Photo of Professor Alexander Cowan

Professor Alexander Cowan MSci, PhD, FHEA, FRSC

Professor of Chemistry Chemistry

    About

    Personal Statement

    Prof Alex Cowan obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Nottingham (2007) for the study of inorganic reaction mechanisms with transient spectroscopy, under the supervision of Prof. Mike George. Following a postdoctoral position at Nottingham developing catalysts for the reduction of carbon dioxide he moved to Imperial College London to study photoelectrochemical water splitting with Prof. David Klug.

    In 2011 Alex was appointed to a Lectureship in Renewable Fuel Synthesis at Imperial College on the Artificial Leaf programme. In October 2012 he joined the department of Chemistry and the Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy at Liverpool University initially as a Lecturer and he was subsequently promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2015, Reader in 2017 and Professor in 2019. In 2012 Alex was awarded a 5-year EPSRC early career fellowship and in 2017 he was awarded a further EPSRC fellowship that will run from 2017-2021.

    Alex leads an active research group that develops and studies catalysts for the sustainable production of fuels. Recent highlights include the discovery of highly selective catalysts for electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction in acids and the development of carbon dioxide electrolysers which are now undergoing trials with industry partners (see https://co2volt.com/), new catalysts for water splitting and also the development of surface sensitive spectroscopic techniques to study the mechanisms of electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction and water oxidation in-situ.

    Alex was director of the UK Solar Fuels Network (2019-2022), is the director of the UK Solar Chemicals Network (www.solarechemicals.co.uk, 2023 -) and is a UK expert to Mission Innovation on Solar and Power to X. He also leads the technology development program of the UKRI Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Chemical economy (www.circular-chemical.org, IChemE Global Award Winner for Sustainability 2023). Full details of our research activities can be found here.

    Funded Fellowships

    • ESPRC Fellowship (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), 2017)
    • EPSRC Fellowship (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), 2012)