The Members of the PMR Editorial Board

R. Grant Cawthorn is the Platinum Industry’s Professor of Igneous Petrology at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. His main research interests are the genesis of the Bushveld Complex and its chromite, platinum and vanadiferous magnetite deposits, and the Insizwa intrusion and its copper and nickel deposits. His main fields of specialisation are the origin of mafic igneous intrusive rocks and their mineral deposits.

He holds a BSc from the University of Durham and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh.

Thomas J. Colacot is a Research and Development Manager in Homogeneous Catalysis (Global) of Johnson Matthey’s Catalysis and Chiral Technologies business unit. He has been leading the homogeneous catalysis and organometallics effort at Johnson Matthey since 1995, providing technical solutions to global pharmaceutical and fine chemical organisations. He has successfully commercialised several new products from gram to multi-kilogram scale and transferred the process to the US, UK and India. Dr Colacot has expertise in making cross-coupling technology viable for applications in drug synthesis, OLED and liquid crystals, and has played a significant role in taking cross-coupling to the next level for industries to practice via new generation practical catalysts.

Dr Colacot holds a PhD in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (1989) and an MBA from Penn State University, USA (2004). He did post doctoral and teaching work at University of Alabama at Birmingham (1989-1992) in main group organometallics, was an Assistant Professor at Florida A&M University (1992), and a Research Associate at Southern Methodist University in the area of Ziegler-Natta Catalysis on an ATP/AMOCO program with Professor Hosmane (1992-1995). He occasionally teaches a graduate course on “Industrial Applications of Organometallic Chemistry” at Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey, USA, where he is a visiting Faculty member.

He is a coauthor of around 80 articles which include reviews, peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and patents. He has given over 250 presentations, including plenary or invited talks, at national and international conferences, universities and chemical and pharmaceutical companies. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, former Chair of the South Jersey ACS Program, a Life Member of the Alabama Academy of Sciences, an external PhD thesis examiner to several Indian Institutes of Technologies and to the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India, and a regular peer reviewer for many of the major chemistry Journals. In 2012 he was awarded the RSC’s Applied Catalysis Award for exceptional contributions to the development and availability of ligands and catalysts crucial for the advancement of metal-catalysed synthetic organic chemistry.

Bob Crabtree is Professor of Chemistry at Yale University, USA Professor Crabtree has worked in: asymmetric synthesis using Ir hydrogenation catalysts, alkane CH activation, the development of dihydrogen complexes, CF activation systems, N-heterocyclic carbenes and has researched into activity in bioinorganic chemistry. He is currently involved in designing and synthesising new homogeneous catalysts, especially chelating carbenes and their metal complexes. He is the winner of the Johnson Matthey Rhodium Bicentenary Competition.

Professor Crabtree holds a B.A. from the University of Oxford and a PhD from the University of Sussex.

Paul Dyson is a Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Laboratory of Organometallic and Medicinal Chemistry at the Institut de Chimie Minérale et Analytique EPFL–BCH, Lausanne, Switzerland. He is interested in synthetic chemistry, especially in the synthesis of molecular catalysts that operate under biphasic conditions. Analytical chemistry, theoretical chemistry and mechanistic studies underpin his work. The main areas he is currently involved in are biphasic catalysis in water and ionic liquids; the design of ruthenium anticancer compounds; and transition metal clusters for novel synthesis and catalysis. Professor Dyson received his PhD in 1993 (Prof. B. F. G. Johnson) at the University of Edinburgh, with a thesis on the synthesis of ruthenium clusters that modelled bulk metal surfaces. After post-doctoral work in this group he joined Imperial College, London, and, influenced by the strong tradition in catalysis at Imperial, moved his research interests in that direction. In 1995 he obtained a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. In 1998 he moved to the University of York. He joined the EPFL in 2002.

Simon Fricker is currently a Distinguished Scientific Fellow at Genzyme Corp, USA. He was formerly a Principal Scientist in the Biomedical Technology Group of Johnson Matthey, UK (1983–1996); and subsequently Director, Biology at AnorMED, Canada (1996–2006). His research interests include metal-based drugs, and chemokine receptor biology.

Dr Fricker carried out postdoctoral research at the MRC Biochemical Parasitology Unit, Molteno Institute, University of Cambridge, and the Department of Biochemistry, University of Southampton. He obtained his PhD from the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, University of Warwick, UK, in 1981, where he conducted graduate work on the effect of cytotoxic anticancer drugs on the DNA metabolism and proliferation of lymphoblasts. He received a BSc (Hons) in Physiology and Biochemistry from the University of Southampton (1976) and an M.Sc. in Molecular Enzymology from the University of Warwick (1978).

