Catz Fellow Elected Distinguished Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
St Catherine’s College is delighted to announce that Professor Peter Edwards FRS, Catz Fellow in Inorganic Chemistry and Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford Department of Chemistry, has been appointed Distinguished Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), following a stringent process of nomination and election.
Professor Edwards has been Fellow and Head of Inorganic Chemistry at St Catherine’s College since 2003. His earlier appointments include Fellow and Director of Studies in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, and Professor of Chemistry and Materials at the University of Birmingham. In 1996, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, recognising his outstanding contributions to the field of inorganic chemistry.
This latest distinction adds to a long list of career honours for Professor Edwards. In 2003, he was awarded the Royal Society’s Hughes Medal; in 2009, he was elected to the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina; and, in later years, he was nominated to Academia Europaea and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Edwards was nominated for this latest honour by Professor Changqin Jin of the CAS Institute of Physics. In 2011, Professor Edwards was elected CAS Einstein Professor.
This announcement comes at a particularly celebratory time for St Catherine’s College. In early December, the College welcomed Nobel Laureate Professor Stanley Whittingham to deliver the Inaugural John Goodenough Lecture, commemorating five decades of lithium-ion battery innovation initiated by Catz Honorary Fellow Professor John B. Goodenough. Professor Goodenough’s legacy is still felt strongly by the College and its international community, influencing major developments across Inorganic Chemistry by staff and alumni alike.
Professor Edwards’ election coincides with forty years since his first collaboration with Professor Goodenough, which produced a landmark paper on oxide superconductivity. ‘The superconductor-semiconductor transition in the Li1+xTi2-xO4 spinel system’ helped to establish the modern understanding of the metal-insulator transition and its relevance to superconductivity – a theme which Professor Edwards would revisit in his CAS Special Address.
On Monday, 8th December, Professor Edwards marked the occasion with an inaugural lecture. He discussed the continuing challenge of explaining and controlling high-temperature superconductivity, highlighting the transformative potential of future materials capable of superconducting at ambient temperatures, commonly known as room-temperature superconductors. Such breakthroughs could significantly reduce energy transmission losses and play a major role in global decarbonisation efforts.
St Catherine’s College congratulates Professor Edwards on this outstanding recognition and celebrates his enduring contributions to the field of inorganic chemistry.
Image courtesy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)