Position
Professor and Head of the School of Chemistry at the University of Tasmania
Qualifications
• Lectureship (1989) the University of Tasmania.
• Postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, and at the University of Georgia.
• PhD (1987) the Australian National University working with Professor Leo Radom.
Expertise
• Computational chemistry to study reaction mechanisms in organic and organometallic chemistry.
Key Areas of Research
• Understanding and improving the action of isoniazid in tuberculosis treatment.
• Systematic tuning of carbene-based organometallic catalysts.
• Design of early transition metal complexes for the breaking of chemistry’s strongest bonds (in molecules such as N2, CN-, and CO).
• Fundamental studies of the reaction mechanisms in organocatalysis.
• Understanding the interactions of resin acids and fatty acids in the chemistry of wood pulps.
Selected Publications
Amos, RIJ; Gourlay, BS; Schiesser, CH; Smith, JA; Yates, BF. A Mechanism on the Oxidation of Hydrazides: Application to the Tuberculosis Drug Isoniazid. Chem. Commun., 2008, 1695–1697.
Ariafard, A; Brookes, N; Stranger, R; Yates, BF. A Molecular Orbital Rationalisation of Ligand Effects in N2 Activation. Chem. Eur. J. 2008, 14, 6119-6124.
