Rate My Professor Max Massi

Professor Max Massi serves as Professor in the School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, at Curtin University. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2005 from the Institute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials, CNR, Bologna, Italy, with a thesis titled 'Molecular engineering and nanofabrication' under supervisors Prof A. Palazzi and Dr Fabio Biscarini. Prior to that, he earned his Laurea in Industrial Chemistry in 2001, equivalent to BSc (Hons), from the University of Bologna, graduating 110/110 summa cum laude on a thesis about functionalised 5-aryltetrazoles as ligands in organometallic complexes. Massi's academic career at Curtin began in 2009 as Lecturer and ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry, advancing to Senior Lecturer and ARC Future Fellow from 2011. He holds professional affiliations as a Chartered Chemist with the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Australian Society for Molecular Imaging. His teaching includes Biological Chemistry at the second-year level.

The research of Professor Massi centers on the design, synthesis, and application of luminescent metal complexes, encompassing phosphorescent transition metal complexes of rhenium(I), iridium(III), and platinum(II), as well as lanthanide coordination complexes with emissions in the visible and near-infrared regions. Notable projects involve developing optical markers for live cell imaging, such as the commercially available ReZolve-L1 for visualizing polar lipid trafficking, and investigations into structure-activity relationships for biological applications including cell penetration, toxicity, and organelle localization. Additional efforts explore tetranuclear lanthanoid-alkaline metal assemblies and their use as precursors for near-infrared emitting OLED devices. Massi has attracted substantial funding, including ARC Discovery Project DP170101895 ($474,500, 2017), ARC Future Fellowship FT130100033 ($705,120, 2013), ARC Linkage Infrastructure LE130100052 ($170,000, 2013), BioSA grant ($175,000, 2014), and ITEK Catalyst Grant ($105,000, 2014). Key publications feature 'Lanthanoid pyridyl-β-diketonate ‘triangles’. New examples of single molecule toroics' (Dalton Trans., 2020, with Ogden et al.), 'Rhenium N-heterocyclic carbene complexes block growth of aggressive cancers by inhibiting FGFR- and SRC-mediated signalling' (J. Exp. Clin. Cancer Res., 2020), 'Enhanced Near-Infrared Emission from Eight-Coordinate vs Nine-Coordinate YbIII Complexes Using 2-(5-Methylpyridin-2-yl)-8-hydroxyquinoline' (Inorg. Chem., 2020), and 'Synthesis and Photochemical Properties of Re(I) Tricarbonyl Complexes Bound to Thione and Thiazol-2-ylidene Ligands' (Organometallics, 2020). Massi has been honored with the 2016 RACI Organometallic Chemistry Award, ARC Future Fellowship (2013-2017), ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship (2009-2012), Advanced Spectroscopy in Chemistry Visiting Scholar Fellowship (2013), MONA LISA Fellowship (2003-2005), and Consorzio Spinner Fellowship (2002).