Chemistry Student Wins Trinity Heat of Idea to Product Competition

Posted on: 21 September 2011

A postgraduate student in the School of Chemistry, Anne Marie O’Toole, recently beat off competition from seven other entrants to take first prize in the Trinity heats of the Idea to Product (I2P) competition for her project ‘Trapping, Storage and Activation of CO2.  The win will see Anne Marie go on to represent TCD at the Idea to Product (I2P) Global Competition which will take place in Stockholm in November 2011.  

The winning project focuses on investigating the development of innovative artificial photochemical technologies, which can economically capture carbon dioxide and transform it into fuels and useful chemicals.  If successfully implemented it could revolutionise the global approach to energy consumption and CO2 sequestering.  The research was supervised by lecturer at TCD’s School of Chemistry Dr Wolfgang Schmitt and is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Postgraduate student at the School of Chemistry, Anne Marie O’Toole.

The I2P competition is a global competition that aims to create a competitive forum in which to enhance cross-disciplinary studies in entrepreneurship, research, technology and emerging markets while also bringing together students, faculty and the professional technology entrepreneurship community from Europe, Asia and America.  The I2P Global Competition was developed by the Murchison Chair of Free Enterprise at the University of Texas at Austin.  Trinity College Dublin has participated in the competition since 2005.