| Description | Distinguished by his work on heterogeneous catalysis, pioneering the use of gold catalysts, being the first to 'predict' and subsequently demonstrate that gold would be a highly effective catalyst for ethyne hydrochlorination, thereby establishing a new field of catalysis. He has taken a leading role in understanding the mechanisms of important C1 reactions. His early work at ICI made discoveries with oxidation catalysts that are still commercially operated. He has led use of in situ methods to determine catalyst structure during reactions and using Raman spectroscopy he demonstrated the key importance of amorphous vanadium phosphates in butane oxidation. He has ppioneered enentioselctive heterogeneous catalysisi using elelctrstatically immobilised phosphates in butane oxidation. He has pioneered enantioselective heterogeneous catalysis using electrostatically immobililsed complexes providing a generic approach to the design of stable selective catalysts, and extended this to demonstrate that enantioselective reactions can occur at the gas-solid interface in the absence of solvent, providing faacile operabillity of these complex processes. |