Professor Andrew Beale FRSC

Winner: 2022 Materials Chemistry Division mid-career Award: Peter Day Award

University College London

For the development of novel methodologies using bright light sources to identify active species in catalysis and energy storage.

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Still after all of these years it is exciting to be one of the first pairs of eyes to see something for the first time.

Professor Beale’s group studies chemical reactions and processes as they happen, and in their native environment, to understand how and why they occur. This understanding is crucial for designing the next generation of materials that will allow us to live more sustainably.

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Andrew Beale is currently Professor of inorganic chemistry at the department of chemistry at University College London (UCL) and group leader at the research complex at Harwell, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. He is also chief scientific officer and co-founder of Finden Ltd (incorporated in 2012).

Andy was awarded a BSc from the University of Sussex in 1996, followed by a PhD at the Royal Institution of Great Britain/UCL in 2003 on the subject of in situ X-ray crystallisation studies of mixed oxide materials. He then worked as a VENI research fellow and assistant professor in the department of inorganic chemistry and catalysis at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He returned to the UK, and to UCL, in 2013 as an EPSRC early career fellow before being promoted into his current role in 2014.

His current interests concern the study of functional materials with novel chemical imaging techniques using X-ray scattering and/or spectroscopic methods, often studied under dynamic (or operando) conditions.

Q+A

How did you first become interested in chemistry?

For me, chemistry really came alive once we were free to experiment in the laboratory. At that point the textbooks also came alive as you could understand what you had seen and read about what should happen before you carried out your next experiment. The interpretation of complex behaviour via simple equations and systems is a remarkable human achievement.

What motivates you?

Still after all of these years it is exciting to be one of the first pairs of eyes to see something for the first time. It might be a component in a spectrum/pattern or data set but nothing can beat seeing that and the subsequent realisation of what it means for understanding the process or reaction you are studying.

How are the chemical sciences making the world a better place?

The chemical sciences are currently playing a decisive role in our attempts to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and reach net zero. The development of alternative fuels or drive trains in vehicles requires designing and optimising novel catalysts or electrodes in which the rate and extent of electron flow is optimised; this is of course what chemistry is all about. We have a long way to go to reach this net zero imperative, however. For example, we need to do a lot more work in developing new routes and processes to many of the platform molecules known as petrochemicals that we have largely taken for granted but which, of course, won't be so widely available as we wean ourselves off oil.

Why do you think teamwork is important in science?

Science is complex and multifaceted. Rarely will one individual have all the necessary skills to prevail in tackling a particular problem. Hence the need for a multidisciplinary team. Particularly nowadays when we are perhaps more mindful of what the wider consequences are of providing a particular solution to a problem. The unintended consequences of a solution can turn out to be worse than the problem it was intended to solve.