Elemental Talks - Solid Catalysts in the AI Era - Do they actually meet, or just coexist?

​Heterogeneous catalysis is one of the oldest and most industrially mature disciplines in chemistry.

​At the same time, predictive tools and data-driven approaches are reshaping how materials are discovered and designed.

​But solid catalysts are complex systems — multi-component, dynamic, and often optimized through decades of empirical work.

​In this edition of Elemental Talks, Max is joined by Hans-Jörg Wölk (Heraeus) and Matthew J. McDermott (Newfound Materials) for a grounded discussion on whether predictive approaches can truly engage with the realities of heterogeneous catalysis — or whether tradition and algorithms simply operate in parallel.

Speakers

​Hans-Jörg Wölk – Scientific Director Catalysis, Heraeus Former Director of Heterogeneous Catalysis at Solugen, with decades of experience developing and scaling solid catalyst systems for industrial applications.

Matthew J. McDermott – Founder, Newfound Materials
Materials scientist and deep-tech founder with a PhD from UC Berkeley, building predictive synthesis tools to uncover efficient and scalable routes for inorganic materials critical to energy and technology applications.

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Host

​Maximilian (Max) Moser – CTO & Co-founder, Biosimo
Chemical engineer and startup founder working on bio-based and circular chemical technologies, and host of Elemental Talks.