Invited Talk by Franck Dumeignil on Biorefineries (October 1)

On October 1, Franck Dumeignil, Full Professor at the University of Lille (France), will give an invited talk at BCMaterials entitled 'An Overview of Biorefineries'. The lecture will take place in the auditorium of the Martina Casiano building, home to BCMaterials, on the University of the Basque Country's science campus in Leioa, starting at 15:00.

The lecture will introduce the concept of biorefineries as a sustainable and practical response to the depletion of fossil resources and the environmental challenges facing modern society. Beyond theoretical principles, it will emphasize industrial realities, showcasing real-world examples and current practices that often reveal complexities and opportunities overlooked by purely academic approaches. Particular attention will be paid to heterogeneous catalysis, a key technology for converting biomass into valuable chemicals, materials and fuels. Attendees will gain both fundamental knowledge and insight into advanced catalytic applications within the biorefinery framework.

About the Speaker

Franck Dumeignil, FRSC, is Full Professor at the University of Lille and a member of the Unit of Catalysis and Solid State Chemistry (UCCS, CNRS UMR 8181). Since 2022, he has been Vice-President of the University of Lille for Valorization and Science-Society Relations. He also coordinates PUI-Lille, the University Innovation Hub, funded with €4 million for 2024-2028. His scientific activities focus on heterogeneous and hybrid catalysis, sustainable chemistry, biomass valorization and biorefineries. He is also interested in high-throughput experimentation, advanced catalyst characterization, and the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for catalyst design and discovery. After his PhD at Lille in 1998, he spent more than six years in Japan, first at the National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research in Tsukuba and then at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, where he also held a faculty position. He returned to Lille in 2006 as Full Professor. He was Deputy Director of UCCS from 2010 to 2016 and Director from 2016 to 2021.