October 2004 Meeting Basolo Award Presentation

	Joint Meeting of the Northwestern University Department of Chemistry and the Chicago ACS Section

Speaker:	Dr. Malcolm H. Chisholm Distinguished Professor of Mathematical and Physical Sciences The Ohio State University
Topic:	Routes to New Generation Polymers Employing Single-site Metal Alkoxide Catalysts, Polyesters, Polyethers and Polycarbonates from Renewable Resources

Date:  Friday, October 22, 2004

Background information about the Basolo Award

NOTE: The Basolo Medal Lecture will be held at 4:30 P.M. - 5:45 P.M. at Northwestern University.
--- The Medalist Lecture is open to the public and admission is free to all those wishing to attend. ---

Northwestern University
Technological Institute
2145 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL
Lecture Room 3

Abstract:     The limited world supply of oil and the ever-increasing demand for its consumption will profoundly affect mankind in many ways. Currently, greater than 90% of all commodity chemicals are fossil-fuel based. We can anticipate a move away from a hydrocarbon-based chemical industry towards one based on renewable resources. In terms of plastics or synthetic polymers, we will see a move toward polyoxygenates. Polyesters can be prepared from the ring-opening polymerization of cyclic esters derived from biomass, and polyethers by the ring-opening polymerization of Natures's oxiranes. The current production of polycarbonate by the toxic and environmentally-hazardous use of phosgene and bis-phenol-A will surely be replaced by a process involving the regular alternating coupling of an oxirane and carbon dioxide. In all these endeavors, metal-oxygen bonds will play a key role. In this talk, I will review current research endeavors aimed at the preparation of polyesters, polyethers and polycarbonates employing single-site metal alkoxide catalysts of zinc, magnesium, calcium, aluminum and tin. Biography:     Malcolm H. Chisholm was born in Bombay, India to Scottish parents and educated in England, Canford School and Queen Mary College, London.  He received his PhD. in 1969 under the direction of Professor D.C. Bradley and did postdoctoral studies at the University of Western Ontario with Professor H.C. Clark.     After academic appointments at Princeton and Indiana University, he assumed his current position at The Ohio State University in 2000 where he is Distinguished Professor of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.  His research interests include the chemistry of complexes with metal-metal multiple bonds, the use of alkoxide and related pi-donor ligands in organometallic chemistry, and molecular routes to materials and the development of catalysts and for the preparation of biodegradable and biocompatible polymers from readily renewable resources. Professor Chisholm is the author of over 500 publications and has received several awards for his research including the Awards for Inorganic Chemistry and Distinguished Service to Inorganic Chemistry of the ACS and the Centenary and Ludwig Mond Lectureships of the Royal Society of Chemistry.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, London, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the recipient of the Davy Medal of the Royal Society.  He has served as Associate Editor for the Americas for Chemical Communications, Dalton Transactions, the inorganic journal Polyhedron and has held several positions of office within the ACS, including Chair of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry.