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Biographical Sketch
T. Don Tilley was born in Norman, Oklahoma, on November 22,
1954. After receiving his B.S. degree in chemistry from the
University of Texas in 1977, he went to the University of
California at Berkeley where he completed graduate studies
in organolanthanide chemistry under the direction of Richard
Andersen (Ph.D. 1982). After his graduate work at Berkeley
he was appointed as an NSF-sponsored exchange postdoctoral
fellow to work jointly with Bob Grubbs and John Bercaw at
the California Institute of Technology (1981-2), and with
Luigi Venanzi and Piero Pino at the ETH in Zürich (1982-3).
During this period, he developed the chemistry of the (pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)ruthenium
fragment. In 1983 he began his independent research career
as an Assistant Professor at the University of California
at San Diego. There he was promoted to Associate Professor
in 1988, and then to Professor in 1990. In 1994, he accepted
appointments as Professor of Chemistry at the University of
California at Berkeley and as Faculty Senior Scientist at
the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
While at UC San Diego, Tilley received an Alfred P. Sloan
Fellowship (1988), a Union Carbide Innovation Recognition
Award (1991-92), and a Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science Fellowship (1993). At UC Berkeley, Tilley received
an Alexander von Humboldt Award for Senior Scientists (1998)
and was elected to the American Association for the Advancement
of Science (1998). . He was the 2002 recipient of the ACS
award in Organometallic Chemistry, and was elected Chair of
the Division of Inorganic Chemistry of the ACS for 2003. Tilley
has been a Visiting Professor at the ETH in Zürich (1998)
and at the University of Montpellier in France (2000), and
has been awarded named lectureships at the Universities of
Oklahoma (1991), Ottawa (2000), Texas (2001), British Columbia
(2002), Arkansas (2003), and Missouri, St. Louis (2003), and
at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2002).
Tilley's initial research program at UC San Diego focused
on organometallic chemistry, and in particular the chemistry
of transition metal-silicon systems. Systematic investigations
on early transition metal-silicon bonded compounds demonstrated
that d0 metal-silicon bonds are highly and uniquely reactive.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of this work characterized
"sigma-bond metathesis" reactions as forming the
basis for a new polymerization mechanism, by which early metal
complexes catalyze the dehydropolymerization of hydrosilanes
to polysilanes. This chemistry was extended to the polymerization
of secondary stannanes, to produce the first high molecular
weight polystannanes. Recently, this chemistry has been used
to develop the first homogeneous catalysts for methane conversion,
based on sigma-bond metathesis. Other investigations have
focused on the synthesis and study of transition metal complexes
with silylene and other reactive silicon "intermediates"
as ligands. In the early to mid-1990's, Tilleys research broadened
to include studies on electronically active polymers, organic
supramolecular chemistry, and materials chemistry. The polymer
chemistry in Tilley's group focuses on the use of new metal-mediated
synthetic routes to conducting and luminescent polymers. Supramolecular
chemistry derives from the discovery that zirconocene-coupling
methods provide convenient and high-yield routes to macrocycles
and cages of various shapes, sizes, and functionalizations.
Applications of this chemistry target the development of receptors
for anions, ligand systems for metal-based catalysts, and
building blocks for 3-dimensional electroactive, nanoporous
networks. As a Faculty Senior Scientist at LBNL, Tilley has
developed a program based on the molecular design and synthesis
of advanced materials. Primary targets are oxide-based materials
produced from tailored, oxygen-rich precursor molecules. This
new process for generating solid state materials has been
used in the synthesis of mesoporous materials with well-defined
and complex compositions. In addition, Prof. Tilley's group
has developed molecular precursor routes to heterogeneous
catalysts for selective chemical transformations. This strategy
has been used, for example, to produce catalysts with good
activities and selectivities for the oxydehydrogenation of
propane. Molecular precursor methods have also been employed
for the creation of well-defined, catalytic single sites on
the surface of oxide supports.
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