IUPAC webinar series on Entrepreneurship and Chemistry
Wed, Mar 19, 2025 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM CET | 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM GMT
This webinar will introduce you to three leaders in the field of green chemistry and their stories related to start-ups in this sector: Dr. John Warner, Prof. Philip Jessop, and Prof. Richard Blackburn.
This panel discussion will aim to answer the following questions:
• ‘What are their top two pieces of advice for budding chemistry entrepreneurs?’
• ‘What have been the biggest barriers or challenges that they’ve experienced?’
• ‘In their opinion, how can we encourage entrepreneurship, especially in the chemistry community?’
Panel Members/Speakers
Dr. John Warner
Affiliation: President and CEO, The Technology Greenhouse
John Warner is one of the founders of the field of green chemistry. He wrote the book that provides the definition and 12 principles of green chemistry with Paul Anastas in 1998. As an industrial chemist, he has over 350 patents. He received the Perkin Medal in 2014 from The Society of Industrial Chemistry. As an academic, he was tenured full professor of chemistry and tenured full professor of plastics engineering at the University of Massachusetts where he started the world’s first PhD program in Green Chemistry. He has over 120 publications in. In 2004 he received the Presidential Award for excellence in science mentoring from the National Science Foundation and President George W Bush and in 2022 he received the August Wilhelm von Hofmann Medal from the German Chemical Society. As an inventor, John’s inventions have led to the founding of many companies in the fields of photovoltaics, neurochemistry, construction materials, water harvesting and cosmetics. In 2016 he received the Lemelson Invention Ambassadorship from the Lemelson Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement of the Sciences. John is a member of the Club of Rome, and holds academic appointments at Monash University in Australia, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, Somaiya University in India, University of Birmingham in the UK, Rochester Institute of Technology in the US, and Technical University of Berlin in Germany where they have named the “John Warner Center for Start Ups in Green Chemistry.” John currently serves as President and CEO of The Technology Greenhouse.
Prof. Philip Jessop
Affiliation: Queen’s University (Canada)
Dr. Philip Jessop is the Head of the Chemistry Department and the Canada Research Chair of Green Chemistry at Queen’s University in Canada, honorary professor of the University of Jordan, adjunct professor at the Hashemite University in Jordan, and the Executive Research Director of Forward Water Technologies Inc. His research interests include green solvents, biomass conversion and CO2-responsive materials. Distinctions include the NSERC Polanyi Award (2008), Canadian Green Chemistry & Engineering Award (2012), the Eni Award (2013), NSERC Brockhouse Prize (2019), and Fellowships in the Royal Society of Canada, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the American Chemical Society. He served as the Chair of the Editorial Board for the journal Green Chemistry (2017-2022), has chaired three major international conferences and helped create two spin-off companies and GreenCentre Canada, a centre for the commercialization of green chemistry technologies. His Tiktok video series “Jessop’s Which Is Greener?” has reached tens of thousands of viewers.
Prof. Richard Blackburn
Affiliation: University of Leeds and Keracol Limited
Richard Blackburn is Professor of Sustainable Materials at The University of Leeds, UK with academic research and applied industrially relevant work focusing on green chemistry and sustainability in materials science, textiles, coloration, and cosmetics. His specific research interests include textile and polymer chemistry, dye chemistry, polyphenols chemistry (especially anthocyanins), biomass valorisation, polysaccharide chemistry (especially cellulose I and II), coloration and finishing, and microfibres in the environment. He has over 100 academic publications in high quality peer-reviewed journals, three seminal monographs on sustainable materials, and fifteen granted international patents on cosmetics and hair dyeing technology. He has many academic and industrial collaborations and has served on the International Advisory Committee for the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute and in 2018 was elected Chair of the ACS Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. He is also Co-Founder and CTO of University of Leeds spin-out company Keracol Limited, who develop an award-winning sustainable cosmetic products, much of which is based on upcycling waste plant materials for hair coloration, hair care and skincare applications, working with the amazing chemistry of nature to develop novel actives and applications. Keracol develops more sustainable cosmetic products for its own brands and also for multinational cosmetic companies. Richard is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Dyers of The City of London and a Freeman of The City of London.
Moderator:
Prof. Francesca Kerton
Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada)
Francesca Kerton is a professor of Green Chemistry at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada and has a global reputation for her innovative research on sustainable chemistry related to the oceans. She currently chairs the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s standing committee on Chemical Research Applied to World Needs (CHEMRAWN). She is an Associate Editor for the journal RSC Sustainability. She received the 2019 Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Award, and the 2023 SCI-Canada Kalev Pugi Award for exceptional achievements in research and development. More recently she was recognized as one of 3M’s 25 Women in Science – 2024’s program focused on environmental sustainability.
See originating project ‘Chemistry Entrepreneurship’ chaired by Bipul Saha and Hemda Garelick, and members of IUPAC Executive Board.
Feature photo by John Salvino on Unsplash