Thomas Welton (born January 1964) is a professor of sustainable chemistry at

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

. He served as head of the department of chemistry from 2007 to 2014 and as dean of the faculty of natural sciences from 2015 to 2019. He is a Fellow and the former president of the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...

(2020 to 2022). He is their current Ambassador for Sustainable Chemicals Policy (2023-date). Welton's research focuses on sustainable chemistry, with particular focus on

ionic liquid An ionic liquid (IL) is a salt (chemistry), salt in the liquid state at ambient conditions. In some contexts, the term has been restricted to salts whose melting point is below a specific temperature, such as . While ordinary liquids such as wate ...

s and on

solvent effects In chemistry, solvent effects are the influence of a solvent on chemical reactivity or molecular associations. Solvents can have an effect on solubility, stability and reaction rates and choosing the appropriate solvent allows for thermodynami ...

chemical reactions A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. When chemical reactions occur, the atoms are rearranged and the reaction is accompanied by an energy change as new products ...

. Welton is

openly gay Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

and is active in advocating for greater visibility for members of the

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

community in the sciences. He is a Former member of the

UKRI UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom that directs research and innovation funding, funded through the science budget of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. ...

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion External Advisory Group (2018-2021).

Education

Welton grew up on a North London council estate and was the first in his family to attend university. Welton has said that his interest in chemistry originated with his

A-level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

chemistry class. As a child he wanted to fly for the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

. He received his BSc (Hons) in chemistry in 1985 from the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

, and his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the same institution in 1990 under the supervision of Kenneth Seddon. He was inspired by the

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...

Harry Kroto. He has cited the institution's positive environment for the LGBT community at the time as a positive influence.

Career and research

Welton began his career at Imperial College London as a

Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is a insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gover ...

Tercentenary Fellow in 1993. He became a

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

in 1995 and was promoted to

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

in 2004. During his tenure he has served as the department of chemistry's director of undergraduate studies and served as the head of the department of chemistry from 2007 to 2014. He also served as dean of the faculty of natural sciences from January 2015 until his term ended in December 2019. Welton is a former trustee of the Lloyd's Tercentenary Research Foundation (2012-2022). From 2013 to 2022 he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Society of Chemistry and additionally served on the steering committee for the RSC's diversity programme. Between 2015 and 2018 Welton served as chair of the Memberships and Qualifications Board. He was appointed chair of the Professional Standards Board in 2018. He succeeded Professor Dame Carol Robinson as president of the RSC in July 2020 and was succeeded by Professor Gill Reid in July 2022.

Research

Welton works in the field of sustainable chemistry, and has spent most of his career studying the properties of

s, their interactions with

solutes In chemistry, a solution is defined by IUPAC as "A liquid or solid phase containing more than one substance, when for convenience one (or more) substance, which is called the solvent, is treated differently from the other substances, which are ...

, and the resulting

effects Effect may refer to: * A result or change of something ** List of effects ** Cause and effect, an idiom describing causality Pharmacy and pharmacology * Drug effect, a change resulting from the administration of a drug ** Therapeutic effect, ...

chemical reaction A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemistry, chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. When chemical reactions occur, the atoms are rearranged and the reaction is accompanied by an Gibbs free energy, ...

s. He was the world's first Professor of Sustainable Chemistry. His research group also works on applications for these phenomena in developing environmentally safe

organic synthesis Organic synthesis is a branch of chemical synthesis concerned with the construction of organic compounds. Organic compounds are molecules consisting of combinations of covalently-linked hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen atoms. Within the gen ...

methods and in the production of

biofuel Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from Biomass (energy), biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricu ...

s. Ionic liquids became commercially available in 1999, meaning that you 'no longer had to be an expert in the synthesis of ionic liquids to be able to use these in your research'. His 1999 review, ''Room-Temperature Ionic Liquids. Solvents for Synthesis and Catalysis'', has been cited over 13,000 times. He is best known for quantifying the effects of ionic liquids on reactions, providing a mechanistic understanding of ionic liquids and establishing how they can be used in organic synthesis. He was also instrumental in linking the fundamental physical properties of ionic liquids to their chemical behaviours. 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 joine
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 Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

by separating its chemical component

lignin Lignin is a class of complex organic polymers that form key structural materials in the support tissues of most plants. Lignins are particularly important in the formation of cell walls, especially in wood and bark, because they lend rigidit ...

from

hemicellulose A hemicellulose (also known as polyose) is one of a number of heteropolymers (matrix polysaccharides), such as arabinoxylans, present along with cellulose in almost all embryophyte, terrestrial plant cell walls. Cellulose is crystalline, strong, an ...

and

cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the chemical formula, formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of glycosidic bond, β(1→4) linked glucose, D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important s ...

, which is potentially applicable to the efficient production of

biofuels Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricultural, domestic ...

. Welton also comments in the media on matters related to the health of the environment, such as the 2012

shortage In economics, a shortage or excess demand is a situation in which the demand for a product or service exceeds its supply in a market. It is the opposite of an excess supply ( surplus). Definitions In a perfect market (one that matches ...

helium Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...

gas commonly used in research laboratories.

Diversity and inclusion

Welton is an advocate for diversity in academic science. In 2013, under Welton's leadership, the Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London was one of four university departments in the United Kingdom to be awarded an

Athena SWAN Athena SWAN (Scientific Women's Academic Network) is an equality charter mark framework and accreditation scheme established and managed by the UK Equality Challenge Unit (now part of Advance HE) in 2005 that recognises and celebrates good pra ...

Gold Award in recognition of efforts to promote women in science. He supports academic institutions around the world in their efforts to improve diversity and equality. In January 2017 Welton toured Australia to share good practise in supporting academic women. In 2014, together with Alison Rodger, Welton established the Irène Joliot-Curie conference that looked to develop the careers for women and underrepresented groups in science. The conference included talks from leading women in chemistry, and is now run annually by the

. Welton was appointed to the

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion External Advisory Group. He was awarded an OBE for his services to diversity in education. He has written in the popular media advocating for greater visibility in the sciences for the

community. Additionally, Welton is a L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science male laureate of change, "''The time for men to realise that gender parity benefits everyone is long overdue"''. He is currently chair of the board of trustees of the Daphne Jackson Trust (2021-date) and a member of the Elsevier Advisory Board for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

Awards and honours

His awards and honours include: * 2017 Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) * 2017 Fellow of the City and Guilds Institute * 2016

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

Daniel Lecturer * 2015

175 Faces of Chemistry * 2012 RSC/UCL Thomas Graham Lecturer * 2012 Imperial College Rector's Award for Excellence in Teaching * 2011 DFG Paul Walden Lecturer * 2010 Honorary Member of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia * 2007 RSC Sir Christopher Ingold Lecturer * 2007 Fellow of the

* 2001

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

New Voice in Chemistry * 1993

Tercentenary Fellowship

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welton, Thomas 1964 births Living people Alumni of the University of Sussex Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry Academics of Imperial College London British LGBTQ scientists Officers of the Order of the British Empire British chemists Gay academics