Anders Nilsson to share insights at the WISE Dialogue

Professor Anders Nilsson has a distinguished career. He earned his PhD in Physics from Uppsala University in Sweden and served as an Associate Professor in Synchrotron Radiation Research at Stanford University, USA, from 2000 to 2008 and then as Professor in Photon Science until 2016. He is currently Professor in Chemical Physics at Stockholm University. Renowned for his groundbreaking studies of the structure and dynamics of water, Prof. Nilsson’s research extends to the investigation of chemical reactions occurring in real time and energy transformations crucial for future energy applications.

Professor Anders Nilsson is one of the prominent speakers at the WISE Dialogue in Gothenburg, Sweden on 14-15 March. He recently returned from the United States, where he was honored with the Earle K. Plyler Prize from the American Physical Society for Molecular Spectroscopy and Dynamics. During his presentation at the Dialogue, Prof. Nilsson will talk about his WISE project that deals with the conversion of carbon dioxide into renewable methanol, one of the most important building blocks in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry.

To realize the production of renewable methanol, the development of novel catalysts is imperative. Prof. Nilsson’s project focusses on exploring various catalytic materials for methanol synthesis using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). His talk will also shed light on the modern challenges confronting the chemical industry and reflect on the transformative shifts witnessed over the past century.

– There is an opportunity to transform the fossil-intense chemical industry into a fully sustainable industry using green hydrogen by water electrolysis (water splitting) and captured CO2 from concentrated sources such as powerplants, the cement industry, or in the future, directly from the air, says Prof. Nilsson.

He hopes to inspire PhD students and postdocs at the WISE Dialogue to tackle fundamental scientific questions, which will inevitably lead to interesting technological challenges.

To learn more about Prof. Anders Nilsson’s WISE project visit https://wise-materials.org/project/catalytic-methanol-production-for-co2-mitigation/