ChemComm editorial board members

Douglas Stephan, Chair

University of Toronto, Canada

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8140-8355

I am a professor of chemistry at the University of Toronto, a position I have held since 2008. Prior to this I was a professor at the University of Windsor from 1982 to 2007. I have a BSc from McMaster University and a PhD from University of Western Ontario, and between 1980 and 1982 I was a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University.

My group's research interests span a wide range of inorganic main group and organometallic chemistry. In the more fundamental projects, we target new reactivity and chemical transformations with a view to developing new catalysts to either new materials or new processes. In addition, collaborations with industry address the design and development of new catalyst and process technologies for use in commercial applications.

Lutz Ackermann, Associate Editor

University of Göttingen, Germany

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7034-8772

Lutz Ackermann studied Chemistry at the University Kiel (Germany), and performed his PhD with Prof. Alois Fürstner at the Max-PlankInstitut für Kohlenforschung (Mülheim/Ruhr, 2001). After a postdoctoral stay at UC Berkeley with Prof. Robert G. Bergman, he initiated his independent research career in 2003 at the Ludwig Maximilians-University München. In 2007, he became Full Professor (W3) at the Georg-August-University Göttingen. His recent awards and distinctions include an AstraZeneca Excellence in Chemistry Award (2011), an ERC Consolidator Grant (2012), a Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-Preis (2017) and an ERC Advanced Grant (2021). The development and application of novel concepts for sustainable catalysis constitutes his major current research interests, with a topical focus on electrocatalysis and bond activation.

Davide Bonifazi, Associate Editor

University of Vienna, Austria

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5717-0121

I am Professor in Organic Chemistry at the University of Vienna since 2020. I studied as undergraduate student at the University of Parma and obtained my PhD at the ETH Zürich with Prof. F. Diederich. After a postdoctoral stay at the University of Trieste with Prof. M. Prato, I joined the same University as a researcher first, and then as part-time Associate Professor.

In 2006 I joined the University of Namur as Professor and in 2016 moved to Cardiff University as Chair Professor until my current appointment. My research interests are focused on the development of organic synthetic strategies to create functional supramolecular architectures for applications in interdisciplinary projects with materials science and biology.

Deanna D’Alessandro, Associate Editor

University of Sydney

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1497-2543

Deanna D’Alessandro is a chemist and Professor within the Schools of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry at the University of Sydney. Recently she was appointed Director of the Faculty of Engineering’s Net Zero Initiative which aims to accelerate Australia’s path to Net Zero through partnerships with industry, government and communities backed by world-class education, research and research translation. Deanna has over 17 years professional experience in materials science, working primarily in Australia and the United States. Over the past decade, she has built her research team at the University of Sydney which is recognised for its expertise in both fundamental and applied aspects of Metal-Organic Framework materials. She is passionate about interdisciplinary efforts to address climate change through Net Zero and Negative Emissions technologies.

Fengtao Fan, Associate Editor

Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9828-6988

After revealing the assembly process of zeolite catalysts by in situ UV Raman spectroscopy, I received my Ph.D. in 2010 under the guidance of Prof. Can Li, from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics(DICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS). At the same year, I joined DICP as an associate Professor through the talent selection plan for the outstanding PhD graduates.

I started my scientific career by thinking about how to reveal the charge separation process in artificial synthesis process through characterization techniques innovation. In 2012, after being a visiting scholar in Prof. Bert Weckhuysen`s group at Utrecht university, I came back to DICP and developed Spatially Resolved Surface Photovoltage Spectroscopy (SRSPS) to “see” the charge distribution on the surface and interface of photocatalyst at nano scale.

Itaru Hamachi, Associate editor

Kyoto University, Japan

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3327-3916

I was born in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan in 1960 and received my Ph.D. in 1988 from Kyoto University under the guidance of the late Professor Iwao Tabushi. Immediately thereafter I joined Kyushu University, where I worked as an Assistant Professor for three years in the Kunitake laboratory before I became an Associate Professor in the Shinkai laboratory in 1992.

In 2001, I was promoted to Full Professor at IFOC, Kyushu University, and moved to Kyoto University in 2005 where I currently head the bioorganic chemistry wing.

Michaele Hardie, Associate Editor

University of Leeds, UK

ORCID: 0000-0001-6586-7981

I am Professor of Supramolecular Chemistry, and current Head of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Leeds. I was educated at the University of Melbourne, gaining a PhD in 1996. After postdoctoral positions in the US and Australia, I was appointed as lecturer in inorganic chemistry at Leeds in 2001. My research interests are in the areas of metallo-supramolecular chemistry, host-guest chemistry, along with a strong interest in chemical crystallography. The research group has a particular focus on the development of  molecular hosts and cages of the cyclotriveratrylene-host family; self-assembly and behaviour of discrete nano-scale metallo-supramolecular cages and complexes; networked crystalline assemblies; and coordination polymers/metal-organic frameworks from host-like or simpler ligands. I was awarded the RSC Corday-Morgan Prize and Medal in 2011.

