Charlotte Williams wins Royal Society Leverhulme Medal

Trinity Fellow Charlotte Williams has been awarded the Royal Society’s Leverhulme Medal for her pioneering work developing and understanding high-performance carbon dioxide utilisation catalysts, including the manufacture of next-generation plastic materials. 

Each year, the Royal Society recognises exceptional research achievements through a series of prestigious medals and prizes named after great scientists of the past. Professor Williams is one of eight recipients of the 2021-22 awards, announced today, given to Oxford University researchers for their outstanding contributions to science and medicine.

Professor Williams said: ‘I am inspired to work on applied problems and to try to reduce negative environmental impacts associated with polymer production. In particular, I am interested in carbon dioxide recycling to make useful products with lower greenhouse gas emissions, and producing materials from mixtures of raw materials – an achievement that nature makes look easy, but is a major challenge in chemistry.’

Professor Williams researches the chemistry of next generation plastics and materials: products designed to deliver high performances in applications but with minimal environmental impacts. Her work focuses on addressing fundamental challenges in catalysis (to reduce energy input in manufacturing) and on polymer chemistry, involving close collaboration with scientists and engineers in both academic and industrial laboratories.