| Citation | Distinguished for his development of the coordination chemistry of the transition elements, leading to an improved understanding of their role in biological systems. Early work made notable contributions to the synthesis and crystallographic characterization of metal nitrate complexes, and to the structural classification of the numerous modes of coordination of the nitrato ligand. This was extended to a study of the role of the molybdenum centre in the nitrate reductase enzymes, and to a pioneering work on the use of EXAFS at Daresbury to probe the chemical distinction between active and desulpho xanthine oxidase. Elegant syntheses afforded the first examples of complexes containing Fe3MoS4 and Fe3WS4 cubane-like cores. Subsequently, X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) of the Fe/Mo and Fe/V cofactors resulted in the first structural characterization for a vanadium site in an enzyme. Imaginative work on Cu-Mo-S and Cu-V-S clusters, and on the copper and zinc sites in reduced bovine superoxide dismutase have provided further important insights. Garner was awarded the Tilden Lectureship in 1985 and is the author or coauthor of some 240 papers. |