Sustainable and Circular Chemistry

The new Master Sustainable and Circular Chemistry is a chemistry research Master's programme with the objective to equip graduates with the necessary knowledge and skills needed to play an active role in the energy, resource and material transitions. To move away from our current largely fossil based material needs, to break out of the linear take-make-waste paradigm, and to lift the enormous environmental burden of our current consumption, chemists need to design, synthesize, and investigate molecules and materials that are inherently safe, circular, and sustainable. It will train and educate a new generation of chemistry researchers by giving them a strong foundation, with emphasis on synthetic chemistry, catalysis, and analytical and environmental chemistry, coupled with the ability and curiosity to look across the boundaries of science and to connect to different disciplines outside chemistry. The programme adopts a systems-thinking approach to the sustainability transition, reaching out across disciplines using chemistry as a bridging and key enabling science. The core theme is sustainable chemistry, i.e. an integrated combination of chemical reactions and processes that does no longer rely on fossil feedstocks, involves clean and resource-efficient production processes that yield materials that are safe and circular by design.