Metrohm USA Announces 9th Annual Young Chemist Award Winner
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Metrohm USA is pleased to announce the winner of its 2021 Young Chemist Award, Ryan Jansonius. Ryan is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia where his research centers around developing technologies that use inexpensive and abundant renewable electricity to drive otherwise environmentally costly chemical transformations.
The production of fuels, plastics, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and specialty chemicals consumes 10% of the energy produced worldwide, and is responsible for 5% of all greenhouse gas emissions. By developing ways to produce these useful chemicals using only abundant feedstocks and renewable electricity, Ryan’s research enables ways to offset these emissions. The aim is to produce renewable diesel, pharmaceuticals and a host of bio-derived specialty chemicals in a way that is cleaner, safer, and cheaper than conventional methods.
Ryan is also co-founder of ThorTech, a startup that brings to market a unique membrane reactor technology that uses water and electricity to hydrogenate molecules relevant to the biofuel, pharmaceutical and specialty chemical industries.
Ryan will accept his award and present a short overview of his work at Metrohm’s virtual press conference at PITTCON 2021 on March 8 at 3:00 pm.
One $2,000 runner-up prize and two $1,000 honorable mentions were awarded to Dr. Liang Feng from Northwestern University on his research on editing “genes” of metal-organic frameworks, Elizabeth Brown from Clarkson University for her work on the development of advanced oxidation methods to optimize non-thermal destruction technologies for treating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contaminated water, and to Colby Ott from West Virginia University for his research on simultaneous detection of organic and inorganic gunshot residues using electrochemical sensors.
Metrohm USA has awarded the Young Chemist Award for nine consecutive years. This award is open to all undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate and doctorate students residing and studying in the U.S. and Canada, who are performing novel research in the fields of titration, ion chromatography, spectroscopy and electrochemistry.
