Dr. Tristram Chivers, Faculty Professor and Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry, University of Calgary

OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP IN ALBERTA SCIENCE
Internationally Renowned Chemist sees Long-Term Results

“Had I not come to Alberta I wouldn’t have researched sulphur chemistry at all,” says Dr. Tristram Chivers, faculty professor and professor emeritus in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Calgary.

That would have been a missed opportunity for Alberta’s sour gas and petrochemical industries and for the main group chemistry world.

Dr. Chivers has been described as the “godfather” of main group chemistry, the chemistry of common elements such as phosphorus and sulphur. He is widely considered to be Canada’s most distinguished researcher and one of the world’s elite in this broad area of research. He has made significant contributions to applications of this branch of chemistry to Alberta’s sour gas and petrochemical industries. And much of his ongoing work is still in the development stage.

“As a chemist, my goals are long term. What one does today doesn’t necessarily have immediate impact,“ Dr. Chivers explains. “I make new compounds that are precursors to useful materials.  You have to appreciate the timescale from the fundamental discovery to application could be 10 to 15 years.”

As an example, he describes a discovery he made in the 1980s – a process to convert hydrogen sulphide from sour gas directly to sulphur and hydrogen, a useful commodity. The current industrial process produces sulphur and water.  Dr. Chivers points out that in spite of considerable interest, the new process has yet to be developed on an industrial level because of economic considerations.