Dr Catherine Weetman

Personal statement

Cath is a Chancellor’s Fellow in the Catalysis & Synthesis section of the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Cath’s research interests are in the design and development of new bimetallic catalysts based upon main group elements due to their low cost, high natural abundance, and environmentally benign nature. The combination of two metal centres, which are directly bound together in the bimetallic framework, aim to develop our fundamental understanding of chemical bonding, and will open up new reactivity pathways not accessible to monometallic compounds. This will lead to the establishment of many new sustainable catalytic processes and target the activation of strong bonds such as those found within greenhouse gases.

Cath obtained her MChem (2011) and PhD (2015) from the University of Bath under the supervision of Prof. Michael Hill in s-block catalysis. Following this, Cath moved to the University of Edinburgh where she diversified into d- and f-block organometallic chemistry under the guidance of Professors Polly Arnold and Jason Love. At the end of 2017, Cath was awarded a TU Munich Foundation Fellowship (TUFF) to join Prof. Shigeyoshi Inoue for low-oxidation state p-block chemistry. This was additionally supported by the award of a EuroTech Marie-Curie Fellowship to develop aluminium multiple bond chemistry, which also involved a 6-month secondment at EPFL, Switzerland. In July 2020, Cath joined University of Strathclyde as a Chancellor’s Fellow.