Dr. Melis S. Duyar from University of Surrey visited DICP

On September 4^th, 2019, Dr. Melis S. Duyar from University of Surrey (United Kingdom) visited our group at DICP for academic exchanges. During her visit, she gave an impressively academic report entitled “Rational Design of Methanol Synthesis Catalysts using Mechanistic Insights” in the conference room on the third floor of the State Key Laboratory of Catalysis building. The academic report was chaired by Prof. Liu and many group members attended it.

 In her report, Dr. Duyar explained that why we need new catalysts for methanol synthesis. Three highlighted examples of “rational design” were introduced by Dr. Duyar. 1) MoP: A “feed-agnostic” methanol synthesis catalyst, 2) In₂O₃: Catalysts tailored for CO₂ hydrogenation, 3) Ni-Ga: Methanol synthesis at low pressures. Most of her reported efficient catalysts were designed from the perspectives of support effect and metal promoters. Dr. Duyar also introduced her current projects and gave an outlook for future CO₂ utilization. At the end of forum, a certificate for the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of DICP was issued to Dr. Duyar.

Dr. Melis Duyar is a Lecturer of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Surrey. She has a research background in heterogeneous catalysis for energy and environmental applications. Her current research interests focus on the development of novel adsorbent materials for CO₂ capture and catalytic materials for the production of sustainable fuels and chemicals from carbon based feedstocks, including the conversion of syngas to higher alcohols and thermochemical reduction of CO₂ to valuable products. Dr. Duyar received her B.Sc. (2012) in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey. She obtained her M.S. (2013) and Ph.D. (2015) in Earth and Environmental Engineering from Columbia University in the City of New York and conducted post-doctoral research (2015-2017) in the Chemical Engineering Department at Stanford University. Prior to her academic appointment at the University of Surrey, Dr. Duyar worked at the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory as Associate Staff Scientist in the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis and was also Lecturer of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University for 2 years (2017-2019).