Archive for July, 2025

Congratulations to the winners of the RSC poster prizes ISGC-25

The International Symposium on Green Chemistry – ISGC 2025  was held in La Rochelle, France from May 12-16, 2025.  Green Chemistry and RSC Sustainability were delighted to provide poster prize awards at the event and we would like to congratulate our winners!

Learn more about the awardees below:

Angelo Scopano is currently a Ph.D. student working with Paolo P. Pescarmona at the University of Groningen (RUG), the Netherlands, and Arjan W. Kleij at the Catalan Institute of Chemical Research (ICIQ), Spain. His position is part of the European doctoral network D-Carbonize funded by the European Union. His passion is carbon dioxide utilisation to obtain valuable chemicals. His research focuses on the development of more sustainable chemical processes including one-pot systems and greener carbonation reactions. The work presented in the poster is about the synthesis of cyclic carbonate through the direct one-pot carbonation of alkenes using carbon dioxide. Angelo got his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees at University of Padova, Italy, under the guidance of Fabrizio Mancin and Luca Dell’Amico, respectively. During his studies he spent 6 months at KU Leuven, Belgium. Before starting his current position, he worked as a regulatory affairs intern for a multinational company and as educational project manager for Silvia Gross at the University of Padova.
Mattia Annatelli obtained both his Master’s degree in Chemistry and Sustainable Technologies (2019) and his PhD in Environmental Sciences (2024) from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. His research focuses on the synthesis of bio-based compounds from renewable raw materials, with particular attention to the development of sustainable chemical processes aimed at reducing the reliance on fossil resources. During his PhD, he worked on the design of innovative synthetic pathways for the production of bio-based platform chemicals. As part of his doctoral training, he spent a research period at Jaume I University (Spain), where he acquired foundational knowledge in continuous flow chemistry, further broadening his scientific expertise. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where he is involved in the valorization of crotonic acid and the synthesis of cyclic organic carbonates.

Carlos Mur was born on October 20, 2000, in Zaragoza, Spain. Carlos studied Chemistry at the University of Zaragoza from 2018 to 2022. During the 2022–2023 academic year and completed a Master’s degree in Molecular Chemistry and Homogeneous Catalysis, also at the University of Zaragoza. Since 2024, Carlos have been pursuing a PhD in the CHESO research group at the same institution, focusing on the development of catalytic systems based on glycerol derivatives

Please join us in celebrating these winners and their excellent posters during the conference!

 

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Congratulations to the winners of the RSC poster prizes at RRB 2025

The International Conference on Renewable Resources & Biorefineries (RRB 2025) took place in Turku/Åbo, Finland from 2–4 June 2025. Green Chemistry, Reaction Chemistry & Engineering and RSC Sustainability were delighted to provide best PhD talk prize awards at the event and we would like to congratulate our winners!

Best PhD talk prizes being awarded at RRB 2025.

Photos of the prizes being awarded at RRB 2025 to Wolfgang Laudensack (left), Sibylle Schwartman (middle) and Adam Olszewski (right).

Learn more about our best PhD talk prize awardees below:

Photo of Sibylle Schwartmann.

Green Chemistry Best PhD Talk Prize

Sibylle Schwartman (Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
PhD Talk title: Electro-oxidation of β-O-4 model compounds monitored in a chamber-separated cell via in-situ ATR-IR spectroscopy

Sibylle Schwartmann is a fourth-year PhD candidate working under the guidance of Prof. Bert Weckhuysen and Dr. Bettina Baumgartner. She joined the Institute for Sustainable and Circular Chemistry of Utrecht University in 2021, following her master’s in physics at the RWTH Aachen (Germany). Her research focuses on the electro-oxidative valorization of lignin, to access new resources for aromatic base chemicals that act simultaneously as storage for renewable energies. Using in-situ infrared spectroscopy and novel cell designs, she explores lignin depolymerization pathways through the use of model compounds.

 

Photo of Adam Olszewski.

Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Best PhD Talk Prize

Adam Olszewski (Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland)
PhD Talk title: 3-F Polyurethane-Wood Composites (PU-WCs): Catalyst-free, formaldehyde-free, and petroleum-free alternatives to traditional wood-based panels

Adam Olszewski is a PhD in Materials Science and he currently works as a researcher at the Faculty of Chemistry at Gdańsk University of Technology. His work focuses on the synthesis and application of bio-based polyols derived from biomass liquefaction, which are utilised in sustainable polyurethane systems. Recently, he has developed a catalyst-, formaldehyde-, and petroleum-free polyurethane–wood composites (PU-WC) using renewable feedstocks, targeting reduced environmental impact for polymeric materials. Developed materials can be applied as a healthier substitute for commonly used wood-based panels manufactured using formaldehyde-based petrochemical resins. His work combines circular economy and green chemistry concepts for the development of high-performance sustainable materials. Beyond science, he is a social activist for the academic community. In the future, he would like to engage in the popularization of science and the promotion of environmentally friendly solutions in the plastic industry.

 

Photo of Wolfgang Laudensack.

RSC Sustainability Best PhD Talk Prize

Wolfgang Laudensack (RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany)
PhD Talk title: Identification of scale-up parameters for the production of platform chemicals from grass press juice

Wolfgang Laudensack is a first-year PhD student at the Chair of Bioprocess Engineering at RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, working under the supervision of Prof. Roland Ulber. He obtained his BSc and MSc in bio- and chemical engineering at RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau. His research focuses on the utilization of press juice from green waste. The current aim of this work is to scale up the production and fermentation of grass juice to platform chemicals like butyric or itaconic acid.

 

Please join us in celebrating these winners and their excellent talks during the conference!

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)