St John’s funds, supports and nurtures a community of influential researchers [link to previous] who are world-leading in finding effective responses and viable solutions to the climate crisis. Whether in clean energy generation, analysis of climate change planet-wide and over time, or in the development of bio-based resources to replace destructive construction materials, our researchers are leading the way with bold, creative ideas.
They work across the University of Cambridge and beyond, often in collaboration with specialists in other fields to ensure joined-up approaches to complex environmental challenges.
Here is just a taste of our agenda-setting research:
Imagine a win-win-win discovery. That’s exactly what St John’s Fellow Professor Erwin Reisner and his team have developed with their reactor that captures carbon dioxide directly from the air to make sustainable liquid fuel, using sunlight as a power source. The device, inspired by the way plants photosynthesise, is triply remarkable in that it removes the harmful greenhouse gas CO2 from the atmosphere, converts it into a useful fuel – syngas – to power cars and planes or create chemicals and pharmaceuticals without contributing to climate change or using energy-intensive carbon storage, and requires only the sun’s energy to work, making it cheap and mobile. If scaled up, researchers say, it could be used in remote or off-grid locations, allowing communities to generate their own fuel.
Professor Erwin Reisner is Professor of Energy and Sustainability in the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at Cambridge and holds the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies.
The power of the sun is well-established in the production of clean energy, but the process is typically not as efficient as it could be. That challenge is firmly in the sights of St John’s Fellow Sir Richard Friend, whose breakthrough discoveries on the interactions between molecules, light and electromagnetic forces have led to the development of technologies such as organic LEDs and display screens. Richard and his team have exploited the power of the cutting-edge carbon-based molecular semi-conductors they use to boost the efficiency of our mobile and TV screens for an additional purpose: to improve the performance of energy-producing solar cells. The materials help extract more energy from the same amount of sunlight than conventional silicon solar cells, making solar power cheaper and more efficient and bringing widespread benefits by reducing the cost of any process that can be powered by electricity.
Sir Richard Friend is Director of Research in the Department of Physics at Cambridge and formerly its Cavendish Professor of Physics (1995-2020).
How can we build better – producing structures that last, but inflict less planetary impact? Innovative materials science, architectural inventiveness plus the creativity to think beyond conventions all have their part to play – and it’s all happening at St John’s. Our academic Dr Darshil Shah addresses global sustainable development challenges through better design of not only buildings but products and processes. He experiments with natural materials such as wood, bamboo and natural fibre composites to create sustainable structural alternatives to conventional high energy materials like concrete, steel and carbon fibre. Think pre-fabricated timber schools, low energy materials based on hemp fibres for housing, flax bio-composite wind turbine plates and even laminated bamboo cricket bats – all of them reducing environmental harm while building for the future.
Dr Darshil Shah is Associate Professor in Materials Science and Design in the Department of Architecture at Cambridge and leads research at the University’s Centre for Natural Material Innovation.
Find out how else we share our breakthroughs.
