Critical minerals, material solutions (Christchurch)

The world wants minerals, but scientists around Aotearoa are working on what we could make instead. The MacDiarmid Institute is a network of leading researchers from around the country united in a common goal: to create and explore innovative, sustainable materials that will improve the lives of people in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the word. This talk will focus on critical minerals - raw materials that are essential to many existing and future technologies and have been making headlines in recent times due to increasing supply chain vulnerabilities. In this talk, hosted in association with the Canterbury Branch of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, we will present materials science solutions that are being developed and utilised right now, in Aotearoa New Zealand, to recycle, replace or reduce our need for critical minerals. Speakers: Professor Aaron Marshall is an electrochemist in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Canterbury, and a Principal Investigator with the MacDiarmid Institute. His research focuses on advancing electrochemical technologies including flow batteries, fuel cells, water electrolysis, and carbon dioxide reduction. Aaron is also the co-founder of two start-ups, Zethos and Ternary Kinetics. Dr Brooke Matthews is an inorganic chemist working at the Paihau-Robinson Research Institute at Victoria University of Wellington and a MacDiarmid Institute alumna. She currently leads work in the Clean Materials Team on clean hydrometallurgy and Zero-Liquid-Discharge processing of waste materials for Vanadium and Tungsten extraction. Venue: DL Block Lecture Theatre, Ara Institute of Canterbury City Campus, 130 Madras Street, Christchurch