Professor Saiful Islam from the Department of Chemistry helped to organise a prestigious Royal Society discussion meeting on sustainable materials for low carbon energy applications.

On September 17 and 18 the Royal Society in London welcomed more than 260 delegates to the Discussion Meeting on "Energy Materials for a Low Carbon Future" organised by Professor Islam, Richard Catlow FRS (UCL), Jenny Nelson FRS (Imperial) and Peter Bruce FRS (Oxford).

This meeting followed four annual ‘Energy Materials’ symposia at Bath that formed part of the £3.2 million EPSRC Programme Grant project led by Prof Islam to develop new materials for the next generation of energy devices, including more efficient solar cells for homes and better batteries for electric cars.

Professor Islam said: "The provision of clean sustainable energy is one of the greatest challenges of our time. It is now clear that new low carbon energy technologies require fundamental advances in the science of energy materials.

"Indeed, innovative materials science lies at the centre of breakthroughs that have already been made; an excellent example being the rechargeable lithium battery, which has helped power the revolution in portable electronics.”

The invited keynote speakers included Sossina Haile (Northwestern, USA), Clare Grey (Cambridge), Jean-Marie Tarascon (Paris), Jenny Rupp (MIT, USA) and Henry Snaith (Oxford), with the final panel discussion chaired by Dame Julia Higgins (Imperial) and Sir David King (Cambridge).

Professor Richard Catlow added: “This conference brought together world-renowned experts in the field, and will help set the agenda for future energy materials research. There was a real buzz about the meeting and the feedback was extremely positive."

Professor Andy Burrows, Head of the Department of Chemistry said: "Congratulations to the organising team for this excellent and highly topical conference. The development of energy materials is an important research theme in the department, and also a core focus of the University’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Chemical Technologies.”