Holger Friedrich is a senior lecturer in the School of Chemistry at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Howard College). He is interested in the preparation and properties of transition metal-containing materials and especially their application to oxidation catalysis. Major focus areas are the oxidation of higher linear alkanes (C6 and greater) to valuable products over heterogeneous catalysts and the catalytic oxidation of alkenes. As osmium and ruthenium can be viewed as “South African metals”, their oxidation chemistry is being studied, with osmium finding application in catalysts for the dihydroxylation of olefins, whilst ruthenium-based catalysts can be very effective in the oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds. Most of the catalytic materials currently being studied are mixed metal oxides or synthetic hydrotalcite-like compounds. Dr Friedrich also has an interest in heteronuclear organometallic compounds, investigating metalloselectivity and possible intermetallic communication. Organometallic derivatives of paraffins and carbenium ions are also being studied.

Dr Friedrich holds a B.Sc (Hons) and a PhD from the University of Cape Town.

Can Li is a Professor of Chemistry and the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Catalysis at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics. Since 2000 he has been the Director of the Joint Laboratory of France-China on Catalysis (LFCC). His main research activities include UV Raman spectroscopic techniques to investigate catalytic issues. His research areas are based on the investigation of new catalytic reactions, new catalytic materials and catalyst characterisation techniques, with emphasis on in situ characterisation under dynamic conditions of catalytically active phases, active sites and reaction mechanisms. From an understanding of the fundamental principles of catalysis he applies them to the design and development of new catalysts. Other work includes the conversion of light alkanes, catalytic synthesis of fine chemicals, energy conversion and environmental catalysis. Professor Li has a BSc from Zhangye Normal Institute/Shanxi Normal University; and an M.Sc. and PhD in physical/catalysis chemistry from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (Professors Xiexian Guo and Takaharu Onishi).

Barry Murrer became the Director of the Johnson Matthey Technology Centre in Sonning Common in April 2000. He has been with Johnson Matthey since he left university in 1979. Dr Murrer began his career working on homogeneous catalysis. He has worked on a large variety of new applications in the pgms. Dr Murrer worked for several years on anticancer platinum drugs, of which he has extensive knowledge. His current interests are any catalytic use of platinum group metals and their chemistry; this extends into the preparation and properties of any pgms materials.

Dr Murrer is the author of many papers, reviews and patents.

Barry Murrer holds a B.A. and D.Phil. in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

Lucy Otley provides portable power sources for electronics equipment in the government communications sector, specialising in lithium battery technology.

Lucy previously worked at the Johnson Matthey Technology Centre as a materials scientist. She worked in areas including: physical preparation of nanoparticulate materials; dye-sensitised photovoltaics; gold catalysis for methanol and hydrogen fuel cells; and a selection of platinum group metallurgy and electrometallurgy projects.

Lucy was educated at Cambridge University, graduating in Natural Sciences (Physical) in 1997 and receiving her PhD in 2002. Her PhD on electroluminescence and electrochemical surface treatment of aluminium was sponsored by Alcan International and supervised by Professor G. T. Burstein.

Peter Panfilov is a Professor in the Department of Physics at the Institute of Natural Sciences, Ural Federal University in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Since 1986, his scientific interests have been closely connected with the problem of plastic deformation and fracture of refractory platinum group metals and their composites, including deformation mechanisms, fracture nodes and processing. The academic aspects of his research aim to understand the physical nature of crack growth in single crystals and polycrystalline aggregates. He is a coauthor of the book “Metallurgy and Mechanical Properties of Iridium” – and a co-editor of the book of Proceedings of the International Symposium on Iridium.

Valentin Parmon is the Director of the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis (Novosibirsk, Russia) and holds the Chair of Physical Chemistry (Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia). His main fields of interest are in chemical kinetics and catalysis, photochemistry and radiation chemistry. He is also involved in chemical radiospectroscopy and the physical chemistry of energy production, renewable energy and the transfer of new technologies to industry. His current interests are in catalysis, energy conversion and thermodynamics.

