Environment, Sustainability and Energy Forum Award 2009 winner

Awarded for her work on the synthesis of biodegradable polymers from renewable sources and development of polymers for use in photoelectric devices

About the winner

Charlotte K Williams is a senior lecturer in chemistry at Imperial College London and an EPSRC advanced research fellow. Her research interests are in coordination chemistry (Zn(II), Y(III) and Al(III)), polymerisation catalysis, degradable polymer synthesis, the activation and use of renewable resources and in the synthesis of electroactive polymers for use in electronics.

Her research has been recognized by the RSC Meldola Medal for 2005 and by the RSC Laurie Vergnano Award in 2001.

Charlotte studied for a PhD (1998-2001) with Dr Nick Long and Professor Vernon Gibson at Imperial College London. She worked on the synthesis of new catalysts for ethylene polymerisation.

She was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota (2001-2002), where she worked with Professors Marc Hillmyer and Bill Tolman on the synthesis of new Zn(II) initiators for lactide polymerisation.

She returned to the UK as a postdoctoral researcher with Professors Andrew Holmes and Richard Friend at Cambridge University working on the synthesis of organometallic polymers for electronics.

In 2003 she was appointed as a lecturer at Imperial College London, in 2005 she became an EPSRC advanced research fellow (until 2011) and in 2007 she was promoted to senior lecturer.