Robin Perutz FRS (born December 1949, in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

) is a professor of

Inorganic Chemistry Inorganic chemistry deals with chemical synthesis, synthesis and behavior of inorganic compound, inorganic and organometallic chemistry, organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subj ...

at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

, where he was formerly head of department between 2000 and 2004. He is also the son of the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

winner

Max Perutz Max Ferdinand Perutz (19 May 1914 – 6 February 2002) was an Austrian-born British molecular biologist, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew, for their studies of the structures of haemoglobin and myoglobin. He went ...

. Perutz's research spans inorganic chemistry,

photochemistry Photochemistry is the branch of chemistry concerned with the chemical effects of light. Generally, this term is used to describe a chemical reaction caused by absorption of ultraviolet (wavelength from 100 to 400 Nanometre, nm), visible ligh ...

, and

catalysis Catalysis () is the increase in rate of a chemical reaction due to an added substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed by the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recycles quick ...

. In particular, his interests lie in the mechanistic details of

homogeneous catalysis In chemistry, homogeneous catalysis is catalysis where the catalyst is in same phase as reactants, principally by a soluble catalyst in a solution. In contrast, heterogeneous catalysis describes processes where the catalysts and substrate are in d ...

transition metal In chemistry, a transition metal (or transition element) is a chemical element in the d-block of the periodic table (groups 3 to 12), though the elements of group 12 (and less often group 3) are sometimes excluded. The lanthanide and actinid ...

complexes, and is responsible for many techniques used in the field. Perutz's research has enabled chemists to take a different approach to fundamental reactions and many industrial processes.

Education

Perutz graduated from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

with a BA in

Natural Sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

in 1971. He subsequently worked for his PhD alongside Professor Jim Turner FRS, initially in Cambridge and then at Newcastle University. His focus was on utilising photochemical metal carbonyl dissociation in low temperature matrices, producing seminal work on the interaction of Cr(CO)₅ with ‘inert’ matrix hosts, including CH₄ and Xe.

Awards and distinctions

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(2010) *Franco-British Prize of the French Chemical Society (2009) * Sacconi Medal of Italian Chemical Society and Sacconi Foundation (2008) *President of Dalton Division of the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...

(2007-10) * Nyholm Medal and Lectureship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2005)

Plenary and invited lectures

* Plenary Lecture ACS Winter Fluorine Conference, Florida (January 2005) * Invited Lecture International Symposium on Photophysics and Photochemistry of Coordination Compounds, Hong Kong (July 2004) * Troisième Cycle Lecturer, Bern, Basel, Neuchatel & Lausanne, Switzerland (May 2003)

Equality and diversity

Perutz has been an advocate for women in science; the Chemistry Department at York became the first to win the

Athena SWAN Athena SWAN (Scientific Women's Academic Network) is an equality charter mark framework and accreditation scheme established and managed by the UK Equality Challenge Unit (now part of Advance HE) in 2005 that recognises and celebrates good pra ...

gold status, an award for good practice on women’s equality. He also supports

STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

students with disabilities.

External links

Robin Perutz, personal page

References

1949 births Living people Academics of the University of Cambridge Academics of the University of York Alumni of Newcastle University British chemists British people of Austrian-Jewish descent Fellows of the Royal Society Jewish British scientists {{UK-chemist-stub