Philip G. Jessop

Philip G. Jessop, FRSC

Professor, Inorganic Chemistry and Canada Research Chair in Green Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Queen’s University; Technical Director, GreenCentre Canada (Kingston, ON)

Dr. Philip G. Jessop is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and Canada Research Chair in Green Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry of Queen’s University. Dr. Jessop currently leads the Jessop Research Group and is the Technical Director of GreenCentre Canada. Previously, Dr. Jessop was an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Jessop received his PhD degree in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of British Columbia. After a postdoc position at the University of Toronto, he worked as a researcher for the Research Development Corporation of Japan, with Nobel Prize winner Dr. Ryoji Noyori. His research interests are focused on the development of environmentally sustainable chemical processes by reducing pollutants and wastage of energy and materials. His interests also concern the design of green solvents, the reduction of solvent wastes and the recycling of carbon dioxide. Dr. Jessop is currently one of the world’s most outstanding green chemistry scientists and his breakthrough discovery of CO2 triggered switchable surfactants was listed in the Canadian Chemical News trade journal as one of the 20 key chemical discoveries in Canada of the last 100 years. He invented the first switchable solvents, meaning solvents that can be switched from one form to another very different form, by application of a trigger.

Dr. Jessop has received the Outstanding Faculty Advisor from the University of California (1999), the Canadian Catalysis Lectureship Award (2004), the NSERC John C. Polanyi Award (2009), a Killam Research Fellowship (Killam Trusts, 2010), the Prize for Excellence in Research from Queen’s University (2010), the Canadian Green Chemistry & Engineering Award (2012), and the Eni Award for New Frontiers for Hydrocarbons (2013). Dr. Jessop was Conference Chair of the 3rd Annual IUPAC Conference on Green Chemistry in 2010 and Co-chair of the CHEMRAWN-XVII and ICCDU-IX Conference on Greenhouse Gases in 2007. He serves on the Governing Board of the Green Chemistry Institute, the Board of Directors of the Canadian Green Science & Technology Network, and the editorial board of the journal, Green Chemistry.


Role: Panel Member
Report: Competing in a Global Innovation Economy: The Current State of R&D in Canada (April 2018)