Southampton postgraduate researcher wins BZA Founders’ Award

The annual Founders' Award celebrates the year’s most promising postgraduate scientist working in the area of micro or mesoporous science. A scientific committee consisting of both academic and industrial scientists assess each application made. James, who was supervised at Southampton by Dr Robert Raja, was selected as the winner by the judging panel for his thesis entitled: ‘Exploitation of synergy in oxidation catalysis with bimetallic aluminophosphate catalysts’.

James says: “It is a real honour to be chosen for this award and I received great support from both my supervisor and the other members of the research group which was invaluable to my work. I thoroughly enjoyed my time studying at Southampton and receiving this award was a wonderful ending to my time at university. The scientific facilities available to me to complete my work at Southampton are at the very top level and this has allowed me to gain a far greater understanding of the chemistry.”

The Award, devised in honour of the late Lovat Rees, a founding member of the British Zeolite Association and one of the father figures of British zeolite science, will be presented to James at the BZA Annual Meeting in April.
James has recently finished his PhD at the University of Southampton and has take up a specialist position in industry at BP where he is using his knowledge and experience gained throughout his PhD to develop a commercial catalyst for liquid fuel production from gas resource.