Kim E Jelfs, Associate Editor

Imperial College London, UK

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7683-7630

I am a Reader in Computational Materials Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London. I received my PhD in Computational Chemistry from University College London and did post-doctoral work at the University of Liverpool. My group specialises in the use of computer simulations to assist in the discovery of supramolecular materials, particularly porous materials and organic electronics. In terms of porous materials, my research focuses on porous molecular materials, polymer membranes and amorphous metal-organic frameworks. My research includes the development of open-source software to automate the assembly and testing of materials, with the application of artificial intelligence techniques including an evolutionary algorithm and machine learning.  

Chao-Jun Li, Associate Editor

McGill University, Canada

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3859-8824

Prof.  Chao-Jun Li is the E. B. Eddy Chair Professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Green Chemistry at McGill University, Canada.  He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) (UK), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) and Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

He served as the Co-Chair of the Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network, the Director of the CFI Facility for Green Chemistry and Green Chemicals, the Director of NSERC CREATE (Center) for Green Chemistry, and the Co-Director of the FQRNT Center for Green Chemistry and Catalysis (Quebec).  Previously, he served as the Associate Editor for Green Chemistry (RSC), 2005-2020.

David Lou, Associate editor

City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5557-4437

Dr. David Lou received his B.Eng. (1st class honors) (2002) and M.Eng. (2004) degrees from the National University of Singapore. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University in 2008. Right after graduation, he joined Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Full Professor since September 2015. He was appointed as the Cheng Tsang Man Chair Professor in Energy in 2019. He moved to the City University of Hong Kong in February 2023 as a Chair Professor of Materials Chemistry. He was elected as a Fellow of Singapore National Academy of Science, and the Academy of Engineering, Singapore in 2022. His main research interest is in the designed synthesis of nanostructured materials for energy applications including batteries, electrocatalysis and photocatalysis.

Connie Lu, Associate Editor

University of Bonn, Germany

ORCiD:  0000-0002-5162-9250

My research interests span inorganic and organometallic chemistry, especially topics in chemical bonding, electronic structure, reactivity and catalysis. My research group designs and develops bimetallic active sites, primarily in molecular complexes but also in metal-organic frameworks, to harness metal-metal interactions for small-molecule activation and catalysis.

I was born in Taipei, Taiwan and grew up in Miami, Florida, USA. I earned a BS degree from MIT and a PhD degree from Caltech with Jonas Peters. I was an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck for Bioinorganic Chemistry with Karl Wieghardt. I started my independent career at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2009, received tenure in 2015, and became full professor in 2020.

Marinella Mazzanti, Associate editor

EPFL, Switzerland

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3427-008X 

Marinella Mazzanti was born in Vinci, Italy,  a small town in Tuscany home to Leonardo da Vinci. She obtained a Master's degree from the University of Pisa in 1985 after spending a year in Columbia University (NY). She obtained a PhD from the University of Lausanne in 1990.

Shortly after she moved to the University of California, Berkeley, and then to the University of California, Davis, where she worked with Prof. Alan Balch. In 1994 she was awarded a two years Marie-Curie fellowship to join the French National Laboratory, CEA, in Grenoble. In 1996 she was hired as a research scientist and team leader at the CEA Grenoble where she started her independent research centered on f elements.

Yang Tian, Associate Editor

East China Normal University, China

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8850-0349

I am an analytical chemist. I received my Ph.D. in 2003 from Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT, Japan), and thereafter I joined Tokyo University, where I worked as a JSPS fellow for two years. In 2005, I returned Shanghai and was promoted to Full Professor at Tongji University, and moved to East China Normal University (ECNU) in 2013. My research interests are focused on developing new analytical methods and instruments for real-time targeting and quantification of biological species in the live brain, and further investigating the molecular basis in the physiological and pathological events such as aging, ischemia, and brain diseases. I was chosen as a recipient of the National Distinguished Young Scholars (2013).

Sandeep Verma, Associate editor

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2478-8109

I obtained my MSc from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India (1989), then obtained my Ph.D. from University of Illinois Medical Center, Chicago, USA in 1994. I held postdoctoral positions at Johns Hopkins University Medical Institutions, Baltimore, USA, and Max-Planck-Institute for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany.

Then, in 1997, I joined the Department of Chemistry, IIT Kanpur, where I currently serve as Department Chair. I also occupy Shri Deva Raj Endowed Chair Professorship and an Adjunct Professor position in Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering.