Global St Andrews and Macquarie Doctoral Scholarship - Chemistry and Engineering

The University of St Andrews and Macquarie University are pleased to offer a scholarship funded by both institutions, to support an exceptional student undertaking doctoral research in the Development of New Catalytic Processes for the Synthesis and Recycling of Polymers. Students will enrol at both institutions from the outset and spend 50% of their time at each institution. The project involves the development of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts for the synthesis and recycling of renewable polyesters, polyamides and polyurethanes using the approach of catalytic dehydrogenation and hydrogenation. The research will be jointly supervised by Dr Amit Kumar (University of St Andrews), whose group specialises in molecular organometallic catalysts, and Prof. Yijiao Jiang (Macquarie University), an expert in recyclable heterogeneous catalysts. By uniting expertise from chemistry and engineering, the project will explore how to immobilise highly active catalysts on solid supports to enable both efficient depolymerisation and catalyst recyclability. The PhD student will receive interdisciplinary training across both universities, developing skills in synthetic chemistry, catalyst immobilisation, materials characterisation, polymer degradation, and process scale-up.