Title
Energy storage and the chemical bond
Biography
Bill David is STFC Senior Fellow at the ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire, UK, Professor of Materials Chemistry in the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford, and Fellow by Special Election in Physics at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford.
Bill has made a number of contributions to the development of neutron and X-ray powder diffraction that include the comprehensive crystal-structure analysis of C60, and the accelerated determination of molecular crystal structures through his computer program, DASH. His theoretical work is based around the application of Bayesian probability theory in areas ranging from structural incompleteness to parametric data analysis.
Bill’s materials focus is in energy storage, beginning with his early research on lithium battery cathodes. More recently, he has worked on lightweight hydrogen-storage materials such as reversible imide-amide systems. Following his discovery of a new family of ammonia-decomposition catalysts, his main energy research interests are in materials that facilitate the safe and effective utilisation of ammonia as an energy vector.
Bill is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. His awards include the IOP CV Boys Prize (1990), the inaugural British Crystallography Association Prize (2002), the European Society for Applied Physical Chemistry Prize (2006), one of three Bragg Lecture Awards (2013) marking the centenary of the discovery of X-ray diffraction, and the 2015 RSC John B Goodenough Award recognising “exceptional and sustained contributions to materials chemistry”.
About IMSE
The Institute for Molecular Science and Engineering (IMSE) is one of Imperial College London’s Global Institutes, drawing on the strength of its four faculties to address some of the grand challenges facing the world today. The Institute’s activities are focused on tackling problems where molecular innovation plays an important role.
The Highlight Seminar Series brings eminent speakers from across the globe to Imperial to increase awareness of areas where molecular science and engineering can make a valuable contribution and to promote exchanges with academic and industrial centres of excellence.