Electrocatalysis will play an important role in the shift towards a net-zero future. By enabling the efficient and selective conversion of molecules such as N₂, CH₄, C H , and biomass-derived feedstocks into fuels and chemicals, electrocatalysis underpins emerging renewable energy and sustainable chemical production technologies.
This symposium will spotlight cutting-edge research tackling some of the most challenging and transformative electrocatalytic reactions—those crucial for decarbonising industry, fuels, and chemical manufacturing. The focus will be on catalyst design, reaction mechanisms, and integration with renewable power sources, across processes such as ammonia synthesis, C–N bond formation, electrochemical nitrogen reduction, alkane/alkene activation, and biomass valorization.
We aim to assemble leading voices in the field—from established pioneers to emerging innovators—for a programme that includes high-profile invited talks, selected contributed presentations, and extensive discussion. Poster sessions will ensure broad participation, and diversity across career stage, gender, and geography will be actively promoted.
- Electrocatalytic synthesis of high-value compounds: new routes and materials
- Materials and electrochemistry of C-N bond formation
- Electrochemistry for the valorisation of biomass
- Materials and electrochemistry of N-containing compounds
- Materials and electrochemistry of hydrocarbon (e.g. methane, propene) activation and conversio
Ifan is a Professor in Electrochemistry at the Department of Materials at Imperial College: he leads the Interfacial Electrochemistry Group there and is also Atoms to Devices Research Area Lead at the Henry Royce Institute.
Ifan joined Imperial College in July 2017. Prior to Imperial, he was at the Department of Physics at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU); he was first employed as a postdoctoral researcher, then as assistant professor and finally as associate professor and leader of the Electrocatalysis Group there. In 2015, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) appointed Ifan as the Peabody Visiting Associate Professor. He taught and conducted research at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT for a whole semester.
Ifan’s research aims to enable the large-scale electrochemical conversion of renewable energy to fuels and valuable chemicals and vice versa. Such processes will be critical in order to allow the increased uptake of renewable energy. His focus is on the catalyst at the electrode, i.e. the electrocatalyst. It turns out that the electrocatalyst material defines the efficiency of several important electrochemical processes, including:(i) electrolysis for the storage of renewable electricity — which is inherently intermittent — in the form of fuels, such as hydrogen or alcohols.(ii) fuel cells as a potentially zero emission source of power for automotive vehicles. (iii) the green synthesis of valuable chemicals, such as ammonia and H2O2. (iv) batteries, which tend to degrade by gas evolution at the electrode-electrolyte interface. Hence the reactions that need to be accelerated in electrolysers and fuel cells — such as CO2, CO, O2 and H2 evolution — are precisely those that need to be inhibited in batteries.
Ifan has discovered or co-discovered several new catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction, which exhibited significant improvements in performance over the prior state-of-the-art. In particular, his research on hydrogen peroxide production led to the establishment of the spinout company, HP Now.
Ifan is the recipient of RSC's Geoffrey Barker Medal (2024), the RSC's John Jeyes Award (2021). He also currently holds an European Resarch Council Consolidator Grant (2021-2025). Since 2022, he has been a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher.
Marta Hatzell is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to starting at Georgia Tech in August of 2015, she was a Post-Doctoral researcher in the Department of Material Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois - Urbana-Campaign. During her post doc, she worked in the Braun Research group on research at the interface between colloid science and electrochemistry. She completed her PhD at Penn state University in the Logan Research Group. Her PhD explored environmental technology for energy generation and water treatment. During graduate school she was an NSF and PEO Graduate Research Fellow.
Currently her research group focuses on exploring the role photochemistry and electrochemistry may play in future sustainable systems. She is an active member of the American Chemical Society, the Electrochemical Society, ASEEP, AICHE, and ASME. Dr. Hatzell has also been awarded the NSF Early CAREER award in 2019, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in Chemistry in 2020, the ONR Young Investigator Award in 2020, the ECS Toyota Young Investigator award in 2021, and the Moore Inventor Fellow in 2021.
Dr. Ruud Kortlever is an associate professor at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Large-Scale Energy Storage section of the Department of Process & Energy. He received his PhD from Leiden University in 2015, working with prof.dr. Marc T.M. Koper on “Selective and efficient electrochemical CO2 reduction on nanostructured catalysts”.
Ruud then spent almost two years working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) at the California Institute of Technology. Working closely with prof.dr. Theodor Agapie and prof.dr. Jonas C. Peters he concentrated further on electrochemical CO2 reduction, setting up and designing analytical techniques for product analysis and developing new electrocatalytic systems for efficient CO2 conversion.
In January 2018 Ruud returned to the Netherlands to start his independent career as assistant professor at Delft University of Technology. His group is interested in electrochemical conversions that are relevant for renewable fuel production and the electrification of the chemical industry. With the help of mechanistical insights, modelling and theory predictions his group contributes to solving contemporary energy problems by developing new electrocatalytic systems and devices.
Dr Hui Luo is an independent academic fellow in the School of Mechanical Engineering Sciences at the University of Surrey, UK. She is also a Fellow of the Institute for Sustainability, member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC) and member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (MIMMM).
Dr. Luo obtained her PhD in Queen Mary University of London in 2019, working on carbon materials for solar hydrogen conversion. in Oct 2019 she moved to Imperial College London working as a research associate, developing biomass electrolyser for green hydrogen and bio-chemical co-production. In Sep 2022 she worked as a senior test engineering at Ceres, before taking the Surrey Future Fellowship and join Surrey in May 2023.
Her research interests include developing and up-scaling efficient electrolysis technologies to convert biomass and plastic wastes into green hydrogen and high-value commodity chemicals. Her expertise includes nanomaterials synthesis and characterisation, water electrolysis and fuel cell technologies, in operando Synchrotron X-ray absorption, surface enhanced Raman and FTIR spectroscopy, as well as gas and liquid chromatography.
Dr. Samira Siahrostami is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Chemistry at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Prior to that, she was an associate professor (2022-2023) and assistant professor (2018-2022) in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Calgary. Prior to that, she was a research engineer (2016–2018) and postdoctoral researcher (2014–2016) at Stanford University's Department of Chemical Engineering. She also worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of Denmark from 2011 to 2013. Her work uses computational techniques such as density functional theory to model reactions at (electro)catalyst surfaces. Her goal is to develop more efficient catalysts for fuel cells, electrolyzers, and batteries by comprehending the kinetics and thermodynamics of reactions occurring at the surface of (electro)catalysts. Dr. Siahrostami has written more than 100 peer-reviewed articles with an h-index of 47 and over 13,000 citations. She has received numerous invitations to give talks at universities, conferences, and workshops around the world on various topics related to catalysis science and technology. Dr. Siahrostami is the recipient of the Environmental, Sustainability, and Energy Division Horizon Prize: John Jeyes Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in 2021. She received the Tom Zeigler Award and the Waterloo Institute in Nanotechnology Rising Star award in 2023. She has been named as an emerging investigator by the RSC in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Dr. Siahrostami's contribution to energy research was recognized in the most recent Virtual Issue of ACS Energy Letters as one of the Women at the forefront of energy research in 2023. She is currently the board member of the Canadian Catalysis Foundation and editor of Chemical Engineering Journal (CEJ) and APL Energy journal (AIP Publishing).
Kelsey Stoerzinger