Chem4Energy 2026

Chem4Energy Annual Conference 

Monday 23 – Thursday 26 March 2026 

Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa

Chem4Energy 2026 – A Special Tribute

Deeply saddened by the unexpected passing of Professor Cornie van Sittert – a dear friend and colleague who played a pivotal role in establishing the Chem4Energy conference series – the 2026 meeting will be dedicated to her memory and will include a special session to celebrate her work and contributions to the scientific community.

The Chem4Energy community has grown out of a number of collaborative UK-Africa consortium programmes and 2026 will see the fifth in this series of annual meetings, which focus in particular on:

• Highlighting the synergy between experiment and computation
• Offering opportunities for early career researchers to disseminate their work in oral and poster presentations - often their first conference talk!
• Allowing plenty of opportunity for discussion of the research presentations 

The Chem4Energy conferences aim to bring together local academic and industrial researchers and developers from South Africa with colleagues from Europe, the USA and further afield, to discuss the latest developments in sustainable energy materials and processes, build new collaborations, and influence and support future directions in the field of sustainable energy research.  

Although contributions in all areas within the Chem4Energy remit are welcome, core themes of the 2026 meeting include:

• Homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis for clean energy production 
• CO2 capture and utilisation
• Materials for solar energy devices
• Nuclear energy
• Hydrogen production, storage and transport
• High-performance computing in energy research

Special Memorial Session

Chem4Energy 2026 will be dedicated to the memory of our esteemed colleague Professor Cornie van Sittert.  A special session to remember and celebrate her work and service to the scientific community will take place on Monday afternoon, 23rd March. For those who wish to give a short presentation or share some words during this tribute, please submit an abstract.

Organising committee:

• Professor Nora de Leeuw – University of Leeds, UK 
• Dr Marietjie Ungerer – University of Leeds, UK
• North-West University, South Africa