlaatgassen steeds schoner worden?”
Monday, May 9 Watch online

“Waarom wordt het steeds moeilijker om benzine te maken?”
Tuesday, May 10 Watch online

“Waarom kun je het onderste puntje van een ijshoorntje beter niet opeten?”
Wednesday, May 11 Watch online

“Hoe kun je zelfs plastic maken van aardappelen, boomschors of suikerbieten?”
Thursday, May 12 Watch online

“Hoe verspillen we minder grondstoffen en energie?”
Friday, May 13 Watch online

Read more on the website of Universiteit van Nederland
Read more on the website of Utrecht University
News coverage of KNCV (in Dutch)
Announcement in de Volkskrant (in Dutch)

The MCEC Annual Meeting 2016, held on last April 13 and 14, was a great success. Approximately sixty scientists gathered in conference center De Koningshof, Veldhoven to discuss the present program, results, and future challenges for the MCEC projects. Throughout these two days, thirty PhD’s and postdocs presented their projects in six 15-minute-presentations and twentyfour 5-minute-pitches. Each was supported by a scientific poster.

On Wednesday prof. Niels Deen and prof. Petra de Jongh held lectures on respectively metal fuels and energy storage. All of the participants enjoyed good scientific discussions and a brisk walk before retreating to a well-earned dinner. The day ended with drinks and an informal poster viewing.

On Thursday, prof. Guido Mul (UT), prof. Rene Janssen (TU/e) and dr. Wilson Smith (TU Delft) were invited to give guest lectures. Prof Emiel Hensen chaired a final Q&A and discussion round, after which the winner of the MCEC Poster Prize was announced.

The jury, consisting of dr. Rosa Bulo, dr. Ivo Filot and dr. Stefan Kooij, judged the posters on presentation, design and contents. The jury acclaimed the poster of Robin Geitenbeek as best, among other things because its mainly image-based design invited viewers to start a discussion on the contents. Robin was surprised, but also very pleased with this token of confirmation that concerning his scientific work, he’s on the right track. One of his main concerns while designing the poster, he explained, was to make sure the contents could also be understood by people from other fields.

The winning poster: Temperature probes for catalytic applications                                      By: Robin Geitenbeek, Alfons van Blaaderen, Bert Weckhuysen, Andries Meijerink

This week, Prof. Emiel Hensen and Prof. Mark Saeys (Gent University) are organizing and partly presiding a symposium on syngas conversion, titled: “Fischer-Tropsch Catalysis – From fundamentals to industrial practice”. Among the speakers will be Prof. Krijn de Jong, Dr. Ivo Filot and also Emiel Hensen himself. MCEC is one of the sponsors of this symposium, which will be held during the Spring National ACS Meeting in San Diego this week (March 13-17).

You can find the flyer for this symposium here or read more about the 251th National ACS Meeting here.

Professor Bert Weckhuysen will appear soon in the University of the Netherlands.

The recording of the lectures was last week at Club Air, Amsterdam. You can see the lectures on ZIGGO from April 18th or on the website/youtube channel of the University of the Netherlands, AT5 and RTV NoordHolland from May 9th every day that week. There are 5 lectures recorded on different topics of catalysis. Do not miss it!

On the University of the Netherlands, the ‘best professors in the country give a free lecture on the internet every day.’

Dr. Marijn van Huis has received an ERC Consolidator Grant of two million Euros for being the first to produce live atomic-level resolution images of how nanomaterials are formed in a solution. This is interesting for the development of new sustainable and smart materials, but also for issues such as understanding earthquakes. Read more>

Prof. Rob Lammertink received a prestigious VICI grant by NWO on “Mixing at the boundary”.

This research focuses on the phenomena that occur in liquids on walls. Due to the specific properties of the wall, a liquid can be set in motion. This motion can subsequently be used to increase the transport of substances, which has enormous consequences for separation and catalytic processes. Vici is one of the largest grants for individual scientists in the Netherlands and is part of NWO’s Talent Scheme. Read more>

The labtour on the 29th of January 2016 at Eindhoven University of Technology was a success.

Emile Hensen and Ivo Filot gave a short introduction on the work of the SMK group, while Hans Kuipers, Johan Padding and Frank Peter did the same on the work of the SMR group.

The MCEC projects @ TU/e where presented by the PhD students and Postdoc’s (Vishak Chandra, Paolo Lovreglio, Jiangtao Lu, Maxim Masterov, Aditya Sengar, Vetrivel Shanmugam, Teresa de Martino, Robin Bros, Roderigh Rohling, Jan Wiesfeld). The program was followed by a labtour giving insight in the current research as well in future experimental setups.