Peter Edwards (chemist)

{{Short description|British chemist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Peter Philip Edwards

| image =

| image_size =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1949|06|30|df=y}}

| birth_place = Toxteth, Liverpool, UK

| field = Chemistry, Physics

| alma_mater = University of Salford

| work_institution = University of Oxford

| doctoral_advisor =

| known_for = Solid-State Chemistry, the Metal-Insulator Transition, utilisation of CO2

| awards = Hughes Medal (2003)
Chinese Academy of Sciences Einstein Professor (2011)
Royal Society Bakerian Medal (2012)

}}

Peter Philip Edwards FRSC FRS (born 1949, Liverpool) is a British Emeritus Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and former Head of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford.{{cite web|url = http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U14715|title = EDWARDS, Prof. Peter Philip | accessdate = 2012-07-31|date = 2012|work = Who's Who 2012 online edition|publisher = A & C Black}} Edwards is the recipient of the Corday-Morgan Medal (1985),{{cite web | url = http://www.rsc.org/ScienceAndTechnology/Awards/CordayMorganPrizes/PreviousWinners.asp | title = Corday-Morgan Medal and Prize Winners | accessdate = 2014-04-15}} the Tilden Lectureship (1993–94){{cite web | url = http://www.rsc.org/ScienceAndTechnology/Awards/TildenPrizes/PreviousWinners.asp | title = Tilden Lectureships Winners|accessdate = 2014-04-15}} and Liversidge Award (1999){{cite web | url = http://www.rsc.org/ScienceAndTechnology/Awards/LiversidgeAward/PreviousWinners.asp|title = Liversidge Award Winners|accessdate = 2014-04-15}} of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1996 and was awarded the 2003 Hughes Medal of the Royal Society {{cite web | url = https://royalsociety.org/awards/hughes-medal/ |title = Hughes Medal Winners|accessdate = 2014-04-16}} "for his distinguished work as a solid state chemist. He has made seminal contributions to fields including superconductivity and the behaviour of metal nanoparticles, and has greatly advanced our understanding of the phenomenology of the metal-insulator transition". In 2009 Edwards was elected to the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina,{{cite web | url = http://www.leopoldina.org/en/members/list-of-members/member/1368/ | title = List of Members: Prof. Dr. Peter P. Edwards | accessdate = 2014-04-15}} and he was elected Einstein Professor for 2011 by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.{{cite web | url = http://english.cas.cn/IC/AF/200909/t20090917_38980.shtml | title = Einstein Professorship Program | accessdate = 2014-04-14 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131011113704/http://english.cas.cn/IC/AF/200909/t20090917_38980.shtml | archive-date = 2013-10-11 | url-status = dead }} In 2012 he was awarded the Bakerian Lecture by the Royal Society "in recognition of decisive contributions to the physics, chemistry and materials science of condensed matter, including work on the metal-insulator transition".{{cite web | url = http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2011/110719.html | title = Royal Society award winners | accessdate = 2014-04-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140517123809/http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2011/110719.html | archive-date = 2014-05-17 | url-status = dead }} In the spring of 2012 he was elected International Member of the American Philosophical Society;{{cite web | url = http://www.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Edwards;smode=advanced;f1-subdiv=102.%20Chemistry%20and%20Chemical%20Biochemistry | title = American Philosophical Society Member History: Professor Peter P. Edwards | accessdate = 2014-04-16}} one of only four people from the UK in that year to be awarded this honour across all subjects and disciplines. Later in 2012 he was awarded the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers Materials Science Venture Prize for his work on new, low-cost, high-performance conducting oxide coatings for solar cells and optoelectronic materials.{{cite web | url = http://www.armourershall.co.uk/venture-prize-winners/ | title = Materials Science Venture Prize Winners | accessdate = 2014-04-14}} In the Autumn of 2013 he was elected Member of Academia Europaea,{{cite web | url = http://www.ae-info.org/ae/User/Edwards_Peter_Philip | title = Academia Europaea Members | accessdate = 2014-04-14}} and he was elected as a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014.{{cite web |url=https://www.amacad.org/multimedia/pdfs/classlist2014.pdf |title=Newly Elected Members |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |date=April 2014 |accessdate=2014-05-16 }}{{cite news |title=Honour for academics |work=Oxford Mail |date=2014-05-29 |page=17 }}

Together with Tiancun Xiao and John Thomas and their teams Edwards demonstrated in 2020 a new method using microwaves to initiate the catalytic decomposition of plastic waste to generate hydrogen and multiwalled carbon nanotubes.{{cite journal |last1=Lopez |first1=Gartzen |last2=Santamaria |first2=Laura |title=Microwaving plastic into hydrogen and carbons |journal=Nature Catalysis |date=2020 |volume=3 |issue=11 |pages=861–862 |doi=10.1038/s41929-020-00538-1|s2cid=226308787 }}{{cite news |last1=Whipple |first1=Tom |title=Microwaves could turn plastic waste into hydrogen fuel |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/microwaves-could-turn-plastic-waste-into-hydrogen-fuel-bdq76xhjd |access-date=5 September 2022 |work=The Times |date=17 October 2020}} This approach was subsequently developed by the spin-out company Oxford Sustainable Fuels.{{cite news |title=Oxford Sustainable Fuels to tackle plastic crisis by recycling waste into fuels |url=https://www.energymanagermagazine.co.uk/oxford-sustainable-fuels-to-tackle-plastic-crisis-by-recycling-waste-into-fuels/ |access-date=5 September 2022 |work=Energy Manager Magazine}} {{Asof|2022}} Edwards is also working with CarbonMeta Technologies to commercialise the approach.{{cite news |last1=Kelly |first1=Amelia |title=Oxford trial turns plastic waste to hydrogen fuel |url=https://resource.co/article/oxford-trial-turns-plastic-waste-hydrogen-fuel |access-date=5 September 2022 |work=Resource Magazine |date=4 July 2022}}