Anthony Arduengo

Anthony J. Arduengo III earned his B.S. in Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1974 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the same institution in 1976. After a brief stint as a research scientist at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company from 1976 to 1977, he joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as Assistant Professor of Chemistry, serving from 1977 to 1984. During this period, his research group achieved milestones in main group chemistry, including the creation of the first stable carbonyl ylide, the synthesis of the ADPO molecule exhibiting planar T-shaped phosphorus bonding, and the discovery of the edge inversion process at main group element centers. In 1984, Arduengo returned to DuPont, where he advanced to the position of Research Fellow by 1995, contributing to developments in low-VOC automotive coatings and polyimide films. In 1999, he entered academia full-time as the Saxon Professor of Chemistry at the University of Alabama, a position he held until 2018, after which he became Saxon Professor Emeritus. Currently, he is Professor of the Practice in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Braunschweig University of Technology in Germany.

Arduengo's research spans the interfaces of organic, inorganic chemistry, and materials science, with a focus on unusual valency, bonding arrangements, and low-valent main group compounds. He is renowned for synthesizing the first stable crystalline carbene, imidazol-2-ylidene, reported in 1991, which has profoundly influenced catalysis, polymer crosslinking, and transition metal chemistry. His group has also isolated saturated imidazolin-2-ylidenes, air-stable carbenes, and thiazol-2-ylidenes, along with their adducts across the periodic table. Key publications include "A Stable Crystalline Carbene" (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 1991), "Electronic Stabilization of Nucleophilic Carbenes" (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 1992), "A Stable Diaminocarbene" (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 1995), and "Imidazolylidenes, Imidazolinylidenes and Imidazolidines" (Tetrahedron, 1999). With over 22,000 citations on Google Scholar, his contributions have driven advancements in sustainable synthetic methodology, including xylochemistry from woody biomass and low-cost pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Arduengo has received numerous honors, including the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Prize and the Gold Medal for Excellence in Main Group Chemistry Research from the International Council on Main Group Chemistry, both in 1996, as well as election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007.

Professional Email: AJ.Arduengo@Chemistry.GaTech.edu