RSC Porous Materials Group

Winner: 2021 Inspirational Committee Award

For the creation and development of a cohesive porous materials community.

Celebrate RSC Porous Materials Group

#RSCPrizes

The Porous Materials Group (PMG) is a 91AV member-led interest group. Set up in 2018, its aim is to bring together scientists across all career stages working in porous materials and to foster links between academia and industry.

Porous materials contribute hugely to society, and are used in many different applications, such as ion exchange, purification, catalysis, and moisture removal to name a few. Types of materials include zeolites, polymers, metal-organic frameworks, cages and covalent-organic frameworks.

The group was set up by Ross Forgan (University of Glasgow), Thomas Bennett (University of Cambridge), Tina Düren (University of Bath) and Darren Bradshaw (University of Southampton) in 2018, having identified a need for the community of researchers working in areas such as metal-organic frameworks, covalent-organic frameworks, cages, and zeolites.

The PMG organises the annual UK Porous Materials Conference and, as the group develops, it hopes to provide more opportunities for members to meet, network, and develop their careers in porous materials science.

We are absolutely delighted to receive the Inspirational Committee Award. In 2018, Ross Forgan (University of Glasgow), Thomas Bennett (University of Cambridge), Tina Düren (University of Bath) and Darren Bradshaw (University of Southampton) began the group after identifying that there was a void for researchers working in areas such metal-organic frameworks, covalent-organic frameworks, cages, and zeolites, waiting to be filled.

This is really a story of researchers coming together to share their passion for porous materials science, and to keep driving both fundamental and applied research forwards in, and outside of the UK. We are incredibly grateful to all our sponsors, especially Hiden Isochema, members and conference participants.

Since we started the Porous Materials Seminar Series in May 2020, the membership has dramatically increased and the Twitter poster conference we hosted attracted interest from over 40 countries from around the world, so being able to engage with so many people has been really fantastic. We’re really glad that the RSC has recognised that with this award.