SCIENCE AT THE SHINE DOME canberra 6 - 8 may 2009

Career awards

Thursday, 7 May 2009

DAVID CRAIG MEDAL

Emeritus Professor Leonard Lindoy FAA
School of Chemistry, University of Sydney

Len Lindoy is currently an emeritus professor in the School of Chemistry, University of Sydney and a conjoint professor at James Cook University. He holds honorary or guest professorships at three universities in China. Born in Wollongong, he graduated from the University of New South Wales with a BSc in 1963, a PhD in 1968 and a DSc in 1985. Following a postdoctoral appointment at Ohio State University, he joined James Cook University in 1970 and was appointed to the first personal chair at James Cook in 1987.  In 1996, he moved to the chair of inorganic chemistry at the University of Sydney. Len is a (life) senior member of Robinson College, University of Cambridge. Over the years he has received a number of honours and awards – most recently the 2008 Leighton Medal of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and, for 2009, a Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) Centenary Lectureship
and Medal.

Metallo-supramolecular chemistry – architecture at the molecular level

Since prehistoric times, our species has been driven to undertake artistic and engineering endeavours on a human (or macro) scale. However, dating from the beginnings of modern chemistry around two hundred years ago, it has become increasingly possible to undertake similar creative activities at the molecular level. A major part of the current activity is occurring in the field of supramolecular chemistry – an area that tends to mimic nature’s way of doing things. The presentation will include an overview of some representative supramolecular structures exhibiting unusual architectures that have been constructed by us over recent years. We have employed organic derivatives incorporating β-diketonato, β,δ-triketonato and polypyridyl binding domains for the construction of a wide range of unusual metallo-supramolecular structures that include new examples of platforms, helices, triangles and tetrahedrons. The platform species have also been employed as building blocks for the construction of new discrete as well as framework materials. Several of these products incorporate cavities which have been demonstrated to incorporate neutral molecules (such as hydrogen) or selectively uptake other ‘guests’ such as individual anions – leading to potential application for the storage, separation or sensing of such species.