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The supply of low carbon energy is one of the greatest challenges of our time. 

Major breakthroughs in green energy technologies require advances in new materials and underpinning science. Learn more about this topic during a special webinar with Dr. Saiful Islam, Professor of Materials Science at the University of Oxford.

During this webinar, Dr. Islam will describe the materials science of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and novel perovskite-type compounds for next-generation solar cells. He will also highlight the use of advanced materials modeling to gain deeper insights on the atomic scale.

This is the third installment of the webinar series, "Promoting Chemistry Applied to World Needs" presented by Beyond Benign and IUPAC CHEMRAWN.

Professor Saiful Islam, University of Oxford

Saiful is Professor of Materials Science at the University of Oxford. He grew up in north London and obtained his Chemistry degree and PhD from University College London. He then worked at the Eastman Kodak Labs, New York, and the Universities of Surrey and Bath.

His research focuses on understanding atomic-scale processes in new materials for lithium batteries, sodium batteries and perovskite solar cells. Saiful has received several awards including from the Royal Society, American Chemical Society and Royal Society of Chemistry.

He presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (2016) on BBC TV, which included a lemon battery world record. He is a Patron of Humanists UK and when not exploring new materials, he enjoys family breaks (as a dad of two), films and indie music.(Research website: https://bit.ly/327BgQr)

About the series:

During this webinar series, speakers will orient their presentations around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Top 10 Emerging Technologies to demonstrate the power that chemists hold in shaping and preserving the future. Each talk will be accompanied by short videos on the topic geared toward high school and university chemistry students as well as the general public.

This series is hosted by Beyond Benign and the IUPAC Committee on Chemical Research Applied to World Needs (CHEMRAWN).

Previous webinars:

https://youtu.be/yI-OMl4JnfY?feature=shared

https://youtu.be/OOKZy4HSqy8?feature=shared

Join the conversation, live in the Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community. Bring questions about all things green chemistry education and receive expert answers from K-12 educator, environmental justice advocate, and winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching (PAEMST), Nina Hike!

Nina Hike, a lead contributor to ChemEdX, specializes in youth participatory science and Next Generation Science Standards aligned curricula. She has published work on the Science Writing Heuristic, which fosters student collaboration and processing scientific knowledge gained through laboratory investigations. Nina is a 2021 Illinois PAEMST National Awardee. 

Find Nina's GCTLC profile here and stay tuned for a link to the forum!

Interdisciplinary discussion bringing together policy experts from Harvard’s Kennedy School, chemical industry, and the nonprofit ChemFORWARD 

How can we reduce the impacts of the most toxic chemicals in today's supply chains? 

Join the Belfer Center's Environment and Natural Resources Program for a discussion panel on the role of information access in enhancing environmental initiatives to reduce pollution and chemical toxins. Panelists - including Harvard Kennedy School experts, industry leaders, and representatives from ChemFORWARD, the 2024 winner of the Roy Award for Environmental Partnership - will explore the challenges that the private sector faces in addressing toxic pollution, the upsides and downsides of regulatory approaches, and lessons learned from a cross-sectoral approach to chemical hazard mitigation. 

Q&A to follow. Coffee and light refreshments will be served. 

Recording: A recording of the seminar will be made available on the Belfer Center's YouTube channel. 

Registration: RSVP required. A Harvard University ID is required for in-person attendance; all are welcome on Zoom 

Register here:  https://hksexeced.tfaforms.net/f/registration?e=a4oPp000001PwRdIAK

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?’

As the landscape of sustainability in higher education continues to evolve, we understand that the changing policies under the new federal administration are impacting campuses across the country. To help our members navigate these changes, and to offer support amidst so much change, AASHE will be hosting a discussion series every Tuesday throughout March. This series will be facilitated by AASHE staff and board leadership, and will offer a space for members to come together, discuss challenges, share insights, and explore how AASHE can best support campuses in these challenging times. While we may not have clear solutions, being in community with sustainability change agents will hopefully create an opportunity for collective processing and exploration of productive responses. 

• When: Tuesdays in March (March 4, 11, 18, 25)
• Time: 1:00 – 2:00 PM (EST)
• Format: Informal, member-driven discussions facilitated by AASHE staff & board 
• Location: Virtual via Zoom (link provided upon registration)

This is an opportunity for all AASHE members to connect, share experiences, and gain valuable insights from your peers as we collectively work toward advancing sustainability and climate action in higher education.

