Cluster for Molecular Chemistry

Biography

Name Alan Edward Rowan Date of Birth 2nd June 1966 Nationality British Address Department of Chemistry University of Nijmegen Toernooiveld 1 6525 ED Nijmegen Netherlands Phone +31 24 3 652323 Fax. +31 24 3 652929 E-mail a.rowan@science.ru.nl

Education

1975-1984		St. Joseph's College, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England
	'O' Levels:	Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Biology, Computer Studies, Geography, French, English Language, English Literature, History, Religious Studies. (Grades 8 A's, 2 B;s, C)
	'A' Levels:	Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, General studies. (Grades A, 2 B's, C)
1984-1987		University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England BSc. 1st Class Honours in Chemistry Leverhulme Prize and Leblanc Medal (Final Year Chemistry Prize Liverpool University)
1987-1990		University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry; "N.M.R. and Computational Studies as a Probe for Structural Elucidation in Solution" supervisor: Professor R.J. Abraham
1991-1993		University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with Dr C.A.Hunter and Prof. D.A.Buckingham
1993-1994		Research Fellowship with Prof. R.J.M.Nolte. University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
1994-95		European Fellowship (H.C.M.P.) ‘Transition Metals in Supramolecular Catalysis’, University of Nijmegen
1996-		Assistant Professor, Physical Organic Chemistry University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
2003-		Associate Professor- Supramolecular Chemistry University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
2005-		FullProfessor – Department of Molecular Materials Institute of Molecules and Materials University of Nijmegen

Scientific Awards and Achievements

• Leverhulme Prize and Leblanc Medal Final Year Chemistry Prize Liverpool University-1987).
• Jonge Chemie Award. Independent funding for one PhD position 1999. (Young Scientist Award. Biannual Funding awarded to the top 15 chemistry proposals, for all persons in the chemical sciences under the age of 40). Topic:-‘Nanosized Porphyrin Architectures’.;
• One of the top cited articles for the Journal of Angewandte Chemie 1999. ‘Helical Molecular Programming’.
• National Science Foundation, Vidi Research Award (€ 600,000), 2001; ‘Catalytic Rotaxanes. Mimicking Nature’s Processive Catalysts’.
• Member of the editorial advisory board for the RSC Journal of Materials Chemistry (J. Mat. Chem.), (2003).
• Awarded International SPP/JPP Young Investigator Award in Porphyrin and Phthalocyanine Chemistry (2004).

Teaching Experience

• Teaching of the postgraduate courses in supramolecular chemistry students 1997-2003, (Advanced courses for PhD students).
  
• Erasmus Fellow (Visiting Professor), Socrates Programme for Higher Education, Guest Lecturer at the University Bratislava March 14^th- march 20^th 1999 and University of Barcelona March 2001, (E.C. Postgraduate courses in supramolecular chemistry. Lecture course presented on, Host-guest chemistry, Rotaxanes/Catanenes, Porphyrin/Phthalocyanine arrays and Supramolecular Catalysis.
• RPK Polymer Course March 2000, The Netherlands, Specific Areas, Supramolecular Chemistry and Rotaxane Chemistry.
• I teach both 3^rd year and final lecture courses. A 3^rd Year Lecture Course in Physical Organic and a final year lecture courses in Supramolecular Chemistry and Nanotechnology.
• 2004-2005 Invited Professor University of Copenhagen (Teaching Nanomasters course)

In addition I am on the editorial board of New Journal of Chemistry (2003-) and the advisory board of Chemistry World (RSC, 2004-).

Research Group

As a postdoctural researcher I carried out my own research within that of Prof Nolte and supervised three Ph D. students and 6 M.Sc Students.
Since 1996 I became officially a Lecturer of Physical Chemistry
My first PhD student (Dr. J.N.H Reek) graduated in 1996 and since then three others have completed their study and two others are in the process of writing their thesis.

Graduated Student

Dr J. Reek	(1996)
Dr J. Foekema	(1999)
Dr H. Elemans	(2000)
Dr E. Bijsterveld	(2003)
Drs J. HoogBoom	(2004)
Drs P. De Witte	(2004)
Drs D. Vriesema	(2005)
Drs M. Lensen	(2005)
Drs G. Metslaar	(2005)

In 2005 I became Head the Department of Molecular Materials, Radboud University of Nijmegen. I currently have a research group of approximately 25 people with a budget of 2 million euros per year.

