I am a Physical Organic Chemist who investigates organic and organometallic reactive intermediates in the gas phase and solution, seeking structure-activity relationships, with the help of kinetic, spectroscopic, and thermochemical methods. Computational chemistry is integrated into our work. We take the mechanistic models and validate them by rational design of homogeneous catalysts with novel reactivity or selectivity.

Awards and Achievements

  • NSF Predoctoral Fellow ( 1982-1985)
  • Pfizer Fellow (Yale) ( 1982-1986)
  • Wolfgang Prize (Yale) ( 1987)
  • Shell Faculty Fellow ( 1987-1990)
  • Camille and Henry Dreyfus Distinguished New Faculty Fellow ( 1988)
  • NSF Presidential Young Investigator ( 1988-1993)
  • David and Lucile Packard Fellow ( 1988-1993)
  • Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar ( 1990)
  • Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow ( 1991-1993)
  • Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (ACS) ( 1993)
  • John L. Pratt Lectureship, University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA, USA ( 1999)
  • Charles M. Knight Lectureship, University of Akron, Akron OH, USA ( 2000)
  • David Ginsburg Memorial Lectureship, Technion, Haifa, Israel ( 2001)
  • Jerome A. Berson Lectureship, Yale University, New Haven CT, USA ( 2002)
  • SFB Visiting Professorship, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany ( 2004)
  • Goldene Eule (teaching prize at the ETH) ( 2005)
  • Stanley Cristol Lectureship, University of Colorado, Boulder CO, USA ( 2006)
  • Paul G. Gassman Lectureship, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN, USA ( 2006)
  • Karl Ziegler Lectureship, Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim, DE ( 2011)
  • Schulich Visiting Professor Lectureship, Technion, Haifa, Israel ( 2014)
  • H.C. Brown Lectureship, Purdue University, West Lafayette IN, USA ( 2015)
  • Saul Patai Medal, European Symposium for Organic Chemistry, Lisbon, PT ( 2015)