NJC Blog

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Andre Cobb to New Journal of Chemistry‘s International Advisory Board.

Andre is an Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Reading. He graduated from King’s College London in 1997 and moved to UCL to conduct his Ph.D. research with Professor Charles Marson on the design of new asymmetric catalytic processes. From there he moved to Cambridge to undertake postdoctoral research, first with Dr Florian Hollfelder in the Biochemistry Department, working on the development of synthetic enzymes, and then with Professor Steve Ley in the Chemistry Department in the areas of medicinal chemistry and asymmetric methodology.

In 2005, Andre moved to a faculty position at the University of Reading where he investigates new methods in the synthesis of biologically relevant molecules—particularly unnatural amino acids. He was awarded a university prize for Best Research Output in 2010, and a Thieme Chemistry Journals award in 2011. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012.

As a member of the Editorial Board, Andre is interested in using social media to promote NJC. We welcome Andre and look forward to the first tweet!

New Journal of Chemistry is proud to welcome three new Board Members. They will take part in the future development of the journal with their colleagues on the board. To get to know them, here is some information about our new members.

Dai-Wen Pang from Wuhan University, PR China

Dai-Wen PANG (庞代文) was born in 1961 in Songzi, China. Luojia Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine at Wuhan University, his research interests focus on the development of new nanobioprobes and nanobioprobe-based methodologies for biomedical research and clinical diagnosis, especially quantum dot-based dynamic biotracking and bioimaging for virus invasion, tumor metastasis and cancer diagnosis. Dai-Wen has over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Dai-Wen earned both his B.S. in Chemistry (1982) and Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry (in 1992, under the direction of Profs. Chuan-Sin CHA and Zong-Li WANG) at the University of Wuhan. Appointed in 2011 as Chief Scientist by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China to work on the Project of National Basic Research Program of China, he will bring to the Board all of his experience and knowledge. Among his various distinctions, Dai-wen received the First Award of the Natural Science Prize of the Ministry of Education of China (2006) and most recently the distinction of National Outstanding Scientist (2012).

Dai-Wen’s reaction on accepting his nomination: “It is really my honor to be an NJC Editorial Board member. In my opinion, chemistry should intercross with other disciplines, especially, it should get into life sciences. We chemists should be able to contribute to the fight against diseases such as viruses, cancers and so on. We have great opportunities at the interfaces among chemistry, biology, and nanoscience. I will try my best to promote interdisciplinary study of chemistry with biology, medicine, and nanoscience etc..”

Christina Moberg of KTH, Stockholm, Sweden

Christina MOBERG was born in 1947. Full Professor at the KTH School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Organic Chemistry Department in Stockholm since 1997, she obtained her B.Sc. at the University of Stockholm and her Ph.D. at KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm with Prof. Martin Nilsson. Her research interests are centered on asymmetric metal catalysis and concern mainly the development of selective synthetic methods. Christina’s special interests are to determine the role of symmetry in asymmetric reactions and in the design of self-adaptable ligands.

Christina has received several awards, such as the “Göran Gustafsson Prize” from the Swedish Academy of Sciences, the “Sixten Heyman Prize” from Gothenburg University and the “Ulla and Stig Holmquist Prize” from Uppsala University; Christina was also awarded the Rosalyn Franklin Lecture tour in Britain in 2005. She has been “knighted” by the French President into the French National Order of Merit in 1999. Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, Christina served as vice-President of the former academy until mid 2011.

Christina feels that Board members and play an important role in today’s scientific community: “As the borders between the traditional sub-disciplines of chemistry are becoming less pronounced, a broad-based forum such as the New Journal of Chemistry has an important role to fulfill. As a member of the Editorial Board I will be happy to assist in future development of the journal. Strict adhesion to ethical guidelines is a prerequisite for the promotion of science, and the Board, together with the authors, reviewers, and Editors, should do its best to ensure that strict ethical rules are obeyed.”

Sijbren Otto from Groningen University, The Netherlands

Sijbren OTTO was born in Groningen in the Netherlands in 1971. Associate Professor in the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, he received his M.Sc. (1994) and Ph.D. (1998) degrees cum laude from the same university, working in the group of Prof. Jan B. F. N. Engberts. After his Ph.D. he moved to the United States for a year as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Steven Regen, investigating synthetic systems mediating ion transport through lipid bilayers. In 1999 he received a Marie Curie Fellowship and moved to the University of Cambridge, where he worked for two years with Prof. Jeremy Sanders on dynamic combinatorial libraries. Sijbren then embarked on an independent research career in Cambridge as a Royal Society University Research Fellow.