Grant Applications

To date I have been awarded several Ph.D. grants in the areas of Nanosized Architectures and Porphryin Arrays (SON)

• Awarded funding for two PhD positions 1997, (S.O.N. equivalent to E.P.S.R.C.):- ‘Investigation of Nanorings Self-Assembling Porphyrin Superstructures’.
• Awarded funding for one PhD position 1999. (Young Scientist Award. Biannual Funding awarded to the top 15 chemistry proposals. For all persons in the chemical sciences under 40):-‘Nanosized Porphyrin Architectures’.
• I have also received funding from the NRSCC for two PhD positions in the areas of ‘Self-assembling oxidative catalysts’ and in the field of ‘Catalytic Rotaxanes mimics of DNA exo-nucleases’.
• 4.Vidi Research Award (600 KEuro) three PhD positions and one Post Doctoral position.‘Catalytic Rotaxanes. Mimicking Natures Processive Catalysts’.
• 5.NRSC- funding (2004) for 2-PhD positions (co authors-R.J.M Nolte and J. Cornelissen), ‘Supramolecular Catalysis and the Metabolic Pathway’- Towards Hybrid Cells’ and ‘'Enzyme Catalyzed Cascade Reactions in Vesicular Microreactors’ (500 KEuro).
• CHEXTAN (European-RTN) 2004,1 PhD-1Postdoc position (500 KEuro)
• NanoNed (2005) funding for three PhD’s and 1 Post-doc(Total -1.3 Million Euro) in the fields of ‘Single Molecule Transistors’ and ‘Single Molecule Nanomotors’.

I have in addition written successful grant applications to the EEC for postdoctoral funding TMR fellowship (B. Escuder, Supramolecular Catalysis 1999) and I. Dixon (Marie Cure Fellowship 2000) P. Thordarson (Marie Cure Fellowship 2000) and K. Velonia (Marie curie fellowship 2002) (and also to the Spanish Government (J. Farrera, Synthetic Antenna Mimics).

I am also currently a collaborator within a TMR Network, SISITOMAS, (Submicron Imaging and Stimulus Induced Transformation of Organic Molecular Absorbates at Surfaces) and a Phthalocyanine TMR Nework ‘Optical properties of phthalocyanines and related compounds: an interdisciplinary training in the chemistry, new technologies and industrial applications’. I am also a partner in two 6^th Framework actions, BIONICS (Eurocores –1 PostDoc)) and BIOSCOPE (STREP-3 year Postdoc) both of which have begun in 2004 and CHEXTAN (RTN) which was funded in April 2004 (1 PhD –for 4 years).

In addition I have organized several International conferences.

• ESF Conference Supramolecular Chemistry ‘ Advanced Materials’.Kerkrade, the Netherlands, Sept 1998. (~400 persons)
• Organizer of SMARTON 5, Nov. 2001, Maastricht.(~100 people)
• Organizer of the 2004 EMRS Smart Materials conference in Strasbourg, France. (~500 persons).

