• Question: What progress have you made in the last 1-2 years? Explain.

    Asked by Khayla!Xxx:-) to Ahmed, Francesca, George, James, Nitheen on 7 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: James Sullivan

      James Sullivan answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Hi Khayla,
      You’re putting us on the spot there.
      Most progress involves small changes that move the field on in tiny steps.
      In my own case I would say I’m most happy with a range of solar-powered catalysts that we have made and tested in the last two years. While these catalysts are not unique our preparation is cheap, and reproducible.
      We have also a range of catalysts for environmentally friendly (at a range of levels) chemical reactions.
      Five PhD students (doctors of philosophy) have graduated from the group in the past 2 years.
      I hope this is clear for you.
      James

    • Photo: Ahmed Osman

      Ahmed Osman answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      I got my master degree in Egypt and then I came here to start the PhD at QUB. I worked on the production of the new clean fuel (Dimethyl Ether) as I published one international paper in Environmental Applied Catalysis B: with impact factor 6.05 and I have two more paper in the field of bio-gas combustion and we got a very challenge-able results, and we are planning now to submit our patent in this work.
      Thanks

    • Photo: Francesca Paradisi

      Francesca Paradisi answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      I have been very very lucky with the students that chose to join my group. Their motivation and determination made my job as supervisor very easy and rewarding. In the last two years we have produced and fully characterised several enzymes from these organisms that live in the Dead Sea and we have shown that they can be used to speed up chemical reactions in the lab, say we can convert A into B and B into C etc. We are hoping now to combine a few of these enzymes in a one-pot experiment and generate a cascade reaction that brings product A to C directly without having to do two separate steps. That would be really cool!

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