| Citation | Professor Power is distinguished for his contributions (over 300 journal articles) to the synthesis of main group and transition metal compounds, which include many that were the first of their type, e.g. the first characterization of halide-rich organolithium compounds (1983), the first crystalline, free carbanions (1985), the first one-coordinate metals in the solid state (1998), the first well-characterized group 2 element imides (1994), the first stable divalent hydrides of the group 14 elements (2000), the first stable hydrides of bismuth (2000), the first crystalline, two-coordinate, transition metal d4, d6, d7, and d8 complexes (late 1980's). New areas he has pioneered include multiple bonding between boron and elements such as C, P, and As. He and his group also characterized the first boron-boron double bonds (1991), the first multiple bonds involving gallium and (jointly) aluminum (1993) and structurally characterized the first B, Al (jointly) and Ga centered radicals. The factors which control multiple bonding between Al, Ga, In and elements such as N, P, As, O, S or Se has also been a major theme in his main group 13 chemistry investigations. He also discovered the first heavier element analogues of borazine (1987-1996) whose rings include atoms such as Al, Ga, Ge, Zn, N, S, P or As, as part of quasi-aromatic ?-electron systems. More recent work has focused on heavier group 14 elements and this has led to the first crystal structures of Ge and Sn centered molecular radicals (1997) and the first stable compound with a triply bonded heavier main group 14 element (Ge) (1996). In addition, the first heavier group 14 element analogues of acetylene and the first divalent hydrides of group 14 elements and the first stable bismuth hydride were recently (2000-2002) characterized. These were stabilized with bulky m-terphenyl groups which he first introduced as metal ligands (1993). Many important classes of organocopper compounds, including the first isolation and structure of a higher-order cuprate (1988), a cyano-organocuprate (1999) and an organocopper cationic salt, were performed in his laboratory. The many important observations first made by him are widely cited in the primary literature as well as in prominent inorganic and organometallic textbooks. He has been the recipient of fellowships from the A. P. Sloan Foundation and the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung. In addition, he has been the recipient of the Mond Medal of the Royal Soceity of Chemistry (2004) and the F.A. Cotton Award for Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (2005). |