Donor Day 2024

The Master and Fellows of St John’s College are delighted to invite you to this year’s Donor Day on Sunday 19 May. We look forward to thanking you in person for the support you’ve given since the start of the 2022/23 academic year.

Programme

12pm: Welcome drinks in the Central Hall of the Old Divinity School

1pm: Lunch in Hall

3.30pm: Choose from three different options. Please note that places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Option 1: ‘Capturing Sunlight for a Sustainable Future’ by Professor Erwin Reisner in the Main Lecture Theatre of the Old Divinity School (details below)

Option 2: SOLD OUT Tour of the Gardens by Head Gardener David Austrin

Option 3: SOLD OUT Tour of the College Portraits with Emeritus Professor Patrick Boyde

4.30pm: Afternoon Tea on the Backs (with weather contingency plan in place)

5.30pm: Event closes

(optional) 5.30pm: Pop in to visit the new Buttery, Bar and Café in Second Court

(optional) 6.30pm: Evensong in the Chapel

Please note booking for this event is now closed.

Do contact Donor Relations Officer, Kathryn-Anne Masters on k.masters@joh.cam.ac.uk for any questions you might have.

Afternoon session

3.30–4.30pm
‘Capturing Sunlight for a Sustainable Future’ with Professor Erwin Reisner
Erwin Reisner is the Professor of Energy and Sustainability in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St. John’s College. He is an expert in renewable energy and sustainable chemistry, in particular the sunlight-powered production of sustainable fuels and platform chemicals. His cross-disciplinary research into solar chemical synthesis technologies focuses on the capture and utilisation of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide as well as the valorisation of plastics and biomass waste to produce green fuels and chemicals for a circular economy.

Erwin and his team have developed strategies for the integration of synthetic and biological catalysts with semiconductor and photovoltaic light absorbers. The assembly of such ‘hybrid materials’ and ‘semi-artificial photosynthesis’ systems has led to the construction of autonomous solar-powered reactors for solar fuel production, where his team demonstrated the conversion of carbon dioxide into fuels, such as carbon monoxide, formic acid, multi-carbon alcohols or acetate, while co-producing oxygen from water through artificial photosynthesis. Erwin’s laboratory has also shown the assembly of solar technologies for the upcycling of solid lignocellulosic biomass and plastic waste to platform chemicals and fuels through ‘solar reforming’ and has demonstrated the potential of sustainable carbon photocatalysts for solar fuel and organic synthesis.

3.30-4.30pm
Tour of the Gardens SOLD OUT
Head Gardener, David Austrin, will lead an hour long walking tour of the gardens of St John’s.

3.30-4.30pm
Tour of the College Portraits SOLD OUT
Join Professor Patrick Boyde, Emeritus Professor of Italian and Fellow of St John’s, as he tours the College Portraits.