NJC Blog

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.