Winner: 2020 Centenary Prize
Professor James Tour
Rice University
For innovations in materials chemistry, with applications in medicine and nanotechnology.
Professor Tour has paved the way in numerous areas of research, using his synthetic organic chemistry skills to advance a new generation of carbon materials for nanotechnology. These can be applied to ultra-strong materials, advances in medicine and in electronics and the development of several renewable energy platforms.
In addition to his 700 research publications – which have been cited by others more than 100,000 times – Professor Tour has over 130 patent families (meaning that the actual number of patents is about three times that when considering jurisdictions). This has led to his starting 12 companies which remain active, two of which are now public companies, in fields spanning materials, electronics and medicine.
Biography
Professor James M. Tour, a synthetic organic chemist, received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Syracuse University, his PhD in synthetic organic and organometallic chemistry from Purdue University with Ei-ichi Negishi, and postdoctoral training with B. M. Trost in synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Wisconsin and Stanford University. After spending 11 years on the faculty of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of South Carolina, he joined the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University in 1999.
Professor Tour’s scientific research areas include a wide array of nanomaterials topics involving synthesis, nanomachines, energy and medical application areas. Tour has over 700 research publications and over 130 patent families, with an h-index = 144 with total citations over 100,000.
Tour has been named among “The 50 Most Influential Scientists in the World Today” by TheBestSchools.org every year since 2014. He was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2015; listed in “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” by Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch.com, and he was named “Scientist of the Year” by R&D Magazine, 2013. Tour was twice awarded the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching at Rice University in 2012 and 2007.
He is the founder of 12 currently active companies in the fields spanning materials, medicine and electronics. Two of the 12 are now public companies. He serves as a scientific advisor to the companies, but not an as an officer or director so that he can focus on his academic pursuits.
There are more discoveries to be made – big discoveries. We are trying to hit homeruns. Sometimes we only get to first base, but we are swinging for the fences.
Professor James Tour
Q&A with Professor James Tour
How did you first become interested in chemistry?
I wanted to become a policeman but I was unable to enter the police academy because I was colour-blind, so I thought I would study forensic science instead because I enjoyed chemistry in high school. My father recommended that I get a general degree in chemistry instead and then focus on forensics in a graduate programme. The fact that I took my father’s advice when I was 17 happily amazes me. After taking organic chemistry in college, I knew I found the career for a lifetime – I love that subject.
Who or what has inspired you?
I was deeply influenced by Professor Eiichi Negishi, the man who taught my first organic chemistry class when I was 19, and who then became my PhD advisor, and who went on to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2010. I was also influenced by Professor Negishi’s mentor, Professor H.C. Brown, the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1979, and my post-doctoral advisor, Professor B.M. Trost.
What motivates you?
My wife. She has stood by me since we met when we were both 20 years old. Always encouraging me in my moments of melancholy and reminding me that I will succeed. And my faith in God – if I make his word my meditation, I “will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season.”
What has been your biggest challenge?
Overcoming the feeling that I could never do well professionally. Maybe others are sure of themselves the day they start their professorial careers. Not me. But that feeling has caused me to work harder than others, longer hours than others, even decades into my career.
What has been a highlight for you?
When I see our discoveries move into the industry and help humankind. And when I can encourage a student to press on, and I see them succeed abundantly.
What is an exciting scientific development on the horizon?
The ability to easily store gases, like hydrogen gas, to make fuel cell cars a widespread reality.
What is your favourite element?
Carbon. It forms one of the strongest bonds in the universe, it is stable to water and air, it provides the chemistry of life, it can be bonded to most of the other elements in the Periodic Table, and it is the most controllable element in molecular construction.