|
Vidar R. Jensen Associate Professor Department of Chemistry
|
|
Born 1966 in Kristiansand, Norway. Ph.D. in inorganic
chemistry from
the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1995, with a thesis on the
mechanism of Ziegler-Natta catalyzed polymerization under the
direction of Martin
Ystenes. VISTA
postdoctoral fellow (1995-1996) in the group of Knut
J.
Børve at the University of Bergen, Norway, and a NFR
(Norwegian Research
Council) postdoctoral fellow (1997-98) at Max-Planck Institut
für
Kohlenforschung, Germany, followed by a period (1998-2002) as
Max-Planck-Society postdoctoral fellow at the same institute (with Peter
W. Jolly and Walter
Thiel). In 2002 also CNRS Research
Associate (9 months)
with Rinaldo
Poli
at
Research interests:
My main research interest is the
application of
molecular-level computational methods to the investigation of
mechanisms of transition metal catalyzed reactions as well as to the
design of new catalysts. Investigation of reaction mechanisms in
catalytic processes is a task that is well suited for theoretical
methods since intermediate complexes and reaction pathways may be
difficult to verify by experimental techniques only. As a result of the
rapid development in both computational methodology and hardware, it is
now cost-efficient to move some of the catalyst development
screening-work from the lab to the computer. Integration of
computational chemistry into catalyst development through close
collaboration with experimentalists is an important part of my current
work. A second and related field of interest involves the calculation
of
spectroscopic fingerprints of transient and unstable transition metal
species to assist their experimental detection and structure
verification. Depending on the chemical problem in question, the
computational methods used in the above described projects range from
molecular mechanics through semi-empiry and density functional theory
to high level, wave function-correlated ab initio
methods. The
use of more approximate methods is routinely preceded by validation
against experimental data or results from higher level calculations.
Current projects and activities:
| -Reaction
mechanisms of industrial catalysts and biocatalysts.
|
|
|
| -Design of catalysts and drugs by theory-driven Quantitative-Structure-Activity Relationships |
|
|
| -Stereocontrol and prediction thereof in metallocene-catalyzed alpha-olefin polymerization. |
|
|
| -Metal-doped carbon nanostructures and their application to catalysis. |
|
|
|
-Two-state
reactivity and
spin inversion in
"spin-forbidden" reactions. |
|
