Organometallics in Process Chemistry

Thomas J. Colacot is currently working at Millipore Sigma, USA (business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany), since May 2018 as a R&D Fellow, and Director - Global Technology Innovation (Lab and Specialty Chemicals). In 2018 he was named as one of the most outstanding researchers at Merck.Dr. Colacot received his PhD in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 1989, and was awarded the IIT Madras’ Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2016 for his technical contributions in the field of organometallic chemistry and catalysis. Immediately after his PhD, he held postdoctoral teaching positions, working on Gr. III-V chemistry for applications of performance materials in the electronics industry, and metallocarborane for catalysis at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and at the Southern Methodist University respectively. He also had combined teaching and research positions at Florida State University and Florida A&M University. Prior to this Dr Colacot has worked as Global R &D Manager/Technical Fellow in Homogeneous Catalysis at Johnson Matthey until May 2018. He is a co-author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and patents. He has also edited books such as “New Trends in Cross Coupling: Theory and Applications” (2014, RSC), “Organometallics In Process Chemistry – Topics in Organometallic Chemistry” (Springer, this volume) and Organometallic Chemistry in Industry (Wiley VCH, in press) . He has also given over 400 presentations at national and international conferences, universities and chemical and pharmaceutical companies. He is on numerous national committees and holds visiting professorships at various universities. His technical contributions to the field have resulted in many awards, amongst them the 2017 Catalysis Club of Philadelphia Award for outstanding contributions in catalysis, 2015 American Chemical Society National Award in Industrial Chemistry, 2015 IPMI Henry Alfred Medal by the International Precious Metal Institute , 2016 Chemical Research Society of India CRSI medal, and the Royal Society of Chemistry 2012 Applied Catalysis Award and Medal. In addition Thomas holds an MBA degree and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.Dr. Sivakumar Vilvanathan received his PhD in 2006 from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore where he worked under the guidance of Prof. Balaji Jagirdar in organometallic chemistry. After completing his doctoral studies, he joined the research group of Prof. Goverdhan Mehta in the same institute to conduct post-doctoral studies in synthetic organic chemistry. In 2009 he joined Johnson Matthey and now he works there as Manager – R&D. His main responsibilities at Johnson Matthey are providing technical support for the customers and development inputs to the in-house R&D team.

Organometallic Process Chemistry: A historical snapshot.- Atom Economical Process for LnPd(0) Based Precatalysts.- Cross Coupling Reactions of Heteroatomic Electrophiles.- Transfer hydrogenation.- Organometallic approaches to 3.1.0 bicycles in process chemistry.- The Oxygen Effect in Heteromultimetallic Catalysis: Oxygen Bridged Catalysts for Olefin Polymerization Process.- Sodium acrylate from Ethylene and CO2 via a continuous flow process.- Application of Organometallic Catalysts in API Synthesis.- Organometallic Processes in water.- Meeting metal limits in Pharmaceutical Processes.