Jonas C. Peters (born 1971 in Chicago, Illinois) is the Bren Professor of Chemistry at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

and Director of the Resnick Sustainability Institute. He has contributed to the development of catalysts and photocatalysts relevant to small molecule activation.

Early life and education

Peters was born in 1971 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. He received his

Bachelor of Sciences A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in Chemistry in 1993. While an undergraduate student, he worked under Gregory L. Hillhouse on synthetic methods in inorganic chemistry, specifically with regard to the stabilization of reactive species including

diazene Diimide, also called diazene or diimine, is a compound having the formula (NH)2. It exists as two geometric isomers, ''E'' (''trans'') and ''Z'' (''cis''). The term diazene is more common for organic derivatives of diimide. Thus, azobenzene is ...

and

nitroxyl Nitroxyl (common name) or azanone (IUPAC name) is the chemical compound HNO. It is well known in the gas phase. Nitroxyl can be formed as a short-lived intermediate in the solution phase. The conjugate base, NO−, nitroxide anion, is the redox re ...

. Following his undergraduate, Peters spent a year as a

Marshall Scholar The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...

at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

working with James J. Turner, . There, he studied physical inorganic chemistry including the photochemical generation and detection of short-lived transient organometallic species by rapid time-resolved infrared spectroscopy. In fall of 1994, Peters went on to do graduate studies with Christopher "Kit" C. Cummins at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. At MIT, he studied the activation and functionalization of small molecules using low coordinate tris-amido molybdenum and titanium complexes, earning his PhD in 1998. After graduating, Peters conducted postdoctoral studies as a

Miller Fellow The Miller Research Fellows program is the central program of the Adolph C. and Mary Sprague Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science on the University of California Berkeley campus. The program constitutes the support of Research Fellows - ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, under the guidance of T. Don Tilley. In Tilley's group, he concentrated on the synthesis and employment of novel

phosphine Phosphine (IUPAC name: phosphane) is a colorless, flammable, highly toxic compound with the chemical formula , classed as a pnictogen hydride. Pure phosphine is odorless, but technical grade samples have a highly unpleasant odor like rotting ...

and

silane Silane is an inorganic compound with chemical formula, . It is a colourless, pyrophoric, toxic gas with a sharp, repulsive smell, somewhat similar to that of acetic acid. Silane is of practical interest as a precursor to elemental silicon. Sila ...

ligands relevant to late metal Si-C, Si-H, C-H, and C-C bond breaking and forming processes.

Independent career

Peters began as assistant professor in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Caltech in August 1999, was promoted to associate professor in 2004, and to Professor of Chemistry in 2006. In July 2007, he relocated to the MIT Department of Chemistry as the W. M. Keck Professor of Energy. Peters returned to Caltech in January 2010 as Bren Professor of Chemistry and in 2015 he was appointed Director of the Resnick Sustainability Institute. In addition to his own research, he collaborates with

Gregory Fu Gregory (Greg) C. Fu is a Professor of organic chemistry at the California Institute of Technology and the Norman Chandler Professor of Chemistry. The current research interests of the Fu laboratory include metal-catalyzed coupling reactions and t ...

on methodology in organic synthesis. and electrocatalysis for nitrogen reduction and CO₂ reduction in collaboration with the

Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis The Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), founded in 2010, is a (DOE) Energy Innovation Hub whose primary mission is to find a cost-effective method to produce fuels using only sunlight, water, and carbon-dioxide. The program has a budg ...

. In 2021, he was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Jonas C. 1971 births Living people 21st-century American chemists California Institute of Technology faculty University of Chicago alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni American inorganic chemists Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers