Richard Robson | |
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Born | |
Alma mater | University of Oxford (BA, 1959) (DPhil, 1962) |
Known for | Coordination Polymers |
Awards | Burrows Award, Inorganic Division of RACI Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Inorganic Chemistry |
Institutions | University of Melbourne |
Website | https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/15996-richard-robson |
Richard Robson FAA FRS (born 4 June 1937) is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne. [1] Robson has published over 200 articles, specialising in coordination polymers, particularly metal-organic frameworks. [2] He has been described as "a pioneer in crystal engineering involving transition metals". [3] [4]
Robson was born in Glusburn in West Yorkshire in the UK, and read chemistry at the University of Oxford (BA 1959, DPhil 1962). He undertook postdoctoral research at California Institute of Technology 1962-64 and at Stanford University 1964-65, before receiving a Lectureship in chemistry at the University of Melbourne 1966-70 where he remained for the duration of his career.
Richard Robson's groundbreaking research is in the field of coordination polymers, particularly in the infinite polymeric framework, [2] later termed as Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) [5] . His journey into this field began in 1974 when he was tasked with building large wooden models of crystalline structures for first-year chemistry lectures. In the 1990s, Robson created a new class of coordination polymers that would inspire an entirely new field of chemistry. [6] His approach involved using copper in the oxidation state known as copper I, which has a preference for tetrahedral geometry, and mixing it with a specially designed tetranitrile organic compound. [6] This method resulted in the creation of crystal-like scaffolds with a diamond-like structure but with significant space within the framework. [6]
Professor Robson is a recipient of the prestigious Burrows Award, Inorganic Division of The Royal Australian Chemical Institute 1998 and was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science 2000. [7] In 2022 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. [8]
Hans Charles Freeman AM, FAA was a German-born Australian bioinorganic chemist, protein crystallographer, and professor of inorganic chemistry who spent most of his academic career at the University of Sydney. His best known contributions to chemistry were his work explaining the unusual structural, electrochemical, and spectroscopic properties of blue copper proteins, particularly plastocyanin. He also introduced protein crystallography to Australia and was a strong advocate for courses to ensure Australian scientists have good access to "big science" facilities. Freeman has received numerous honours, including being elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) and appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) by the Australian Government. He was a charismatic lecturer who voluntarily continued teaching well into his formal retirement and imbued his students with a love of science.
Tobin Jay Marks is an inorganic chemistry Professor, the Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry, Professor of Material Science and Engineering, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Professor of Applied Physics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Among the themes of his research are synthetic organo-f-element and early-transition metal organometallic chemistry, polymer chemistry, materials chemistry, homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, molecule-based photonic materials, superconductivity, metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, and biological aspects of transition metal chemistry.
Pierre Braunstein is a French chemist. He was director of the Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination of Strasbourg (France) and is a member of the French Academy of Science.
John Stuart Anderson FRS, FAA, was a British and Australian scientist who was Professor of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne and Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oxford.
Christopher David Garner FRSC FRS is a British retired chemist, whose research work was in the growing field of Biological Inorganic Chemistry. His research primarily focussed on the role of transition metal elements in biological processes, for which he published over 400 original papers and reviews on the topic. His specific interests lie in the roles of Molybdenum and Tungsten as the metal centres in various enzyme cofactors based on the molybdopterin molecule.
Francis Patrick John Dwyer FAA was Professor of Chemistry, Australian National University, Canberra. He was one of the most distinguished scientists Australia has produced. At the time of his death in 1962 he was widely recognised as a leading authority in inorganic chemistry, and had laid the foundation in Australia for a new field of research bridging science and medicine—biological inorganic chemistry. His influence as a teacher and as a researcher was widespread.
Omar M. Yaghi is the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, an affiliate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Founding Director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute, and an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences as well as the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
Jing Li is a Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University, New Jersey, United States. She and her team are engaged in solid-state, inorganic and inorganic-organic hybrid materials research. Her current research focuses on designing and developing new functional materials including metal-organic frameworks and hybrid semiconductors for applications in the field of renewable and sustainable energy, and clean environment.
Sir Anthony Kevin Cheetham is a British materials scientist. From 2012 to 2017 he was Vice-President and Treasurer of the Royal Society.
Andrew Bruce Holmes is an Australian and British senior research chemist and professor at the Bio21 Institute, Melbourne, Australia, and the past President of the Australian Academy of Science. His research interests lie in the synthesis of biologically-active natural products and optoelectronic polymers.
Ram Charan Mehrotra was an Indian analytical and organometallic chemist, academic, educationist and the vice chancellor of the Universities of Delhi and Allahabad. He was known for his studies on the chemical theory of indicators, alkoxides and carboxylates of many elements. He was an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Chemical Society, Chemical Society of London, Royal Institute of Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences, India and Indian Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1965, for his contributions to chemical sciences.
Samaresh Mitra is an Indian bioinorganic chemist and an INSA Senior Scientist at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB). He is known for his research on inorganic paramagnetic complexes and low-symmetry transition metal complexes. He is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the National Academy of Sciences, India and the Indian Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1983, for his contributions to chemical sciences.
T. Don Tilley is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.
Susumu KitagawaForMemRS is a Japanese chemist working in the field of coordination chemistry, with specific focus on the chemistry of organic–inorganic hybrid compounds, as well as chemical and physical properties of porous coordination polymers and metal-organic frameworks in particular. He is currently distinguished professor at Kyoto University's institute for integrated cell-material sciences (iCeMS), of which he is co-founder and current director.
Kumar Biradha is a researcher in the field of crystal engineering. He was born on 15 June 1968 in Relangi, Andhra Pradesh. He is a professor at the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and a member of Editorial Advisory board of Crystal Growth & Design, an American Chemical Society Journal.
Jeffrey Robert Long is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley known for his work in metal−organic frameworks and molecular magnetism. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019 and is the 2019 F. Albert Cotton Award recipient. His research interests include: the synthesis of inorganic clusters and porous materials, investigating the electronic and magnetic properties of inorganic materials; metal-organic frameworks, and gas storage/capture.
David Collison is a British chemist and a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The University of Manchester. His research in general is based on inorganic chemistry and magnetochemistry, specifically on coordination chemistry, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and f-block chemistry.
Deanna Michelle D'Alessandro is an Australian chemist who is a Professor and Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the University of Sydney. Her research considers fundamental aspects of electron transfer in molecular coordination complexes and in nanoporous materials, and the development of metal–organic frameworks for environmental applications including carbon dioxide capture and conversion.
Alexandra Martha Zoya Slawin is a British chemist and Professor at the University of St Andrews. Her research looks to understand the structure of supramolecular systems. She is generally considered as one of the world's leading crystallographers. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2011.
Metal–organic nanotubes (MONTs) are a class of crystalline coordination polymers consisting of organic ligands bonded to a metal or metal cluster that form single-walled one-dimensional porous structures. The usage of organic ligands allows the properties of the resulting material to be tuned, as in the parent class of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), but like carbon nanotubes, MONTs are anisotropic structures.