Nobel Prize Laureate Roald Hoffmann Visited ZIOC

Prof. Roald Hoffmann, a Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, visited ZIOC RAS on August 26, 2014. Prof. Hoffmann often comes to Russia to give lectures on modern chemistry. He is a welcome guest in ZIOC. During his visit Prof. Roald Hoffmann had a meeting with Full Members of RAS M.P. Egorov and O.M. Nefedov and Associate Members of RAS N.P. Tarasova and V.P. Ananikov.

Currently Prof. Hoffmann is Director of Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at the Cornell University (New York).

Prof. Hoffmann is a prominent scientist and an outstanding personality. His professional achievements are well known and his ideas are crucial to many areas of modern chemistry, physics and materials science.

In 1981, Roald Hoffmann and K. Fukui were awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their joint evolvement of the theory of chemical reactions. Prof. Hoffmann is the creator of the generalized quantum theory of atomic and molecular collisions in the course of chemical reactions and a holder of numerous awards – of the American Chemical Society, American Institute of Chemists, American Crystallographic Association, Russian Academy of Sciences, and others.

In the photo from left to right: V.P. Ananikov, M.P. Egorov, R. Hoffmann, N.P. Tarasova, and O.M. Nefedov.

Also, in the course of the visit. Roald Hoffmann was cordially welcomed in Laboratory of Metal Complex and Nanoscale Catalystsheaded by Associate Member of RAS Valentine Ananikov. The Nobel Prize winner shared his opinion on the outlooks of the development of various modern chemistry areas and theories.

In the photo: V.P. Ananikov and R. Hoffmann

Graduate students and young scientists of Laboratory of Metal Complex and Nanoscale Catalystseagerlytalked about their research, discussed academic works of graduates and postgraduates as well as ca[abilities of modern quantum chemistry with the Nobel Prize winner.

In the photo: S.S. Zalessky (in the middle), a PhD student, is reporting his research results

Despite its long history, the metal-complex catalysis is one of the most topical and fast-growing areas of modern chemistry. Its latest trends have appeared at the junction of the metal-complex catalysis and nanotechnology and show high promise.

In the photo: P.V. Romashev, a PhD student, is discussing academic works of graduate and high school students

According to R. Hoffmann, lately we have witnessed a discovery of extremely interesting effects in the area of joint dynamic behavior of catalytically active clusters of metals and carbon nanostructures, which can lead to new catalytic systems.

In the photo: PhD Е.G. Gordeev (on the left), Associate Member of RAS V.P. Ananikov and Prof. R. Hoffmann are discussing modern quantum chemical calculations

Apart from numerous scientific papers on chemistry, Prof. Hoffmann is the author of popular science and philosophical works as well as poetry translated into many languages. He knows seven languages, including Russian, which is very flattering. He has a deep knowledge and original vision of culture and art and is keen on politics, religion, and geopolitics. He has made a lot for the establishment and progress of Higher Chemical College of RAS and is a member of its Guardian Board.

Roald Hoffmann participated in the creation of a TV course of introductory chemistry “World of Chemistry”, which was very popular in the 1990s and has been still used in many schools in the USA and other countries.

Prof. Hoffmann has made a weighty contribution to the popularization of chemistry as a science and its interpretation for general public revealing a social, cultural, literary, and psychological context of chemistry in his publications and speeches.

 [1] O. Eisenstein, R. Hoffmann, Activation of a Coordinated Olefin toward Nucleophilic Attack, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1980, 102, 6148-6149.

[2] V.P. Ananikov, D.G. Musaev, K. Morokuma, Catalytic Triple Bond Activation and Vinyl-Vinyl Reductive Coupling by Pt(IV) Complexes. A density functional study, Organometallics, 2001, 20, 1652-1667.

[3] V.P. Ananikov, A.S. Kashin, O.V. Hazipov, I.P. Beletskaya, Z.A. Starikova, Highly Selective Catalytic Synthesis of (E,E)-1,4-Diiodobuta-1,3-diene via Atom-Efficient Addition of Acetylene and Iodine: A Versatile (E,E)-1,3-Diene Building Block in Cross-Coupling Reactions, Synlett, 2011, 14, 2021-2024.