Alma mater University of Sussex Doctoral advisor Kenneth Seddon | Name Thomas Welton Fields Green chemistry | |
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Institutions Imperial College London Known for The study of ionic liquids Notable awards Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry Books Solvents and Solvent Effects in Organic Chemistry Education University of Sussex (1990), University of Sussex (1985) | ||
Thomas Welton OBE CChem FRSC (born 1964) is a Professor of Sustainable Chemistry at Imperial College London who became the Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences in 2015 following his resignation as head of the chemistry department in 2014. He is Fellow and a member of the Council of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Welton's research focuses on sustainable chemistry, with particular focus on ionic liquids and on solvent effects on chemical reactions.
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Welton is openly gay and is active in advocating for greater visibility for members of the LGBT community in the sciences. He is a member of the steering group for the Royal Society’s diversity programme.
Education
Welton has said that his interest in chemistry originated with his A-level chemistry class. He received his BSc (Hons) in chemistry in 1985 from the University of Sussex. and his DPhil from the same institution in 1990 under the supervision of Kenneth Seddon. He has cited the institution's positive environment for the LGBT community at the time as a positive influence.
Academic career
Welton began his career at Imperial College London as a Lloyd's of London Tercentenary Fellow in 1993. He became a lecturer in 1995 and was promoted to full professor in 2004. During his tenure he has served as the chemistry department's Director of Undergraduate Studies and served as the head of the department from 2007 to 2014. In January 2015 he became the Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. In 2013, under Welton's leadership, the department was one of four university departments in the United Kingdom awarded an Athena SWAN Gold Award in recognition of efforts to promote women in science.
Welton is a trustee of the Lloyd's Tercentenary Research Foundation. He is a Chartered Chemist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is a member of the Council of the Royal Society, a position he will hold till 2017 and additionally serves on the steering committee for the RSC's diversity programme. He has written in the popular media advocating for greater visibility in the sciences for the LGBT community and is an advocate of diversity among scientists. Welton also comments in the media on matters related to the health of the environment, such as the 2012 shortage of helium gas commonly used in research laboratories.
Welton was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to diversity and education.
Research
Welton works in the field of sustainable chemistry and has spent most of his career studying the properties of ionic liquids, their interactions with solutes, and the resulting effects on chemical reactions. His research group also works on applications for these phenomena in developing environmentally safe organic synthesis methods and in the production of biofuels.
Along with Peter Wasserscheid, Welton co-edited a book, Ionic Liquids in Synthesis, first released in 2002 with a second edition in 2008. The first edition was reviewed positively as a significant introduction to the then-newly-developing field and the second expanded edition was described as excellent and comprehensive. He also joined Christian Reichardt as an author of the fourth edition of the reference work Solvents and Solvent Effects in Organic Chemistry, reviewed as an important reference for organic chemists.
Welton's work on ionic liquids led to the invention of a method to process wood by separating its chemical component lignin from hemicellulose and cellulose, which is potentially applicable to the efficient production of biofuels.