Sijbren moved back to the University of Groningen in 2009 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011. His research interests are broad and range from supramolecular chemistry to systems chemistry, embracing topics like catalysis, molecular recognition, self-assembly and self-replication. Sijbren was awarded an ERC starting grant in 2011, a VICI grant in 2013 and currently coordinates a Marie Curie Initial Training Network on Systems Chemistry.

Regarding NJC, Sijbren has these thoughts: “I think it is important to support a general chemistry journal carried by non-profit chemical societies in order to maintain the balance between commercial and non-profit journals. At the same time, it is important to safeguard the quality of such journals at a time of an ever-increasing quantity of manuscripts that are produced throughout the world. “

We extend a warm welcome to our three new Board members on behalf of all the actors of the journal! We look forward to collaborating with them in the coming years.

Prof. Jairton Dupont, NJC's new Associate Editor

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Jairton Dupont as NJC‘s Associate Editor for the Americas. He is a professor of the Institute of Chemistry at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) located in Porte Alegra in Brazil’s southernmost state. He replaces Prof. Michael Scott (formerly at the University of Florida and now at NSF). 

Jaïrton has close ties to France and the UK (NJC‘s two “homes”), having received his Ph.D. degree from the Université Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg (France). After a period as a post-doc at the University of Oxford (UK), he joined the UFRGS, taking up his current position in 1992. His research interests are mainly centered on ionic liquids with special emphasis in catalysis, nanomaterials and alternative energies. Jaïrton has authored well over 200 scientific works, including an organometallic chemistry textbook. 

 Among his various distinctions, Jaïrton is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and he has received many awards such as the Humboldt Research Award, the Conrado Wessel Award, the TWAS Award and the Brazilian Gran Cruz. He has returned to the “Old World” on numerous occasions, including as an invited professor at ULP, the University of Nuremberg-Erlangen (Germany) and Universidad de Alcala de Henares and Rovira i Virgili (Spain). Click here to see his CV (in Portuguese).  

Jaïrton’s commitment to excellence in scientific publishing is based on the following: “The worldwide dissemination of scientific achievements relies mostly on periodicals and therefore reputable professional journals are the most significant platform tool in this process. New Journal of Chemistry is certainly one of the platforms for the dissemination of the most important scientific global achievements in chemistry in their whole diversity.”  

I extend a warm welcome to Jaïrton on behalf of the NJC Editorial Board, the editors of NJC, RSC Publishing and the CNRS.  

To submit your work to NJC, click here (or paste this link into your browser: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/njc). 

The Editors-in-Chief of NJC welcome 3 new members to the boards. Earlier this year Len Barbour of Stellenbosch University in South Africa and Takashi Kato of the University of Tokyo were appointed to the Editorial Board, while Davit Zargarian, at the University of Montreal in Québec, Canada, has joined the International Advisory Board.

In this post, I present Professor Davit Zargarian, who has been at the University of Montreal since 1993.

Davit Zargarian began his studies at the University of Toronto as an undergraduate in the group of Professor Martin Moskovits, working on the oxidation of ethylene. After his B. S. degree, he moved to the University of Waterloo to join the new organometallic chemistry/homogenous catalysis laboratory led by Professor Todd Marder. His M. S. studies centered on the preparation of Rh-alkynyl complexes. The University of Ottawa was his next home, where Davit prepared his Ph. D. thesis with Professor Howard Alper on the Ni- and Pd-catalyzed carbonylation of alkenes and alkynes. In 1991, Davit moved to the Scripps Institute for his first postdoctoral stint. After working on Os-catalyzed dihydroxylation of olefins in the group of Professor Barry Sharpless, Davit moved across the street to the San Diego campus of the University of California to work in the research group of Professor Don Tilley, studying the chemistry of Hf-silyl complexes.

Davit returned to Canada in 1993 to take up a position as Assistant Professor at the University of Montreal, where he learnt to teach inorganic and organometallic chemistry in French and moved up the ranks to become Full Professor in 2004. The Zargarian research group typically consists of a small group of enthusiastic students focused on the coordination and organometallic chemistry of first-row transition metals (primarily nickel) featuring ligands such as indenyls, bis- and tris(pyrazolyl)alkanes, and various types of pincer ligands. The main theme of their studies is homogeneous catalysis promoted by new complexes designed and synthesized by the group.

