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I am humbled to join the esteemed community of RSC Fellows. ✍🏆 I am grateful to past and present group members, collaborators and mentors, for their invaluable contributions to my success! 🙏 I am glad to be elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Read the full story here, the interview brief is below:

KAUST Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Gyorgy Szekely has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). Professor Szekely was elected for his outstanding contributions to separation science, particularly membranes.

The RSC is the largest organization in Europe dedicated to advancing the chemical sciences and the professional body for chemists in the United Kingdom. Founded in London in the 1660s, it is the world’s oldest chemical society.

The learned society requires candidates for the Fellow distinction to have at least five years of senior responsibility or evidence of an outstanding contribution to the chemical sciences. In addition, they must have a completed application for review by a committee.

The appointment will allow the British-Hungarian researcher to showcase his research and network with scientists worldwide.

“I accept this distinguished recognition with great honor and deep appreciation. Being selected as a Fellow of RSC represents a milestone in my professional journey,” he said of his election.

“I am humbled to join the esteemed community of individuals who have contributed significantly to their respective fields. This recognition of my achievements by such a respected society validates my dedication and efforts but also inspires me to continue striving for excellence in my research and teaching.”

Throughout his career, Szekely and his team have been committed to solving challenges related to membrane fabrication for harsh environments; and advancing the application of these membranes through the development of new membrane materials and process intensification.

Membrane research is a promising field that holds the key to numerous scientific and technological advancements required to address many of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The intricacies of membranes, which are selective barriers, have the potential to revolutionize a wide range of industries. This research potential, in turn, drives his agenda at KAUST.

The European Membrane Society council member recently received the 2023 ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Lectureship Award. He received the award for demonstrating “thought leadership in sustainable separations via the synergistic combination of outstanding materials science and robust chemical engineering.”

“I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge my mentors, colleagues and students whose unwavering support, contribution, guidance and encouragement have played an instrumental role in my achievements,” Szekely emphasized. “Their wisdom, expertise and insights have shaped my professional growth, and I am grateful for their invaluable contributions to my success.”

by David Murphy

We have established two databases, one for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) and another one for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) impurities.

The OSN Database is the first repository for membrane separation data obtained in organic solvents published in September 2021. We envision a future where membrane process and material development relies on data-driven design methodologies. The process design part of any membrane separation are optimized and monitored using machine learning models and the new membrane materials are developed based on the collected data. The database offers several predictive tools for free to use: rejection prediction, enantioseparation prediction, and similarity search. Read the corresponding, open-access article introducing the original database and our opinion on data science in the membrane field.

The NMR Impurities Database contains solvents, acids and basis, including the emerging sustainable alternatives, and was established in March 2023. Besides obtaining new data, we compiled the current and previous works as well. The searchable database facilitates impurity identification. This database forms the basis of an online interface through which users can browse solvent spectra and search for signals of unknown origins to easily identify residual impurities in NMR spectra. In the online Python-based application, the NMR database connects to the website using Flask. A search on the main site triggers a query from the database managed by Pandas. Read the corresponding, open-access article introducing the original database in ACS-SCE.

Congratulations to Fadhilah Alduraiei, Cong Yang, Gergo Ignacz and Jiahui Hu for passing their PhD examination at KAUST during spring 2023. Many thanks to their committee members, namely Profs Peng Wang, Sanat Kumar, Sigurdur Thoroddsen, Carlos Grande, Suzana Nunes, Pedro Castano, Javier Martinez, Jozsef Kupai, Pascal Saikaly and Kyle Lauersen. Their hard work and dedication have paid off, congratulations! Wishing you all the best for your career!

We are partners in the recently launched EU Horizon project called E-TANDEM, which will focus on the efficient production of liquid higher oxygenate e-fuels (HOEF) via hybrid tandem catalytic conversion. The production of a low-emission, climate-neutral e-fuel in a direct production process is the overarching goal of the current EU research project E-TANDEM.

Our role in the project is to evelop membranes and separation processes. We consider organic solvent nanofiltration technology as a sustainable and less energy-intensive alternative to simultaneously separate and in situ recycle the catalyst from the reaction products and achieve a pure higher alcohol/ether phase, aligning with the project’s mission of improving the energy efficiency of HOEF production.

The EU project is coordinated by CSIC and consists of 8 European partners located in Spain, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Croatia and Austria, and two non-European partners located in Saudi Arabia and South Africa. The complete consortium includes: Agenica Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cienticas (ES), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (DE), DTU- Technical University of Denmark (DK), OWI Oel-Waerme-Institut GmbH (DE), Uniresearch B.V. (NL), TEC4FUELS GmbH (DE), AVL (AT), GoodFuels (NL), Sveuciliste u Zagrebu (HR), University of Cape Town (ZA) and KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) (SA).

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101083700 and from KAUST.

Congratulations to the team, in particular the first author, Levente Cseri, for pulling this research together. Our article published in Advanced Materials Technologies has just been announced to be among the top cited papers, which generated immediate impact in our community. The article is part of the journal’s special issue on Ion Selective Membranes guest edited by Profs Vicki Chen, Matthias Wessling and Amir Razmjou. Thank you for the invitation!