Reducing total CO₂ emissions to zero is called #CarbonNeutrality. To achieve this, industrial and energy reforms must be undertaken within the next decade. However, the specific measures are not generally known…

Join us for a special webinar with Junji Nakamura, a Research Professor at the International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research, Kyushu University, to explore what the path to carbon neutrality looks like.

🗓️ When: February 6th from 6-7 p.m. EST / February 7th from 8-9 a.m. JST.

🧪 Register: This is the second installment of the webinar series, “Promoting Chemistry Applied to World Needs” presented by Beyond Benign and IUPAC CHEMRAWN. If you haven’t already registered for this free series, RSVP here! 

Weston Roundtable

The Weston Roundtable is made possible by a generous donation from Roy F. Weston, a highly accomplished UW-Madison alumnus. Designed to promote a robust understanding of sustainability science, engineering, and policy, these interactive lectures are co-sponsored by the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the Office of Sustainability.

Lectures are held 4:15–5:15 p.m. Thursdays in 1163 Mechanical Engineering. Some lectures will be presented online, which will require registration.

_____________________

Dr. Amy Cannon 

Amy received the world’s first Ph.D. in Green Chemistry. Holding an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Saint Anselm College (1997), Amy sought to use her chemistry degree within the field of sustainability. At the University of Massachusetts Boston, she met Dr. John Warner, who introduced her to green chemistry, a blossoming movement in the late 1990’s. It was there where they created a Ph.D. concentration in Green Chemistry, addressing the education gap in chemistry education – chemists were not being properly prepared with skills to design and create solutions to support the development and implementation of sustainable chemical products. After working in industry (Rohm and Haas, and Gillette Company) and academia (University of Massachusetts Lowell), Amy remained passionate about Green Chemistry education, recognizing the growing need for education systems to change to prepare scientists with Green Chemistry skills to address sustainability through chemistry. In 2007, Amy co-founded, Beyond Benign, a non-profit solely dedicated to advancing Green Chemistry education. Since inception, this organization has been leading Green Chemistry education initiatives in K-12 through higher education, focusing on empowering educators to make transformative change in their teaching and practice.  

Amy has been recognized for her work in research (Kenneth G. Hancock Memorial Award in Green Chemistry in 2004, for titanium dioxide semiconductors and their application in dye-sensitized solar cells) and also for her leadership in driving green chemistry education (2012 EPA New England Environmental Merit award). Beyond Benign’s work has also been recognized through the ACS NERM Partners for Progress and Prosperity (P3) Region Award (2016), and as a semi-finalist in the Buckminster Fuller Challenge (2013).  

Hear directly from Amy: 

• TEDx talk “The Promise of Green Chemistry“, TEDx Amoskeag Millyard, October 19, 2023
• On the central role that chemistry and chemistry education plays in addressing global sustainability challenges: Sustainable Innovation Through Green Chemistry Podcast (Innovation+ Talks hosted by Paul Heller)
• On the power of community to create transformative change in education

Key publications: 

• “A promise to a sustainable future: 10 years of the Green Chemistry Commitment at Beyond Benign“, Green Chemistry, 2024, Advance Article, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4GC00575A
• “Green Chemistry Teacher Professional Development in New York State High Schools: A Model for Advancing Green Chemistry“, J. Chem. Educ., 2023, 100, 6, 2224-2232.
• “Women in Green Chemistry and Engineering: Agents of Change Toward the Achievement of a Sustainable Future”, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 2022, 10, 9, 2859-2865.  
• “Safe and Sustainable Chemistry Activities: Fostering a Culture of Safety in K-12 and Community Outreach Programs”, Cannon, A.S., Keirstead, A.E., Hudson, R., Levy, I.J., MacKellar, J., Enright, M., Anderson, K.R., Howson, E.M., J. Chem. Educ., 2021, 98, 1, 71-77. 
• “A Systems Thinking Department: Fostering a Culture of Green Chemistry Practice among Students”, Dicks, A.P., D’eon, J.C., Morra, B., Chisu, C.K., Quinlan, K.B., Cannon, A.S., J. Chem. Educ., 2019, 96, 12, 2836-2844. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00287] 
• “Models for integrating toxicology concepts into chemistry courses and programs”, Cannon, Amy S., Finster, David, Raynie, Douglas, and Warner, John C., Green Chemistry Letters and Reviews, 10:4, 2017, 436-443. 
• “The Green Chemistry Commitment: Transforming chemistry education in higher education” Cannon, Amy S. and Levy, Irvin J. in The Promise of Chemical Education: Addressing our Students’ Needs, ACS Symposium Series, Vol. 1193, 2015, pp. 115-125.