Professor Parmon is the Chairman of the Russian Scientific Council on Catalysis of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is the Russian representative in the European Federation of Catalytic Societies (EFCATS) and the Editor-in-Chief of the journals: Chemistry in Russia (the Russian Chemical Society), Catalysis in Industry (Russia) and Catalysis Bulletin (Russia). He is the Russian Regional Editor of the journal Reaction Kinetics and Catalysis Letters (Elsevier), a Member of the Editorial Boards of: the Russian Chemical Journal (Russia), Chemistry for Sustainable Development (SB RAS), Catalysis Today (Elsevier), Catalysis Letters (Kluwer), Topics in Catalysis (Kluwer), Cattech (Kluwer), Catalysis Reviews: Science & Engineering (Elsevier), Reaction Intermediates (Japan), Chemistry & Technology of Water (Ukraine) and Material Research Innovations.

Professor Parmon was educated at Moscow Physical and Technical Institute.

Martyn Twigg retired as the Chief Scientist of Johnson Matthey in 2010. Martyn was previously European Technology Director for the Environmental Catalysts and Technologies Division of Johnson Matthey, Royston.

Martyn held a junior faculty position at the University of Toronto where he worked on the kinetics and mechanisms of reactions of metal carbonyl compounds. Following this he had a fellowship at the University of Cambridge working on the synthesis and reactivity of hydrocarbon organometallic compounds and the photochemistry of metal-metal bonded metal carbonyls. He then joined ICI where, for almost twenty years, he aided the development and production of heterogeneous catalysts used in large-scale single-stream plants that produce products such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, ammonia, methanol and formaldehyde. Proprietary catalysts and processes were also developed for speciality organic products and pollution control systems. Before joining Johnson Matthey he managed a joint American/European project concerned with novel polymers and processes involving vinyl chloride.

Martyn has authored or co-authored many research papers, written numerous chapters in encyclopaedic works, and edited and contributed to several books. He edits a series of fundamental and applied catalysis books, and a series on the kinetics and mechanisms of inorganic and organometallic reactions. He is on the editorial board of several journals, and maintains active associations with universities in the UK and elsewhere, with honorary positions at some.

Martyn Twigg has a BSc (Special Hons) in chemistry and physics from the University of Hull, and a PhD in mechanistic inorganic chemistry of porphyry models from the University of Kent.

Mike Walsh has extensive knowledge of the automotive industry and automotive catalysis. Over the past 35 years, he has participated in many stages of the development of the automotive catalyst industry, as a researcher, a government regulator and most recently as an international consultant. He maintains a broad overview of global developments regarding motor vehicle pollution control. Dr Walsh was selected as the first recipient of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Lifetime Individual Achievement Award for “outstanding achievement, demonstrated leadership, and a lasting commitment to promoting clean air”.

Yamanashi University Fuel Cell Research Team.  Masahiro Watanabe is a Professor of Chemistry and the Director of the Clean Energy Research Center at Yamanashi University. The primary specialties and research topics of Professor Watanabe are in electrochemistry and catalysis, for instance, electrocatalyst design, fuel-reforming catalysts and materials for various types of fuel cells. Professor Watanabe is currently the Chairman of the Division of Electrochemical Energy Conversion, International Society of Electrochemistry; the Editor (from 2000 to the present) of Fuel Cells, From Fundamentals to Systems, a Council Member (since its foundation in 1981) and (since 2001) the General Manager of the Fuel Cell Division, Electrochemical Society of Japan, and a Member of the Committee on Hydrogen Energy Systems Technology of NEDO. Since 1999 he has been a Member of the Committee on Strategies for Implementation of Fuel Cells, Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. In 1992 The Electrochemical Society of Japan awarded Professor Watanabe the Science Award for Design of High Performance Electrocatalysts and Electrode Structures for Fuel Cells. In 2001 he received the Yamanashi Academy of Sciences Award: Fundamentals and Practical Research on Fuel Cells. Professor Watanabe holds an M.A. from Yamanashi University and a PhD in Engineering from the University of Tokyo.

Michael Witcomb is Professor and Director of the Electron Microscope Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa and a member of the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials. His current research using SEM, TEM, EDS, EELS involves the microstructural characterisation of polymer-metal nanoparticle composites, catalysts and hard metals, phase diagram studies of aluminium intermetallics for high temperature purposes, and carbide precipitation processes in platinum and palladium in collaboration with the National Center for Electron Microscopy at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. He holds a BSc from the University of Hull and an M.Sc. and PhD from the University of Lancaster.

Mrs Yongli Zhang is a Research Professor in Kunming Institute of Precious Metals, Kunming, China. Her main research fields are precious metals materials, especially composites and thin films. She is currently the Co-editor in Chief of the Chinese scientific and technical journal “Precious Metals”.