Professor Robert Raja
Materials chemistry and catalysis, specialising in sustainable chemistry, carbon capture and renewable energy
Profile
Professor Robert Raja’s expertise spans a range of fields, including heterogeneous catalysis, sustainable chemistry, carbon capture storage and utilisation, renewable energy generation, metal nanoparticles and single-site nanocatalysts.
The main focus of Robert’s research group is the discovery, design and fabrication of novel catalytic materials, for application as single-site heterogeneous catalysts, in chemical, pharmaceutical, fine-chemical and environmental sectors for developing sustainable technologies.
The diversity of his research has also been pivotal in establishing a predictive design platform for the discovery of advanced catalytic materials, expanding scope to the rational design of hybrid materials and photonic fibres for hydrogen generation and carbon storage and utilisation.
Robert’s extensive experience of industry collaboration includes framework grants with Total Energies (Europe), Honeywell (USA), UOP (USA), Signa Chemistry (USA), and Bayer (Germany). His research has been instrumental in licensing catalytic technology to the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and his IP portfolio in the sustainable manufacture of polymers and nylon is being developed for pilot studies.
Robert joined the University of Southampton in 2006 and became Professor of Materials Chemistry and Catalysis in 2016. He is also the co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of ViridiCO2, which was one of four new UK start-ups showcased at COP26, and winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry 2020 Emerging Technologies Award in Energy and Environment. Before that he held roles at the University of Cambridge, Bayer Chemicals, Germany and a Royal Commission 1851 Exhibition fellowship at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He has received many prestigious awards including the Barrer Award by the Royal Society of Chemistry ‘in recognition of outstanding contributions to preparative materials chemistry and their application to industrial catalysis’.
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