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Professor Kingsley Cavell
Kingsley Cavell obtained his PhD at La Trobe University (Melbourne, Australia, 1977). He then undertook postdoctoral studies in thermochemistry/thermodynamics with Professor Hank Skinner and Dr Geoff Pilcher at the University of Manchester (1975-1978). This was followed by further studies at the University of Amsterdam, with Professor Kees Vrieze working in synthetic organometallic chemistry (Research Scientist, 1st Class, 1978-1980). Kingsley returned to Australia in 1980 to a position at the CSIRO Division of Materials Science, (1980-1986) where he was promoted to Senior Research Scientist. In 1986 he moved to the University of Tasmania where he remained for the next 14 years developing his academic career in organometallic chemistry and catalysis, and enjoying the wonderful Tasmanian lifestyle. In 2000 he moved to the UK, where was appointed Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Cardiff University. From 2006-2009 he was Head of School at Cardiff University.
He has held positions as Guest Professor, at RWTH, Aachen with Professor W Keim (1990 & 1994), and as Guest Professor, at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, with Professor Guangxing Li (1997).
Kingsley received the Dean’s Award for Research Excellence, Faculty Science & Engineering (Univ. of Tasmania) (1998)
He received the RSC Industrially-sponsored Award in Homogeneous Catalysis (2001).
He delivered a Keynote Address at the Priority Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG): (“Secondary Interactions/Selective Functionalization”) 2006.
He held the Swiss Troisème Cycle Lectureship (5 lectures, 4 universities) 2007 Kingsley’s research interests span various aspects of organometallic chemistry and catalysis, including synthetic chemistry, ligand/catalyst design, and mechanistic studies. In the past 15 years the focus has been on N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) as ligands, and as reagents in catalysis. He has published a number of key papers in the area; he has developed a novel catalytic reaction with NHCs/imidazolium salts as substrate, and recently he had investigated novel expanded ring NHCs as ligands with exciting potential in catalysis.
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