Shanna Swart represents CeBER at NCCC XIX and Syngas Convention 2018

Shanna Swart, a CeBER PhD student, received a CATSA Student Travel Grant for attendance at the 19th Netherlands’ Catalysis & Chemistry Conference (NCCC XIX) held from the 5th – 7th of March 2018 in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands. Shanna presented a poster entitled ‘Cell-free bioconversion of n-octane to n-octanol via a heterogeneous and bio-catalytic approach’. One of the highlights of the conference was an outstanding lecture by the 2016 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry, Professor Ben Feringa who gave a talk on ‘Exploring catalytic space with metal-based systems’. The four parallel sessions covered a board range of catalysis topics including: Renewables, Co-ordination chemistry, Homogeneous, Heterogenous, Bio-catalysis and many more. The multi-topic lectures at the NCCC and cross-discipline nature provided an ideal forum for students, industry personnel and academics to network, engage and breakdown the barriers that exist between the various aspects of catalysis. This was further complimented by the Career Development & Opportunities (CDO) session which provided an opportunity for PhD students and Postdocs to gain more insight into their career opportunities and for companies to present themselves as potential employers.
Shanna also presented a poster and was placed second at the third Syngas Convention held from 25 to 28 March 2018 in Cape Town. The conference featured 4 plenary, 6 keynote, 38 oral and over 30 poster presentations of which more than 55% were international delegates. Various aspects of synthesis gas were covered including generation and clean-up, conversion and downstream processing of olefins and paraffins for the production of fuels and chemicals-very relevant in both a South African context and worldwide. Bio-catalysis played a niche role within the convention and CeBER was well represented by both Shanna and Dr. Thanos Kotsiopoulos.