Charl F. J. FAUL
Professor of Materials Chemistry &
University Enterprise Fellow
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol
Bristol, BS8 1TS, UK
Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement)
Faculty of Science & Engineering, University of Bristol
Co-Founder
Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6224-3073
ResearcherID: D-7859-2016
Linked-In Profile: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/charl-fj-faul-付强-6680474
Charl FJ Faul received his M.Sc. (Physical Chemistry) from the Department of Chemistry, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, investigating the destruction of halogenated wastes by means of high-temperature pyrolysis. He then spent one year in the city of Durban, on the east coast of South Africa, in the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Natal, investigating the use of ultrasound for water treatment (a joint project with ESKOM, the national electricity provider). He then returned to Stellenbosch and completed his Ph.D. (Polymer Science) with Prof. Ron Sanderson in 2000.
His thesis focused on the use of mesoscopically organized polyelectrolyte-surfactant complexes as templates for directed synthesis. This already brought him into contact with Prof. Dr. Markus Antonietti at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (a new window will open) in 1998. After several research stays from this time on, he joined the MPI in 2001 as post-doctoral fellow. After a few months he changed roles, and became group leader within the Colloid Chemistry Department, heading the Ionic Self-Assembly (ISA) group. He moved to the Inorganic and Materials Chemistry Section, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol in January 2005 as Lecturer. He held the position of Senior Lecturer from 2007-2012, Reader in Materials Chemistry (August 2012 – July 2015), and holds a personal chair as Professor of Materials Chemistry (since August 2015).
In August 2013 Charl took on the role of Director of Graduate Recruitment for the School of Chemistry, and was in charge of all recruitment activities (local and international, Masters and PhD level) for the School of Chemistry until July 2018 (5 years). Charl served as the Head of Inorganic and Materials and member of thee senior management team of the School of Chemistry for 5 years (August 2018 – July 2023). During this period, Charl was appointed as Faculty International Director (April 2021), where he was responsible for international partnerships, profile and activities for the whole Faculty of Science, University of Bristol. His role as Faculty International Director was expanded to cover activities for both Science and Engineering (as part of the changes to establish a new Faculty of Science and Engineering), from January 2024 until February 2025.
He has now taken on the role of Associate Pro Vice Chancellor (Global Engagement) for the Faculty of Science and Engineering, a three-year appointment (since March 2025).
Locally, he was co-PI and served on the management board of the Bristol Centre for Functional Nanomaterials (BCFN) for more than 10 years. Currently, he is member of the management board of the Technology Enhanced Chemical Synthesis Centre for Doctoral Training.
Charl also secured a University Enterprise Fellowship to pursue commercialisation of research results from his group (August 2023), with Dr Ben Baker and Prof. Darryl Hill (please see the PoreSafe website for further details) and Dr Alastair Lennox and Dr Sam Deeks (please see the Mixterial website for further details).
Charl was visiting professor in the Molecular Materials group at the Molecular Materials Group, Helsinki University of Technology, hosted by Prof. Dr. Olli Ikkala (2006 – 2010). He then held a prestigious visiting professorship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hosted by Prof. Zhixiang Wei, National Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China) in 2012. He was furthermore invited by Prof Xi Zhang (Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China) as visiting international lecturer in 2011 and 2012, and visits Tsinghua on a regular basis. Charl was appointed in October 2013 as adjunct professor at the Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University. This was a 3-year appointment, which was extended for a further 3-year period until the end of 2019. He was also visiting professor at the University of Rennes 1, Rennes, France in 2018. He was appointed to the International Editorial Board of the Wiley journal, ChemistrySelect (2015 – 2024).
True to his multicultural South African background, his group has always had a distinct international flavor (with members from China, Nigeria, UK, Mexico, India, Poland, Malta, Germany, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Thailand, Pakistan, Oman and Kazakhstan over the years!). There is a strong focus on functional materials design (of functional supramolecular polymers, electroactive conjugated microporous polymers and soft responsive polymers for implantable actuators) in the group.
See Charl’s LinkedIn page for more details.
Charl is very happily married to Jacqueline Conradie-Faul (already since 1996!), a very talented artist, art director and designer, and former Director of the Bristol International Student Centre (BISC)! He was also a significant volunteer at BISC, and has, as head chef for their big events, prepared more than 15000 meals until January 2020 (obviously with the help of many volunteers, including the Faul Research Group)! Jacqueline is now welcoming internatonal students as part of the Global Lounge team within the UoB, and as the International Chaplain at the UoB’s Multifaith Chaplaincy.
Faul Research Group 