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Dan Carter, MChem (Hons) from the University of Wales, Swansea and a PhD from the University of Nottingham researching catalysis in supercritical fluids; joined Johnson Matthey Chemicals in 2003 as a development chemist.
'From day one I was given the opportunity to run projects developing novel catalysts for the chemicals and petroleum refining industries. Success in these projects led to the scale up and commercialisation of a number of catalysts, allowing me to work with our production staff manufacturing catalysts on a commercial scale.
In a change to my core skills in chemistry, I also had the chance to lead a project assessing and optimising Johnson Matthey’s heterogeneous catalyst production methods. This was a more engineering based assignment and involved the testing of new equipment and research into spray coating technologies; it was both fun and challenging to learn new skills and apply them to real world problems.
Two and a half years on, I left the familiar surroundings of the chemistry lab and joined the Precious Metals Marketing business as part of the Market Research team. Our remit is forecasting the global supply and demand of platinum group metals, done through a combination of talking to internal Johnson Matthey sales contacts, visits to customers and competitors, and attending conferences and trade fairs. Johnson Matthey uses the information we produce for strategic planning purposes and to promote the company as the knowledge leader in precious metals. My responsibilities originally included forecasting demand for platinum group metals in the chemicals, dental and petroleum refining industries but have since evolved to include analysing the electronics and fuel cell markets.
Travel is a big part of the job with regular visits to Europe and the Far East; it’s always interesting to visit new countries and experience their cultures, and the food can make for some interesting stories when you get home!'
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