Recap: Academia edition of our popular Future Days event

Smart insights to shape the science of tomorrow

If you’ve spent much time on Materials Talks, you’ll know that Malvern Panalytical is a community full of detail-loving specialists: we’re all about academia! After all, research brings us the knowledge we need to power innovation – and this is certainly true in the advanced materials world.

So, it’s no wonder we were excited about the Academia segment of our recent Future Days event! Held on March 23, this was part of the second run of our online Future Days program (alongside the Semiconductor edition.

At Malvern Panalytical, we’re lucky to have several experienced researchers on our team – and we also work with an even wider range of advanced materials experts. During the event, we brought together several of our experts with special guest speakers to explore how today’s most cutting-edge research could shape tomorrow’s technologies. Talks covered everything from electronics and computing to energy storage and nanoparticles.

Couldn’t make it – or just keen to catch up on everything we discussed? No worries! We’ll give you a recap below:

From future computers to the potential of nanoparticles

We kicked off with an Introduction to R&D and Academia from our scientific experts Gjalt Kuiperes (Sector Director Advanced Materials), Stjepan Prugovecki (Segment Manager Academia and Research), and Gwilherm Nénert (Principal Scientist) – before diving into the details!

For the first presentation, ConiGron: brain materials for future computers, we heard from guest speaker Professor Beatriz Noheda (Full Professor of Functional Nanomaterials at Groningen University). She shared how materials analysis could be key to unlocking the next stage of computing – a fascinating topic, and one that’s on many people’s minds right now.

Then, Gwilherm Nénert explored how metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can help change the world. How? By supporting a crucial challenge facing many societies today: gathering reliable, sustainable sources of water. His talk, Harvesting water in the desert: From dream to reality with MOFs, discussed how cracking the code of CAU-10-H and CAU-10-CH3 could help make water harvesting a reality.

Next up, Ana Morfesis, our Applications Supervising Manager, made her case for why Today’s nanoparticles are tomorrow’s solutions. Ana shared how these tiny particles are set to make a big impact across a whole range of applications, from pharmaceuticals to energy storage.

Deeper discussions in our expert roundtables

Interspersed among these insightful presentations were several inspiring roundtable discussions. Each was hosted by a different one of our speakers: Beatriz, Ana, and Gwilherm. Finally, we brought all our experts together for one last roundtable to… well, round off the day!

Together, these talks painted a promising picture of the impact that advanced materials research can have on today’s biggest trends and challenges. Thank you to our speakers, and to everyone who attended – we hope you’ll be back for more!

Already eager for more Future Days? Stay up to date on upcoming events, and all our specialist content, via our Advanced Materials LinkedIn page.

Plus, explore all our academia solutions here.