Shining light on CO2 to celebrate Geoffrey Ozin’s 77th birthday

August 18, 2020 by Dan Haves

What do you get a chemist on their birthday? A shiny watch, a gift certificate, or maybe even a ‘punny’ coffee mug? The members and collaborators of the Ozin Group had other ideas.

To mark the occasion of Professor Geoffrey Ozin’s upcoming 77th birthday, they penned a tutorial review in Chemical Society Reviews that celebrates the last 10 years of research on CO2 photocatalysis.

“We weren’t able to gather in person this year because of COVID-19, but we wanted to do something special to celebrate Geoff’s birthday,” says Yuchan Dong, a PhD student in the Ozin Group.

“So we came up with the idea of this tutorial review that features Geoff’s image in the Table of Contents (right) and would be published in the leadup to his birthday. We were excited to win the front cover display of one of the highest impact factor journals in the field of chemistry.”

In the review, Yuchan and co-authors highlight the multidisciplinary character of photocatalytic CO2 reduction studies from the perspective of materials chemistry, science and engineering, computational modelling, reactor engineering to process development.

It provides a full picture of all the essential components for scaling laboratory research to pilot demonstration to implementation in industry, one-step closer to the vision of the solar CO2 refinery.

“This article shines a very bright light on an exceptionally talented multidisciplinary group of coworkers,” says Ozin.

“They demonstrate in a most convincing way how my dream of the ‘solar CO2 refinery’ can be creatively transformed from an adventurous idea to an emerging and exciting field of science with great opportunities for the development of green technology to help ameliorate climate change and enable a sustainable future.”

“What a wonderful way to celebrate and remember the special occasion of my 77th birthday!”

Read the article on Chemical Society Reviews. Also, Ozin speaks with Advanced Science News about his career, current projects, and plans for the future.