The University of Cambridge is one of the leading
universities of the world. The department of chemistry at Cambridge
has the highest output of publications and patents in the UK and is ranked top
in the two most recent UK Research Assessment Exercises in Chemistry. It
ranked 1st in Europe and 3rd in the world in the Chemistry ranking of
the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2017. Affiliates of the
Department of Chemistry have won 21 Nobel prizes in Chemistry so far. The University of
Cambridge has been
in alliance with the League of European Research Universities since 2002, and
the International Alliance of Research Universities since 2005. As such, the host
institution is linked to leading universities in Europe and as well
as the world, including the University of Oxford, the University of California at
Berkley and the University
of Tokyo. Cambridge University is also a major participant in European projects
and is amongst the top 5 recipients of H2020 funding. The University Library is
a major scholarly resource and it holds approximately 8 million items.
Prof. Erwin Reisner: he was born and raised in the foothills of the alps in Upper Austria and studied Chemistry at the University of Vienna. He developed an early interest in bioinorganic and coordination chemistry, and his PhD studies in the Keppler group focused on ‘redox activated ruthenium anticancer drugs’. Prof. Reisner subsequently changed from medicinal inorganic chemistry to different aspects of bio-inspired energy conversion as a postdoc. In the Lippard group at MIT, he studied synthetic models of the diiron(II) active site of soluble Methane Monooxygenase, which selectively converts natural gas to methanol. He subsequently joined the Armstrong group in Oxford to work on solar hydrogen production with enzyme-nanoparticle hybrid systems. His independent career started with an EPSRC research fellowship at The University of Manchester, followed by a University Lectureship at the University of Cambridge. He is currently the Professor of Energy and Sustainability and a Fellow of St. John’s College in Cambridge, coordinator of the UK Solar Fuels network, which organises the national activities in artificial photosynthesis, and the Cambridge Creative Circular Plastics Centre.