Davit has a message to address to the chemistry community worldwide: “I look forward to joining my colleagues on the international advisory  board in their efforts to strengthen New Journal Chemistry as a society publication that will contribute to the advancement of the chemical sciences. With the rapid worldwide growth of chemical research over the past two decades, it is incumbent on all of us to take steps to avoid fragmentation of our research results, strive to interpret the avalanche of new data being generated worldwide, and formulate this data into new knowledge that can be communicated to the research community and the society at large. In this spirit, I urge my fellow inorganic and organometallic chemists to consider publishing their latest research results in the form of articles and perspectives in NJC.”

We wish a warm welcome to Davit and look forward to a fruitful collaboration with him as a representative of the Canadian chemistry community.

The Editors-in-Chief of NJC welcome 3 new members to the boards. Earlier this year Len Barbour of Stellenbosch University in South Africa and Takashi Kato of the University of Tokyo were appointed to the Editorial Board, while Davit Zargarian, at the University of Montreal in Québec, Canada, has joined the International Advisory Board. Len and Takashi will be participating in the 2012 NJC Symposia: New Directions in Chemistry, which will be held in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing during the last week of April.

In this post I present Len Barbour, professor of chemistry at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

Len completed his Ph.D. research in 1994 at the University of Cape Town, where he studied physico-chemical aspects of inclusion compounds under the direction of Professor Luigi Nassimbeni. He then moved to the University of Missouri-Columbia (UMC) to work as a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Jerry Atwood. Len continued at UMC as a Research Assistant Professor until 2003, at which time he moved back to South Africa to take up an Associate Professor position at Stellenbosch University. Len was promoted to Full Professor in 2005 and two years later was awarded a South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) Chair in Nanostructured Functional Materials, a position that was recently renewed.

Len’s research interests centre on structure-property relationships in molecular crystals. Properties of interest include porosity, nonlinear optics, and anomalous thermal expansion, with the main objective being to gain new insights into physical processes that occur at the molecular scale. Using a crystal engineering approach, the group carries out multifaceted studies that include the synthesis of molecular building blocks, crystallisation studies, kinetic and thermodynamic measurements, X-ray structure elucidation, computation and process engineering.  Methodology development is also a strong research theme within the group.

Of his nomination to the NJC Board, Len had this to say: “I was greatly honoured when asked to join the editorial board of the New Journal of Chemistry—an invitation that I accepted without hesitation. NJC has a longstanding record of publishing outstanding papers that cover a broad range of subdisciplines within chemistry, and I very much look forward to making meaningful contributions aimed at maintaining and even improving the journal’s profile.“

We look forward to welcoming Len Barbour onto the Editorial Board of NJC at the upcoming Board meeting.

The Editors-in-Chief of NJC welcome 3 new members to the boards. Earlier this year Len Barbour of Stellenbosch University in South Africa and Takashi Kato of the University of Tokyo were appointed to the Editorial Board, while Davit Zargarian, at the University of Montreal in Québec, Canada, has joined the International Advisory Board. Len and Takashi will be participating in the 2012 NJC Symposia: New Directions in Chemistry, which will be held in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing during the last week of April.

In this post, I present Takashi Kato, who is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology of the School of Engineering at The University of Tokyo since 2000. His research focuses on the development of self-assembled functional materials including liquid crystals, gels, polymers, stimuli-responsive materials, nanostructured ion- and electron-active materials, and bio-inspired hybrids.

Takashi received his Ph.D. degree at the University of Tokyo in 1988. After his postdoctoral research at Cornell University with Professor Jean M. J. Frechet on supramolecular liquid crystals and polymers (1988-1989), he joined The University of Tokyo. Takashi is the recipient of numerous awards from a variety of organizations around the world: the Chemical Society of Japan Award for Young Chemists (1993), the Wiley Polymer Science Award (Chemistry, 2001), the 17th IBM Japan Science Award (Chemistry, 2003), the 1st JSPS Prize (2005), the Japanese Liquid Crystal Society (2008), Molecular Science Forum Lecture Professorship of the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science (2009), and the Society of Polymer Science, Japan (2010).

Takashi has published about 350 papers including original papers, reviews, and chapters of books. He is an Associate Editor of Polymer Journal (2002-present) and is also on several advisory boards, including those of two RSC journals—Journal of Materials Chemistry and Chemical Science.

“It is my great pleasure to join the Editorial Board of New Journal of Chemistry. Interdisciplinary fields relating to and surrounding chemistry and interdisciplinary fields in chemistry are becoming more important both to advance science and to resolve global issues. I believe New Journal of Chemistry is an excellent forum for this mission.”

With his vast experience in chemistry and in working with RSC Publishing, we are looking forward to having Takashi Kato’s input into NJC‘s editorial policy and his help for the promotion of the journal.