Conference Presentations

• International Conference 'Nano-Structures and Self-Assemblies in Polymer Systems', May 18-26, St Petersburg-Moscow 1995. Lecture Presented: 'Modification of the Physical Properties of Polymers by Supramolecular Chemistry'.
• NSR 5^th Symposium, The Netherlands, 1995.Lecture presented: ‘The Design and Construction of Supramolecular Architectures’
• SON 'Macromolecules' Feb. 8-10, Lunteren, Netherlands 1996.Lecture presented: 'Modification of the Physical Properties of Polymers by Supramolecular Chemistry'.
• SON ‘Bioorganic Systems’ Lunteren, Netherlands 1997.Lecture presented: ‘Supramolecular mimics of Photosynthetic Systems’.
• CERC3 Workshop, ‘Supramolecular Chemistry entering the Nanoworlds, Enschede, The Netherlands, March 1997.Lecture Presented: ‘Porphyrin-Viologen Rotaxanes: Towards Nanodevices?”.
• NATO workshop, ‘Transition Metals in Supramolecular Chemistry’, Italy, May 1998. Lecture Presented: ‘Porphyrin Supramolecular Architectures’
• ESF Conference Supramolecular Chemistry ‘ Advanced Materials’.Kerkrade, theNetherlands, Sept 1998. Lecture Presented: ‘Porphyrin and Phthalocyanine Supramolecular Architectures’.
• ESF SMARTON workshop, Brugge Belgium, Jan.1999. Lecture Presented: ‘Macromolecular Porphyrin Architectures’.
• International Conference of Nanostructures, University of Groningen Nov 1999.Lecture presented ‘Porphyrin and Phthalocyanine Nanostructures’.
• University of Ulm invited lecture, ‘May 5^th 2000, ‘Self-Assembling Nanostructures’.
• International Conference of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines Dijon, France June 25-30^th, 2000. Lecture Presented: ‘Functional Porphyrin Rotaxanes’.
• ESF conference Ulbino August 31^st-Sept 5^th 2000, Supramolecular Catalysis. Lecture Presented ‘Self-Assembling Porphyrin Arrays for Energy Transfer and Catalysis’.
• Dutch Isreali Meeting Nov. 13rd 2000 ‘Self-assembling Nano-sized Architectures’.
• Louis Pasteur Institute, University of Strasbourg, January 18^th 2001. Lecture presented ‘Porphyrin and Phthalocyanine Nanostructures’.
• American Chemical Society meeting San Diego March 2001, USA. Lecture Presented ‘Self-assembling Nanoarchitectures’.
• Humbolt University, Berlin. May 25^th 2001 Invited lecturer. Lecture presented ‘Polyisocyanide Architectures’.
• ECME 5 International conference Sept 22, 2001. Lecture entitled ‘Functional Polyisocyanides,toward Energy and Electron transfer’.
• Plenary Lecture Nagoya Conference, Nagoya, Japan, Nov. 13^th 2001 'Hierarchical Molecular Programming. -Functional Nanoarchitectures’.
• Van der Kerk Symposia, Utrech, The Netherlands 18^th March 2002, Invited Speaker, ‘Functional Biohybrid Assemblies’.
• Visiting Professor University of Messina, Sicily, Italy, 6^th-10^th May 2002. Lecture entitled, ‘Supramolecular Nanoarchitectures’.
• ICPP2 Conference, Osaka, Japan, 30^thJune -5^th July, 2002, ‘Catalytic Porphyrin Rotaxanes’.
• ACS International Meeting, Boston, USA, 18^th-22^nd August 2002. Lecture presented ‘ Self-assembling Porphyrin Nano-objects’.
• ESF Supramolecular Chemistry Conference, San-Feliu de Guixols, Spain, 14^th-18^th September, 2002. Invited Speaker, lecture presented ‘Chromophoric Nanowires’.
• European COST network conference, Vienna, Austria, 26^th-28^th September 2002. Invited Speaker, ’Supramolecular and Macromolecular chirality at a nanometer scale’.
• CERC3 ‘Nanotechnology’ Gottenburg, Sweden, 10^th-13^th April, 2003, Invited Speaker,’Functional bioinspired Nanoarchitectures’.
• Electrochemical Society, Paris, France, 27^thApril- 2 May 2003. Invited speaker, ‘Porphyrin Nanoarchitectures’.
• Invited Professor, University of Southampton, Southampton, England, 14^th-16th May, 2003. Lecture presented,’Functional nanoarchitectures’
• 42^nd IUPAC Meeting Ottawa, Canada, 10^th-16^th August, 2003. Invited Lectures ;’Dynamic Supramolecular Self-assembly at a Surface’ and ‘Functional Porphyrin Nanoarchitectures’.
• EUROMAT 2003, Lausanne Switzerland, September 1^st–5^th 2003, Invited Speaker, ‘Bioinspired Nanoarchitectures’.
• Invited Speaker, ECME 7, 10^th-14^th September Avignon France 10^th-14^th September 2003, ‘Catalytic Rotaxanes’.
• Invited Speaker, Technical University of Eindhoven, Netherlands, November 12^th, 2003 , ‘Functional Nanoarchitectures’
• Invited Professor, University of Copenhagen, Nanoscience Institute, Denmark, 2003, 2^nd –6^th, presented a series of lectures in the field of Bionanotechnology.
• Invited speaker, A.C.S International Meeting, Anaheim, California, USA, 27^thMarch-3rd April, 2004, Lecture presented, ‘Biohyrbrid giant amphiphiles by metal-to-ligand’.
• Prince Award Lecture, Department of Chemistry, University of Delft, April 8^th 2004, ‘Chromophoric Nanostructures: Rings, Wires and Arrays’.
• JSP-Young Investigators Prize Lecture, ICPP 3, New Orleans, USA, July14^th-18^th.2004 ‘Porphyrin Nanostructures’
• Invited Lecture, Gordon Research Conference, Tetrapyrroles in Biology and Chemistry, Salve Regina University, Newport, New England, USA, 25^th-31^st July, 2004, Lecture ‘ Bioinspired Nanoscience’.
• Invited speaker, International Symposium Colloidal Architectures, Division of Surface
  Chemistry of the Swedish Chemical Society, Lund University 18-19 Nov. 2004.
• Invited speaker International Conference on Nanotechnology: Science and Application [NanoTech Insight’05], 20–25 Feb. 2005 in Luxor, Egypt.
• Invited speaker, ECME8 CNR di Bologna, Italy, 29 Jun-2 Jul, 2005.
• Invited Speaker, 12th RACI National Convention, 3-7 July, 2005 at the Sydney, Australia.

In addition to the above, I have given approximately 2O invited departmental lectures and symposium lectures in the last 2 years.

Extra Curriculum Activity

• President of Chemical Society, 1987-1989
• Cadet Pilot of the Royal Air Force 1986-1989
• Father of three children.
• Hobbies Golf, Flying, and fine malt whisky

Publications