IMSE showcased how integrating expertise across diverse academic disciplines and with external stakeholders helps solve grand challenges.

Transdisciplinary research integrates expertise across diverse academic disciplines and with external stakeholders, such as policy makers or industry. Prof Amparo Galindo, Director of the Institute for Molecular Science and Engineering (IMSE) at Imperial College London, began the day with an introduction to the importance of molecular engineering in addressing diverse grand challenges.

Addressing societal problems with molecular engineering

Combining talks from academic researchers and industry representatives, IMSE's 2^nd Research Showcase covered a large variety of topics and research approaches, many of which are related to a sustainable future. The subjects ranged from bioengineering synthetic tools, to greener formulations for everyday products, sustainable aviation, characterization of batteries for safer e-bikes, artisanal cryptography, and advanced temperature control for heritage partners to help them achieve sustainable care of cultural artefacts.

All these challenges require collaborations across departments, disciplines and sectors. Sustainable aviation, for example, brings together researchers and companies working on new sustainable fuels with aircraft and airport designers. All the talks were followed by engaged discussions with the audience, which included academics at different career stages as well as students, and industry representatives from small, medium and large companies.

Celebrating the work from the Molecular Engineering Masters students

The day's highlight was IMSE's MRes students presenting their research projects through flash presentations with confidence and excitement. They then stood proudly next to their posters and discussed their results and findings with the attendees. All the projects were done in collaborations with industry (e.g. Proton DX, Elekta) or other end-users such as museums or even Chester Zoo! Following the transdisciplinary nature of IMSE and molecular engineering, the projects covered a wide range of subjects from circular economy, solar cells, modelling chemical design, molecular diagnostics, and clean water.

The Royal Society of Chemistry sponsored prizes for best talk and poster presentation; congratulations to Harry Bowen and Chris Pang!

'IMSE taught me to speak different languages'

For the final talk of the day, we welcomed Lingfeng ('Griffin') Gui , IMSE MRes alumnus, now working as a postdoctoral research associate at Heriot Watt University. Griffin was a member of the IMSE MRes cohort in 2018-19, before doing a PhD at Imperial in the Department of Chemical Engineering, supervised by Professor Claire Adjiman and Professor Amparo Galindo, in partnership with Eli Lilly.

'The Molecular Engineering masters course helped me to appreciate both computational and experimental research and provided me with the tools to continue my career' Griffin, MRes alumni

Griffin highlighted the value of industry partnerships as part of the masters, giving students the option to make an informed decision between a future in academia or industry. He praised the MRes Alumni Network, run by IMSE?s Leah Adamson. Having benefited from previous mentorship, he has now mentored three students himself. Griffin is looking to start his own research group to continue doing transdisciplinary research to solve diverse challenges.

Griffin said that the Molecular Engineering MRes allowed him to connect the molecular scale with process level performance. He defined transdisciplinary research as the ability to speak different languages; science and engineering, multiple disciplines, multiple scales, industry and academia, and experimental and computational. 

Many thanks to all the speakers, attendees and contributors for contributing to the IMSE Research Showcase.