The Eminent visitor is Prof Paul Chirik, who currently holds the position of Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry at the Princeton University, United States of America and the current editor-in-chief of Organometallics journal.
In summary, Prof Chirik obtained his PhD in 2000 under the supervision of Prof John Bercaw, studying the mechanism of metallocene-catalyzed olefin polymerization and hydrometallation at California Institute of Technology, USA. Prof Chirik’s current research areas is in the sustainable and environmentally –friendly catalysis with earth abundant elements.
He was appointed Editor-in-Chief of Organometallics journal in 2015 and has received numerous accolades including the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, and Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award among others.
Prof Chirik has co-authored over 250 research articles in reputable journals such as Nature, Journal of American Chemical Society, Inorganic Chemistry, Angewandte, ACS Catalysis, Organometallics among others, with over 10 000 citations and an h-index of 55. He has supervised over 30 PhD candidates and 200 postdoctoral associated.
His research areas in sustainable catalysis using earth abundant elements and renewable resources (for instance, 2019 Nature paper, A fresh approach to ammonia syntheses) is thus in line with the theme of the conference and in general to the current focus on managing global warming and climate change.