{"id":735,"date":"2020-05-18T16:20:06","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T15:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/ceasblog\/?p=735"},"modified":"2020-05-18T16:20:06","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T15:20:06","slug":"a-digital-interview-with-professor-arthur-garforth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/ceasblog\/2020\/05\/18\/a-digital-interview-with-professor-arthur-garforth\/","title":{"rendered":"A Digital Interview with: Professor Arthur Garforth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Digital Interview with Professor Arthur Garforth (Professor of Catalysis, Honorary Head of Teaching). Inaugural lecture, NHS Plastic Use and projects on Mars.<\/p>\n

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  1. Congratulations on achieving your Professorship, what does being able to present an inaugural lecture mean to you?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Thank you absolutely delighted \u2013 firstly the thought of having to give an inaugural (lecture) was terrifying! However, because of its autobiographical nature, it became easy to structure and I really enjoyed the lecture. I, of course, tried out a few content ideas on colleagues first but finally settled on having a bit of fun creating \u201cAn Audience with\u2026.\u201d vibe through questions in sealed envelopes.<\/p>\n

    The whole day was great and very humbling as so many former student mates (Doug, Mike and Alex), colleagues from around the University and collaborators from industry turned up \u2013 some people will do anything for wine and cheese!! (Just kidding) \u00a0\u2013 very flattered \u2013 great day and the audience seemed to enjoy it as well.<\/p>\n

    Short answer \u2013 it meant a great deal to me!<\/p>\n

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    1. I see you went from Manchester, to industry and back to Manchester again. What was it that drew you back here?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      That\u2019s easy really, my industry job was very full-on and dealt with certification of chemical cargoes with SGS (Multinational testing company). It was a fabulous experience and there were many technical problems that needed solving but I missed research and always had a desire to teach. <\/strong>At the same time, these new-fangled things, personal computers were just beginning to take off to make light work of literature searching. Check out the historical<\/em> New Scientist link from 1991:<\/p>\n

      https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg13117804-900-review-word-crunching-for-scientists\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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      1. Looking to your future work, can you us a bit about your current and future research?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Currently I have a number of projects involving materials and heterogeneous catalysis based on plastic recycling, namely;<\/p>\n