Join the conversation, live in the Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community. Bring questions about all things green chemistry and receive expert answers from Berkley Center for Green Chemistry Executive Director, Dr. Megan Arnett!

With a PhD in neuroscience, Megan is one of many in the Green Chemistry community who comes from an interdisciplinary background. As such, Megan is constantly learning new aspects of green chemistry as the executive director of the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry at UC Berkeley, where she works directly with industry partners to identify safer alternatives to chemicals in their products or processes. Megan is lead instructor for several green chemistry courses at UC Berkeley, and runs an internship program and research center in collaboration with the USDA Bioproducts Research Institute. 

The University of California, Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry (BCGC) is advancing green chemistry through research, teaching and engagement in the interdisciplinary areas of: New Chemistries, Health and Environment, Policy and Law, and Business and Economics. Investigators in chemistry, the environmental health sciences, public policy, business, and law are developing new science and scholarship that is placing green chemistry, alongside carbon-neutral technologies, as a cornerstone of environmentally sustainable development and the green economy.

Find Dr. Megan Arnett's AMA in the forums here!

Visit the University of California, Berkeley's profile on the Beyond Benign Website.
 

We’re kicking off 2025 with an exciting Green Chemistry Connections session! 🌱

Join us on January 15th from 8–10 a.m. UTC / 7–9 p.m. AEDT to explore nanoscale and nanotechnology for green and sustainable chemistry, alongside the brilliance of biomimicry. These topics showcase how Green Chemistry principles can be applied in innovative ways to solve global challenges. 

Our featured speakers include: 
– Sally Fierenzi, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria
– Terry Turney, PhD, Sonic Essentials Pty Ltd & Monash University
(and others!)

↪️ This monthly webinar series is designed for educators, industry professionals, advocates, and anyone passionate about building a sustainable future through green chemistry. Register now to secure your spot and gain access to all events in the series, plus recordings: https://mailchi.mp/beyondbenign/connections?mc_cid=409bfe4d28&mc_eid=da8a16d315

Are you an aspiring chemist, a passionate climate advocate, or an interested member of the public? Do you want to change the world through science? Join the IUPAC CHEMRAWN and Beyond Benign throughout 2025 to learn from experts in the field who are leading the charge to solve existential, world needs through chemistry. Speakers will orient their presentations around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), as well as the IUPAC Top 10 Emerging Technologies, to demonstrate the power that chemists hold in shaping, and preserving, the future. 

Each talk will be accompanied by  2-3 minute videos on the topic, for chemistry students in high school, university, and for the general public.

January Webinar 

“From Detoxifying Chemical Warfare Agents to Treating Nuclear Wastewater: Adventures in the Synthesis of Metal–Organic Frameworks” 

Ashlee Howarth, Concordia University

01/24/2025 | 9:00 – 10:00 AM EST

Webinar Description:

Named by IUPAC as one of the “Top 10 Emerging Technologies in Chemistry” in 2019, what can metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) really do? IUPAC CHEMRAWN Committee and Beyond Benign invite you to learn more about MOFs and join the discussion with Prof. Ashlee Howarth from Concordia University! Prof. Howarth is dedicated to using green chemistry principles and practices to design and synthesize rare-earth cluster-based MOFs which can then be applied to clean up wastewater from coal and nuclear power plants, as well as decontaminate military equipment. Other applications investigated by Ashlee also include catalysis, drug delivery, X-ray detection, and chemical sensing applications to solve our current environmental challenges. 

More About Professor Ashlee Howarth:

Ashlee J. Howarth is an Associate Professor and Concordia University Research Chair at Concordia University in Montréal. She was born and raised in London, Ontario. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Western Ontario in 2009, and then went on to do her PhD in inorganic materials chemistry at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Michael O. Wolf. Before joining the faculty at Concordia, she completed an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship at Northwestern University with Joseph T. Hupp and Omar K. Farha. At Concordia, the Howarth group is focused on the design and synthesis of rare-earth cluster-based metal–organic frameworks targeting applications in pollution remediation, catalysis, drug delivery, X-ray detection, and chemical sensing. Ashlee is also the contact point for the Green Chemistry Commitment at Concordia University.