{"id":19,"date":"2015-11-27T14:06:52","date_gmt":"2015-11-27T14:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/ceasblog\/?p=19"},"modified":"2018-06-14T15:30:36","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T14:30:36","slug":"chemengcatchup-episode-1-dr-james-winterburn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/ceasblog\/2015\/11\/27\/chemengcatchup-episode-1-dr-james-winterburn\/","title":{"rendered":"#ChemEngCatchUp Episode 1 – Dr James Winterburn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Afternoon all, and thanks for joining me for the very first episode of #ChemEngCatchUp<\/a>. This will be a monthly series in which I chat to the School<\/a>\u2019s researchers, alumni, and students, to further communicate the story of chemical engineering and analytical sciences at The University of Manchester<\/a>. You can expect to hear from the series on the final Friday of every month.<\/p>\n

\"James
James enjoying the sights during a recent work related trip!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I first spoke to Dr James Winterburn<\/a> after watching his talk at one of the University\u2019s open days. I was still fairly new in my role then, and having just begun to work on\u00a0the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Sciences\u2019 digital presence, I have to admit that my knowledge of their subjects was minimal. James\u2019s talk was called \u2018What is Chemical Engineering?\u2019 While it may have been aimed at the teenagers considering whether or not to come and study here in Manchester, it gave me a good grounding in the topic which has helped me immensely as I\u2019ve progressed in my role. So cheers for that, James!<\/p>\n

Chatting after his talk, we batted a few ideas around, and I mentioned the blog that I was planning. He showed an interest, even at such an early stage. I decided back then that he should be the first person I interviewed for the blog, and just a few months later here we are:<\/p>\n

Hi James. Thanks so much for chatting to us. We\u2019ll start with a nice easy one: can you please describe your research, for the layman, in ten sentences or less?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sure, so my research is all about making chemicals that we currently get from oil using microorganisms – using living cells.<\/p>\n

There are lots of different microorganisms that nature\u2019s designed that make plastics, surfactants (the molecules that are in cleaning products), and a whole range of other things. My research is all about how we can take these things that nature\u2019s designed, improve on them, and design processes to actually exploit them. A lot of that involves what we call fermentation, but rather than brewing, or making bread or cheese, we\u2019re making plastics, say.<\/p>\n

To do that we really have to design processes. And really, as a chemical engineer, it comes down to how we can get the cells to make the products more efficiently – so make more of them – and then how we can separate out what we\u2019ve made.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the key challenge, actually. So when we\u2019ve made our product, our plastic that we\u2019re interested in, there\u2019s a whole host of other things around that which we have to pick the plastic out from. We get rid of everything else, reuse it, and then we can purify and have the plastic that we need, say.<\/p>\n

And in what ways does your research benefit the general public?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/h2>\n