Details about plenary speakers

13 - 18th August 2006, Cape Town, South Africa

Kazuko Matsumoto

Her research area includes synthesis of transition-metal complexes having novel structures and oxidation states, and utilization of transition-metal complexes in biotechnology: (i) amidate-bridged Pt(Ⅱ,Ⅲ) mixed-valent zigzag chain complexes for conducting materials and Pt(Ⅲ) dinuclear complexes having Pt－Pt bonds for olefin functionalization. (ii) disulfide-bridged Ru dinuclear complexes and organometallic-like reactions on the disulfide ligand. (iii) fluorescent lanthanide chelate complexes as labels for time-resolved fluorometry in biotechnology including immunoassay, DNA hybridization assay, fluorescent bio-imaging and bio-chips.

Tobin J. Marks

Research Interests: Molecular and macromolecular electronic and photonic materials, chemical vapor deposition, oxide electronic and photonic materials, homogeneous catalysis as a route to new materials, organometallic chemistry, mind-boggling catalytic transformations, metal ion biochemistry.

Helder M Marques

His principal research interest is in bioinorganic chemistry, with particular emphasis on the chemistry of vitamin B₁₂ and its derivatives, and chemistry of iron porphyrins.  Other research interests include the chemistry of antimalarials (in collaboration with Professor Tim Egan at UCT) and the use of molecular modelling methods in inorganic chemistry.

Peter Sadler

His research interests are centred on the coordination chemistry of metals in medicine and include the design of ruthenium arene complexes and photoactivatable platinum complexes as anticancer agents, the role of metals in the recognition of membrane co-receptor proteins by antiviral macrocycles, and the structure and dynamics of metal transport proteins.

I received my early education in chemistry at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka. This was followed by PhD and postdoctoral research in organic photochemistry at the Queen's University of Belfast in Northern Ireland. After spending several years lecturing in chemistry at Colombo, I returned to Belfast where I've been lecturer, reader and professor. In both these cities and countries, I have learned to live with diversity and the conflicts it sometimes causes. On the scientific front, my co-workers and I have had the chance to publish the first experimental molecular logic gates in the primary literature and to establish the generality of one of the main principles underlying luminescent sensors. The development of molecular computation and medical diagnostics are two roads my co-workers and I are travelling.

Robert Grubbs received his Ph.D. Degree in 1968, at Columbia University, working with Ronald Breslow. After a postdoctoral period with James Collman at Stanford University, he joined the faculty at Michigan State University. In 1978, he accepted an appointment at the California Institute of Technology where he is now the Atkins Professor of Chemistry. His research has been focused on developing the fundamental organometallic chemistry required to develop new catalyst systems for applications in organic and polymer chemistry.

Omar M. Yaghi was born in Amman, Jordan (1965). He received his B.S. in chemistry from the State University of New York-Albany (1985) and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois-Urbana (1990) with Professor Walter G. Klemperer. From 1990-92, he was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University with Professor Richard H. Holm. He joined the faculty at Arizona State University in 1992. He was awarded the ACS-Exxon Solid-State Chemistry Award in 1998. In June 1999, he moved to the University of Michigan as a Professor of Chemistry. More recently, he was awarded the Robert W. Parry Collegiate Chair by the Chemistry Department at UM, and the Sacconi Medal by the Inorganic Division of the Italian Chemical Society. He has established several research programs dealing with the reticular synthesis of discrete polyhedra and extended frameworks from organic-inorganic building blocks.

Rudi van Eldik

Rudi van Eldik was born in 1945 in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and grew up in Johannesburg (South Africa). He received his chemistry education and PhD at Potchefstroom University (SA), followed by post-doctoral work with Gordon M. Harris (SUNY at Buffalo, NY) and Hartwig Kelm (University of Frankfurt, Germany). After completing his habilitation in physical chemistry at the University of Frankurt in 1982, he was appointed as Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the private University of Witten/Herdecke in 1987. In 1994 he accepted his present position as Professor of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. His research interests cover the elucidation of inorganic, organometallic and bioinorganic reaction mechanisms, with special emphasis on the application of high pressure thermodynamic and kinetic techniques. He is editor of Advances in Inorganic Chemistry and author of ca. 640 research papers and reviews in international journals (www.anorganik.uni-erlangen.de). He has developed a promotion activity for chemistry and related experimental sciences in the form of chemistry edutainment over the past ten years (www.zaubervorlesung.de).