"Being here brings back memories,” says Angelo Amorelli as he looks round a large lecture theatre in the Department of Chemistry. “Thirty-six years ago, I was sitting here myself. The presentation tools today are different – computers rather than chalk boards – but the content and intellectual stimulation never goes away.”

Dr Amorelli is now Technology Vice-President of Group Research at BP and enjoys the fact that this role brings him back to Cambridge regularly because of BP’s research collaborations with the university. In September, as every year, he came along to the department with a group of his colleagues for BP Day. This offers an opportunity for executives from the company to hear from PhD students about their research, and for students and academics to attend the BP Keynote Lecture, given this year by leading Chinese academic Professor Yuhan Sun. 

"I wanted to specialize in Astrophysics - until Chemistry seduced me."

“For a company like ours, it’s great to engage with academics and students working on the latest types of research,” Dr Amorelli says. “Some of these projects are funded by us. Others may not be, but they stimulate ideas for us to pursue in the future. That’s an exciting aspect of participating in a day like this.”

Dr Amorelli came to Cambridge as an undergraduate in 1981 to study Natural Sciences and ended up falling in love with Chemistry. “I originally wanted to specialize in Astrophysics, but after taking different courses, Chemistry seduced me. In my final year, Professor John Meurig Thomas was lecturing on catalysis and that really excited me. That’s ultimately what led me into joining BP: I went into a refining process group where I could practise catalysis at large scale.”

And he has stayed at BP ever since – “Yes, I’m a lifer!” – taking the opportunities to work in a variety of areas and countries. “I was always in love with science and felt my career would be framed by working in technology. But at BP, my journey has been quite varied. Though I’m a chemist by discipline, I’ve also worked as a process engineer at an oil refinery, as an economist in corporate strategy and planning, and in business development. And I have gone back to technology: I spent a long time in renewables (solar, wind, biofuels and hydrogen) and helped create BP’s alternative energy business.”

Such activities have taken him around the world. Dr Amorelli spent time in India and China as part of his work. “I lived in China for four years, working with academics (including Prof Sun) and our businesses in that country,” he explains. “China has huge energy challenges to sustain its economic development so that was a really stimulating period of my career.”

BP Day in the department also gives the company an opportunity to recruit students for roles at the company going forward. And Dr Amorelli has some advice for anyone pursuing that path: “My career has given me a lot of interesting opportunities. I’d advise any entrants into BP to pursue jobs that they find stimulating and are going to enjoy doing because that is how you are going to do well.” 

Angelo Amorelli (left) with Head of Department John Pyle at BP Day in October 2017. Image courtesy of Department of Chemistry photography.