Science to enable the circular economy

Biography not yet available

The Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry (WBI) is an independent 42,000 sq ft research laboratory in Wilmington, Massachusetts fully equipped with state-of-the-art chemistry and engineering equipment. 

Prior to starting WBI in 2007, John Warner was tenured full professor of Chemistry and Plastics Engineering at the University of Massachusetts. Warner has received awards as an academic (Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics & Engineering Mentoring – President G W Bush & NSF, 2004), industrial chemist (Perkin Medal – Society of Chemical Industry, 2014), inventor (Lemelson Ambassadorship – Lemelson Foundation & AAAS) and for governmental chemicals policy (Reinventing Government National Performance Review – Vice President A Gore & EPA, 1997). 

While a senior research group leader at the Polaroid Corporation (1988-1997), Warner coauthored the defining text for the field of Green Chemistry with Paul Anastas and codified the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry. Warner is on the advisory panel for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy, has been elected a full member of the Club of Rome, and is an advisor for Parley for the Oceans where in 2016 he helped create the technology for the Adidas Parley Recycled Ocean Plastics Shoe. 

He has served as sustainability advisor for several companies including Dow, P&G, Apple, Levi Strauss, Nike, Biogen, Pfizer, and Steelcase. With nearly 200 patents across more than 75 patent families, he has worked with over 100 fortune 500 companies helping to invent commercially relevant (high performance and appropriate cost) green chemistry technologies across all sectors of the chemical industry. His chemistry inventions have served as the foundation for several new companies, examples include: Collaborative Medicinal Development (ALS Therapy, Phase II Clinical Trials), Hairprint (hair color restoration), Collaborative Aggregates (Delta-S and Delta-Mist, asphalt warm mix, rejuvenator, & spray coat), Lowlight Indoor Solar Energy devices for IoT and BIPV, Formaldehyde and Isocyanate Free wood composite adhesive, and Lithium Cobalt Battery recycling technology. 

In 2007 Warner cofounded the nonprofit organization Beyond Benign with Amy Cannon. Collocated at the WBI labs in Wilmington, MA, Beyond Benign creates curricula and training for K-12 and university educators to incorporate concepts of green chemistry an sustainability to improve STEM education.

Michael Meier has been a full professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany since 2010. He received his diploma degree (MSc) in chemistry in 2002 from the University of Regensburg, Germany and his PhD under the supervision of Professor Ulrich S Schubert from the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands in 2006. His research interests include the sustainable use and derivatisation of renewable resources for polymer chemistry as well as the design of novel highly defined macromolecular architectures.

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Charlotte K Williams (Department of Chemistry, Oxford University) researches catalysis that allow renewable resources to be used to make polymers, composites and fuels. Her research includes the development of homogeneous catalysts for polymerizations of plant-derived resources and carbon dioxide to deliver oxygenated polymers. She also investigates colloidal nanoparticle catalysts for the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide or syn-gas to methanol and dimethyl ether. More information can be found at her research group webpages: http://research.chem.ox.ac.uk/charlotte-williams.aspx. She is the founder of econic technologies which commercializes catalysts for carbon dioxide/epoxide copolymerizations (http://www.econic-technologies.com/). Her work has been recognised by the RSC Corday Morgan Prize (2015) and the WISE Tech Start Up Award (2014).

Nick Turner obtained his DPhil in 1985 with Professor Sir Jack Baldwin and from 1985-1987 was a Royal Society Junior Research Fellow, spending time at Harvard University with Professor George Whitesides. He was appointed lecturer in 1987 at Exeter University and moved to Edinburgh in 1995, initially as a Reader and subsequently Professor in 1998. In October 2004 he joined Manchester University as Professor of Chemical Biology where his research group is located in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology Biocentre (MIB: www.mib.ac.uk). He is Director of the Centre of Excellence in Biocatalysis (CoEBio3) (www.coebio3.org) and also a co-founder and Scientific Director of Ingenza (www.ingenza.com), a spin-out biocatalysis company based in Edinburgh and more recently Discovery Biocatalysts. He is a member of the Editorial Board of ChemCatChem and Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis. His research interests are in the area of biocatalysis with particular emphasis on the discovery and development of novel enzyme catalysed reactions for applications in organic synthesis. His group are also interested in the application of directed evolution technologies for the development of biocatalysts with tailored functions.

Roger Sheldon is a recognised authority on Green Chemistry and Catalysis and is widely known for developing the concept of E factors for assessing the environmental footprint of chemical processes. He is Professor Emeritus of Biocatalysis and Organic Chemistry of Delft University of Technology and Chief Executive Officer of CLEA Technologies. He is the author of several books on catalysis as well as more than 450 professional papers and 50 granted patents. His research interests are in the general area of green chemistry, (bio)catalysis and enzyme immobilisation.

He has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Leicester (UK) and prior to joining Delft University, in 1991, he had more than 20 years industrial experience, as Vice President for Research and Development at DSM / Andeno from 1980 to 1990 and with Shell Research Amsterdam from 1969 to 1980.

Adisa Azapagic is Professor of Sustainable Chemical Engineering at the University of Manchester where she leads the Sustainable Industrial Systems group. The main aim of her research is to help identify sustainable solutions for industrial systems on a life cycle basis, taking into account economic, environmental and social aspects. Adisa is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Sustainable Production and Consumption and Editor-in-Chief of Process Safety and Environmental Protection, both published by Elsevier on behalf of the IChemE. She was a recipient of the IChemE Award for Outstanding Achievements in Chemical and Process Engineering and the GSK/CIA Innovation Award for masterminding the CCaLC carbon footprinting tool for industry.

Kai Baldenius is a chemist by formation. After receiving a PhD from Hamburg University, he spent a post-doc research year at The Scripps Research Institute before he joined BASF in 1993.  In BASF Kai started his career in the central research doing process development work for vitamins and other fine chemicals. He took over responsibilities in production, marketing and sales, before he returned to research. Since 2009, Kai heads the BASF biocatalysis research group.