Professor Thomas Maschmeyer, University of Sydney, Australia, has been awarded the 2011 Applied Research Medal by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI). This medal is awarded annually to an RACI member who has contributed significantly towards applied research or industrial fields. Maschmeyer receives the award for his work on catalysis and sustainable processes. He has developed hydrothermal methods to generate either advanced lignocellulosic “drop-in” biofuels, or VGO-type oils (vacuum gas oil) and low-mineral black coal slurries as heavy fuel oil substitutes from brown coal. Both processes are in the commercial demonstration phase.

Thomas Maschmeyer studied chemistry at the University of Sydney, Australia, and received his Ph.D. under Anthony Masters in 1994. He went on to work in the UK with John Meurig Thomas at the Royal Institution of Great Britain and became the Assistant Director of the Davy Faraday Laboratories there in 1997. At the same time, he held a research position at the University of Cambridge, UK. In 1998, Maschmeyer was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Applied Organic and Catalytic Chemistry at the Delft Institute of Chemical Technology, The Netherlands, becoming Vice-Chairman of that Institute in 2000. He returned to Australia in 2003 as an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow at the University of Sydney.

He serves on the International Advisory Board of ChemPlusChem and is President of the Catalysis Society of Australia.

Maschmeyer’s research interests include catalysis, sustainable processes, renewable feedstocks (biomass, solar hydrogen), ionic liquids, micro- and mesoporous nanostructured materials, and reversible energy storage devices.

• Tuning the Photocatalytic Activity of CdS Nanocrystals through Intermolecular Interactions in Ionic-Liquid Solvent Systems,
  V. W. Lau, L. G. A. van de Water, A. F. Masters, T. Maschmeyer,
  Chem. Eur. J. 2012.
  DOI: 10.1002/chem.201102720
• An ITQ-2/TUD-1 micro-/mesoporous composite: In situ delamination as a tool for the preparation of innovative materials,
  C. C. Aquino, H. O. Pastore, A. F. Masters, T. Maschmeyer,
  ChemCatChem 2011, 3(11), 1759–1762.
  DOI: 10.1002/cctc.201100077
• Catalytic aspects of light-induced hydrogen generation in water with TiO₂ and other photocatalysts: A simple and practical way towards a normalization?
  T. Maschmeyer, M. Che,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49(9), 1536–1539.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.200903921