George Tierney

George Tierney obtained his BSc (Honors) degree in chemistry in 2015 from Cardiff University, UK. After this, he started an MSc in Catalysis again at Cardiff University, finishing in 2016. George started his PhD in 2017 in the group of Dr. Peter P. Wells at the University of Southampton. Here he studied the initial nucleation and growth processes of colloidal Au nanoparticles using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) amongst other techniques.  Meanwhile, he worked on Pd based catalysts for hydrogenation of furfural in collaboration with Dr. Alberto Villa at Università degli Studi di Milano, where he spent time as a visiting researcher. In addition to his research, George completed a 3-month microscopy internship at Johnson Matthey PLC in Sonning Common, UK. After completing his PhD studies, George moved to the Netherlands in 2022 to work as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Materials Chemistry and Catalysis group at Universiteit Utrecht, under the supervision of Prof. dr. Petra E. de Jongh. Here, he worked on catalysts for hydroconversion of biomass derived alkanes for alternative fuel sources, as well as acting as a point of contact in the group for synchrotron related work. In 2024, George joined the group of Prof. dr. Atushi Urakwa as a postdoctoral researcher investigating carbon capture and reduction (CCR) catalysts with Toyota.