Robert H. Crabtree
Encyclopedia
Robert Howard Crabtree is a British
chemist
. He is presently serving as Whitehead Professor of Chemistry at Yale University in the United States. He is a naturalized citizen of the United States. He is known for the iridium-based Crabtree's catalyst
for hydrogenations, and for his textbook on organometallic chemistry
.
(1959-1966). He received a B.A. degree from New College, Oxford
in 1970, studying under Malcolm Green
. He received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Sussex
in 1973, studying under Joseph Chatt
. He performed postdoctoral research
under Hugh Felkin
at the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles
at Gif-sur-Yvette
, near Paris. He was a postdoctoral fellow (1973-1975) and then attaché de recherche (1975-1977). At the end of that time he was chargé de recherche.
In 1977 Crabtree took an assistant professorship in Inorganic Chemistry at Yale University
. He served as associate professor from 1982-1985, and as full professor from 1985 until the present.
Crabtree is noted for his work in iridium
-catalyzed hydrogenation reactions, and particularly for his work on the so-called Crabtree's catalyst
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
. He is presently serving as Whitehead Professor of Chemistry at Yale University in the United States. He is a naturalized citizen of the United States. He is known for the iridium-based Crabtree's catalyst
Crabtree's catalyst
Crabtree's catalyst is the name given to a complex of iridium with 1,5-cyclooctadiene, tris-cyclohexylphosphine, and pyridine. It is a homogeneous catalyst for hydrogenation reactions, developed by Robert H. Crabtree, a professor at Yale University...
for hydrogenations, and for his textbook on organometallic chemistry
Organometallic chemistry
Organometallic chemistry is the study of chemical compounds containing bonds between carbon and a metal. Since many compounds without such bonds are chemically similar, an alternative may be compounds containing metal-element bonds of a largely covalent character...
.
Career
Crabtree studied at Brighton CollegeBrighton College
Brighton College is an institution divided between a Senior School known simply as Brighton College, the Prep School and the Pre-Prep School. All of these schools are co-educational independent schools in Brighton, England, sited immediately next to each another. The Senior School caters for...
(1959-1966). He received a B.A. degree from New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
in 1970, studying under Malcolm Green
Malcolm Green (chemist)
Malcolm Green also known as M. L. H. Green is a British Emeritus Professor of Inorganic Chemistry.Born in Eastleigh, Hampshire, he received his BSc degree from Acton Technical College in 1956 and his PhD from Imperial College of Science and Technology in 1959 under the supervision of Professor...
. He received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
in 1973, studying under Joseph Chatt
Joseph Chatt
Joseph Chatt, CBE FRS was a renowned researcher in the area of inorganic and organometallic chemistry. His name is associated with the description of the pi-bond between transition metals and alkenes, the so-called Dewar-Chatt-Duncanson model.Chatt received his Ph.D. at the University of...
. He performed postdoctoral research
Postdoctoral researcher
Postdoctoral research is scholarly research conducted by a person who has recently completed doctoral studies, normally within the previous five years. It is intended to further deepen expertise in a specialist subject, including acquiring novel skills and methods...
under Hugh Felkin
Hugh Felkin
Hugh Felkin was a research chemist in France from 1950 to 1990 and a member of the British Royal Society for Chemistry.In 1967, he proposed a model to predict the stereochemical outcome of the addition of nucleophiles to carbonylic compounds...
at the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles
Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles
The Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles is part of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique, France's most prominent public research organization. It is located at Gif-sur-Yvette, near Paris....
at Gif-sur-Yvette
Gif-sur-Yvette
Gif-sur-Yvette is a commune in the south-western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Geography:The town is crossed by and named after the Yvette river.The total area is and is green spaces and woods.-Place names:...
, near Paris. He was a postdoctoral fellow (1973-1975) and then attaché de recherche (1975-1977). At the end of that time he was chargé de recherche.
In 1977 Crabtree took an assistant professorship in Inorganic Chemistry at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. He served as associate professor from 1982-1985, and as full professor from 1985 until the present.
Awards and honors
- named Fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan FoundationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationThe Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic non-profit organization in the United States. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., then-President and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors.-Overview:...
