Media Release - For Immediate Release
April 9 2010
Maritimes Centre for Green Chemistry Launched
The new Maritimes Centre for Green Chemistry will help keep Saint Mary's at the forefront of research developing alternatives to hazardous chemicals. |
Saint Mary’s University has solidified its place as an environmental leader with the creation of a new research centre for green chemistry.
The initiative will promote the collaboration of education and research initiatives that are looking at ways chemistry can be used to reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous substances.
Housed within the Chemistry Department at the University, the Maritimes Centre for Green Chemistry will bring together interested chemists from across the region to work on troubling environmental problems.
“We are not as much interested in creating ways to clean up toxic messes as we are developing ways that they won’t happen into the future,” says Dr. Robert Singer, one of the driving forces behind the creation of the centre.
“We want to work with the chemical industry and manufacturers to produce substances that are safer for the environment and for the workers and individuals using them.”
It is ironic, he says, that many of the processes now used to create solar panels or computer chips to control wind turbines generate toxic material. Green chemistry works to replace those toxic elements with safer more sustainable options
Malcolm Butler, Dean of Science, says Saint Mary’s has been a leader in Green Chemistry for many years, but the regional cluster of talent needed to make the centre viable has only developed recently.
“Green chemistry is a growing field that is attracting international attention. We see tremendous advantage in establishing a research hub at Saint Mary’s that will tap into that energy.”
The new body will provide a research niche to recruit undergraduate and graduate students, as well as develop materials for chemistry teachers.
With the critical mass a centre creates, Dr. Singer says new larger research opportunities arise and increased funding opportunities are enhanced.
Dr Jason Clyburne, a Saint Mary’s Chemistry Professor and a founding member of the Centre, said green chemistry will play a vital role in creating a safe and sustainable future.
A Canada Research Chair in Environmental Studies, he says it is imperative to find new ways to use greener and cleaner chemistry in the home, in industry and for energy applications.
He concurs with the views of Paul Anastas, one of the founding fathers of Green Chemistry that “our collective fate will come down to our ability to shift the way we produce and consume energy and the way we design and use chemical and materials made from them.”
Dr. Clyburne said that task will require thousands of innovations, some of which he hopes will be generated at the Centre.
The initial membership of the institute is composed of eight Saint Mary’s professors and individual researchers from Saint Francis Xavier, Mount Allison, Queens, Cape Breton University, Mount Saint Vincent and one researcher from Australia.
The new Maritimes Centre for Green Chemistry will benefit from partnerships with GreenCentre Canada and the University’s Industry Liaison Office.
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For More Information:
Steve Proctor
External Affairs
Saint Mary's University
(902) 420.5513
E-mail: steve.proctor@smu.ca
www.smu.ca
This page last modified Monday, 10-Jan-2011 15:35:42 AST