Dr. Jennifer Edwards

Cardiff University,

Clara Immerwahr Awardee 2013

Academic Background

Dr. Edwards holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with Biological Science from Cardiff University (2003). During her PhD (Chemistry, Cardiff University School of Chemistry, GB, 2006) she developed numerous novel heterogeneous catalysts and measured their activity for the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide from hydrogen and oxygen. During this time she developed a novel Au-Pd catalyst (Patent WO/2007/007075) which showed unprecedented high activity and selectivity for the direct synthesis reaction whilst being inactive for hydrogen peroxide decomposition.

Following from her PhD Jennifer has worked in the Cardiff Catalysis Institute as a PDRA on a number of research projects involving catalysis by gold. In 2010 she was awarded a prestigious fellowship from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, and spent some time in the group of Professor Haruta at Tokyo Metropolitan University. She has published 3 patents and 41 papers, including 2 in Science. In 2011 she received the Carol Tyler award from the International Precious Metal Institute which recognized her contributions to precious metal research. She is currently a senior research fellow in the Cardiff Catalysis Institute.

Jenny says, “I am delighted to have won this award and that my research has been recognised internationally. The award will certainly help to further enhance my independent research work and I am very much looking forward to establishing new and productive collaborations with the high quality scientists who contribute to UniCat.”

Research Interests

Catalysis by gold, AuPd alloys, sub nm metal clusters in catalysis, selective hydrogenation, selective oxidation, utilisation of bio renewable feedstocks, fossil fuel free synthesis of platform chemicals, CO2 utilisation