Karen Wilson

Karen was appointed as Professor of Catalysis in the School of Environment and Science in 2023, having previously held the position of Professor of Catalysts at RMIT University (Melbourne) from 2018-23.

Prior to relocating to Australia she was Chair of Catalysis and Research Director of the European Bioenergy Research Institute at Aston University (2013-17), where she also held a prestigious Royal Society Industry Fellowship in collaboration with Johnson Matthey. She has also held independent academic positions at the University of York (1998-2009) and within the Cardiff Catalysis Institute at Cardiff University (2009-13).

Karen holds a B.A. (Hons) in Natural Sciences (1992) from the University of Cambridge, a M.Sc. (Dist) (1993) in Surface Science and Heterogeneous Catalysis from the University of Liverpool, and a PhD entitled ‘Poison and promoter effects in Pt catalysed hydrocarbon oxidation reactions’ under the supervision of Professor Richard M Lambert from the University of Cambridge (1993-96). Karen also undertook postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge (1996-98) and in the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence at York with Professor James H Clark (1998-99).

Karen’s research interests lie in the design of heterogeneous catalysts for clean chemical synthesis, particularly the design of tuneable porous materials for sustainable biofuels and chemicals production from renewable resources, specifically waste biomass. Recent projects have spanned the conversion of biomass from municipal, agricultural or forestry waste to fuels and chemicals, and the transformation of bakery waste to additives for application in coatings and polymers. She has also worked on depollution technologies to remove organic contaminants from waste-water in the seafood industry and palm and olive oil plantations in South East Asia. She has published >280 peer-reviewed articles (h-index 88, >27,600 citations Google Scholar), graduated >30 PhD and MSc students, and was founding director of the “Global Bioenergy, Biofuels and Biorefining Network: GB3-Net”. Karen is currently the Australian representative on the IUPAC Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development.

Karen is Editor-in-Chief of Sustainable Energy & Fuels (Royal Society of Chemistry),  Associate Editor of Energy & Environmental Materials (Wiley) and Editorial Board Member of Energy & Environmental Science (Royal Society of Chemistry). She is also a co-investigator and theme leader on a recently funded Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence, ‘Green Electrochemical Transformation of Carbon Dioxide’ GetCO2.