Charlotte Williams | |
---|---|
Alma mater | Imperial College London |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | University of Oxford University of Cambridge |
Doctoral advisor | Vernon C. Gibson |
Charlotte Williams OBE FRS holds the Professorship of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oxford.[1] Her research focuses on the synthesis of novel catalysts with an expertise in organometallic chemistry and polymer materials chemistry.[2]
Williams studied chemistry at Imperial College London, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in chemistry. She completed a PhD with Vernon C. Gibson and Nick Long.[3][4]
Williams joined the University of Cambridge as a postdoctoral research associate working with Andrew Bruce Holmes and Richard Friend.[5] Here she focused on the synthesis of electroactive polymers.[5] She then moved to the University of Minnesota, working in the group of Marc Hillymer and William Tollman on zinc catalysis.[6]
In 2003 Williams was appointed to Imperial College London as a lecturer.[7] She was appointed a Senior Lecturer in 2007, a Reader in 2009 and a Professor in 2012.[5] Here she developed sugar-based biodegradable polymers that were produced from lignocellulosic biomass.[8][9] During her time at Imperial she was an inventor of several granted patents.[3]
She joined Trinity College, Oxford, in 2016.[10] Her research focuses on metal complexes for use in homogeneous polymerisation catalysis.[10] She identified catalysts that could use carbon dioxide as a raw material for polymers, which prompted Williams to start Econic Technologies.[10] Econic Technologies has received more than £13 million in funding.[11][12][13][14] She also identified transition metal complex catalysts, biorenewable polymers and liquid fuel production.[15] She has developed switchable catalysts that allow the combination of monomers into block copolymers.[16][17][10] Working with Milo Shaffer at Imperial College London, Williams uses nanoparticles in polymer composites.[18] She is a member of the London Centre for Nanotechnology.[19]
She appears regularly in the media, including on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time[20] and at museums and festivals.[21][22] In 2015 she won the WISE Campaign research award for her eco-plastics start-up.[23]
In June 2024, Williams was appointed to the Professorship of Inorganic Chemistry, one of the five Statutory Professorships in Chemistry at the University of Oxford and took up a fellowship of St Catherine's College.
Williams was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to chemistry.[31]