Professor Alex Cowan, SFN Director

Welcome to the 31st edition of our SFN newsletter for Autumn 2022.

Following the lifting of COVID restrictions we were happy to see so many of our Members face-to-face at our 10th Symposium in Newcastle.  An overview of our Symposium together with details of our prize winners and sponsors is included.

Also in this Newsletter we would draw your attention to a number of interesting job opportunities.

It was wonderful to meet with colleagues again for the annual Solar Fuels symposium to hear great talks and engage in lively discussion at the posters. The event was a great success with 90+ registrants and we are extremely grateful to the chair, and event host Dr Shafeer Kalathil for his excellent organisation of the meeting. We also wish to thank the University of Northumbria and all sponsors for their generosity which helps keep the registrations costs of these events so low.

Alongside a report on the symposium, in this newsletter you will find details of a number of new studentships and research positions that are available in the field of solar fuels and we encourage you to share these with colleagues as widely as possible.

I’m sure that many of you will be aware that the Solar Fuels Network has been funded as part of the UKRI SuperSolar Supergen hub. As this funding period draws to a close we do enter a period of uncertainty but the Network team is determined to keep activities running as much as is possible during the interim period. At this point I want to pay particular thanks to our Network's advisory board who have been working with us to develop new plans and we are hopeful that we will be able to report on new developments in the next newsletter.

With best wishes
Alex

The 10th Solar Fuel Network (SFN) Symposium and Early Career Event was held on 14-15 July 2022 at Northumbria University, Newcastle hosted by Dr Shafeer Kalathil. The first day had 14 oral presentations including 3 keynote speakers, Prof James Durrant from Imperial College, Prof Julea Butt from University of East Anglia, and Dr Jenny Zhang from University of Cambridge and 2 invited speakers, Dr Seb Sprick from University of Strathclyde, and Dr Anabel E. Lanterna from University of Nottingham. Around 100 delegates have attended the event in person and the event discussed recent research updates in the field of solar fuels/chemicals with a focus on solar biohybrids. There was an advisory board meeting on the first day to discuss the current and future activities of SFN. Early career researchers participated in the event by presenting their research through oral and poster presentations. The ECR day discussed fundamental science to commercial applications of solar fuel/chemical research with the aim of net zero target with 18 oral presentations including an invited speaker, Dr Motiar Rahman from University of Cambridge.

The event was sponsored by Energy Futures, Northumbria University and SUPERGEN SuperSolar. Prizes were given by the Royal Society of Chemistry journals Chemical Science, Energy and Environmental Science, and Journal Materials Chemistry A for the best poster presentations and ECR talks.

Prize winners (left to right): Best posters - Tianhao He, Imperial College, London and Chao Li, Liverpool University with Professor Alex Cowan (SFN Director) and best ECR talk winner - Santiago Rodriguez Jimenez, University of Cambridge with Dr Shafeer Kalathil (Symposium organiser Northumbria University).