Karsten Meyer (chemist)

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Karsten Meyer (born May 17, 1968, in Herne, Germany) is a German inorganic chemist and Chair of Inorganic and General Chemistry at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU).^[1] His research involves the coordination chemistry of transition metals as well as uranium coordination chemistry, small molecule activation with these coordination complexes, and the synthesis of new chelating ligands.^[2][3] He is the 2017 recipient of the Elhuyar-Goldschmidt Award of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry, the Ludwig-Mond Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry,^[4] and the L.A. Chugaev Commemorative Medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences, among other awards. He also serves as an Associate Editor of the journal Organometallics since 2014.^[5][6]

Meyer was born on May 17, 1968, in Herne, Germany.^[7][8] He studied chemistry at the Ruhr University Bochum, receiving his diploma (in chemistry) in May 1995.^[8] In summer 1995, Meyer then joined the laboratory of Professor Karl Wieghardt at the Max Planck Institute for Radiation Chemistry, where he worked on the synthesis of novel high-valent nitrido complexes of manganese,^[9] chromium^[10] and iron.^[11] These nitrido complexes were generated by the photolysis of the corresponding azido complexes.^[8] Meyer graduated in January 1998 with his Ph.D. He then moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a DFG Postdoctoral Fellow in 1998 to conduct research in the laboratory of Professor Christopher Cummins.^[8] AT MIT, Meyer worked on amido complexes of uranium with novel amido ligands^[12] and dinitrogen cleavage with heterobimetallic complexes of niobium and molybdenum.^[13]

In 2001, Meyer began his independent career as an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego. Then in 2006, Meyer moved to the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg as the Chair of the Institute of Inorganic & General Chemistry.^[14]

Meyer's early work featured explored the coordination chemistry of uranium with small molecules such as carbon dioxide^[15][16] and light alkanes.^[17] Additionally, Meyer's group synthesized novel tripodal N-heterocyclic carbene ligands^[18][19] to stabilize reactive intermediates such as an iron(IV) nitride.^[20][21] In 2011, in collaboration with Prof. Jeremy M. Smith's group, Meyer achieved the first synthesis and characterization of a stable iron(V) nitride complex.^{[22][23][24][25]}

Other research highlights include:

• 2013: In collaboration with Prof. Ingo Krossing's group, the first crystallographic characterization of the 2-norbornyl cation, a prototypical non-classical carbocation whose exact structure has been debated for decades^{[26][27][28][29][30][31][32]}
• 2014: The synthesis of a novel tripodal redox-active ligand class,^[33][34] which was then used to stabilize a low-valent U(II) oxidation state complex^[35]
• 2016: The first example of a uranium-based electrocatalyst for the reduction of water to dihydrogen,^[36] and the investigation of its reaction mechanism^[37][38]

• Hellman Fellow, Chris & Warren Hellman Young Faculty Award, 2002^[39]
• Faculty Career Development Award, Academic Senate, UCSD, 2003^[39]
• Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, 2004^[39]
• Lifetime Honorary Member, Israel Chemical Society, 2009^[39]
• Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester, since 2009^[39]
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Award, 2009^[39]
• Dalton Transactions European / African Lectureship Award, 2010^[40]
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, 2011^[39]
• JSPS Professorship, "Brain Circulation Project", Nagoya Institute of Technology, 2015^[39]
• Elhuyar-Goldschmidt Award, Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017^[39]
• Ludwig Mond Award, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017^[4]
• L.A. Chugaev Commemorative Medal, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2017^[39]

• German Chemical Society (GDCh), since 1995^[39]
• American Chemical Society (ACS), since 1997^[39]
• Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), since 2011^[39]

Meyer's hobbies include nature and macro photography, scuba diving, and driving his car on a closed circuit.^[8]