(1981) - named Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar (1982)
- received the Corday-Morgan Medal from the Royal Society of ChemistryRoyal Society of ChemistryThe Royal Society of Chemistry is a learned society in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences." It was formed in 1980 from the merger of the Chemical Society, the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the Faraday Society and the Society for Analytical Chemistry with a new...
(1984) - delivered the Esso Lectureship series (Toronto) (1986)
- named Albright and Wilson Visiting Professor at University of WarwickUniversity of WarwickThe University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
(1986) - appointed to editorial board of Chemical ReviewsChemical ReviewsChemical Reviews , is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, published since 1924 by the American Chemical Society. As the name indicates, it publishes comprehensive, critical reviews of an area rather than original research...
(1990) - received the Organometallic Chemistry Prize from American Chemical SocietyAmerican Chemical SocietyThe American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
(1991) - named Vice Chair of Organometallic Subdivision of ACS (1991)
- named Chair of Organometallic Subdivision of ACS (1992)
- received the Organometallic Chemistry Prize of ACS (1993)
- received the Mack Award from Ohio State UniversityOhio State UniversityThe Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
(1994) - named H.C. Brown Lecturer at Purdue UniversityPurdue UniversityPurdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
(1996) - named Vice Chair of Inorganic Chemistry Division of ACS (1997)
- named Chair of Inorganic Chemistry Division of ACS (1998)
- named Dow Lecturer at University of OttawaUniversity of OttawaThe University of Ottawa is a bilingual, research-intensive, non-denominational, international university in Ottawa, Ontario. It is one of the oldest universities in Canada. It was originally established as the College of Bytown in 1848 by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate...
(1999) - received the ISI Highly Cited Author Award (2000)
- received the Bailar Medal at University of Illinois (2001)
- delivered Organometallic lecture at University of RichmondUniversity of RichmondThe University of Richmond is a selective, private, nonsectarian, liberal arts university located on the border of the city of Richmond and Henrico County, Virginia. The University of Richmond is a primarily undergraduate, residential university with approximately 4,000 undergraduate and graduate...
(2003) - named Dow Lecturer at University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
(2004) - delivered the Williams Lecture at University of OxfordUniversity of OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
(2004) - delivered the Sabatier Lecture at University of ToulouseUniversity of ToulouseThe Université de Toulouse is a consortium of French universities, grandes écoles and other institutions of higher education and research, named after one of the earliest universities established in Europe in 1229, and including the successor universities to that earlier university...
(2006) - delivered the Brewster Lecture at Kansas State UniversityKansas State UniversityKansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...
(2006) - received the Karcher Medal at Oklahoma State University (2007)
- delivered the Pedersen Lecture at DuPontDuPontE. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...
(2008) - named John Osborn Lecturer at University of StrasbourgUniversity of StrasbourgThe University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....
(2009) - named Mond Lecturer by the Royal Society of Chemistry (2009
- received an ACS Green Chemistry Award (2009)
Crabtree is noted for his work in iridium
Iridium
Iridium is the chemical element with atomic number 77, and is represented by the symbol Ir. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum family, iridium is the second-densest element and is the most corrosion-resistant metal, even at temperatures as high as 2000 °C...
-catalyzed hydrogenation reactions, and particularly for his work on the so-called Crabtree's catalyst
Crabtree's catalyst
Crabtree's catalyst is the name given to a complex of iridium with 1,5-cyclooctadiene, tris-cyclohexylphosphine, and pyridine. It is a homogeneous catalyst for hydrogenation reactions, developed by Robert H. Crabtree, a professor at Yale University...
.
Editorial Positions and Published works
- The Organometallic Chemistry of the Transition Metals (5 editions)(ISBN 0-471-66256-9)
- Inorganic Chemistry Section (editor) Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry (1992-1994)
- Associate Editor of New Journal of Chemistry (1998-2003)
- Editor-in-chief of Comprehensive Organometallic Chemistry III (2004-present)
- Editor-in-chief of Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry (2004-present)
- Board of regional editors of Science (2006-present)
- Chemistry of the Transition Metals (2009)
- Handbook of Green Chemistry - Green Catalysis (2009) (co-author)