Team
Sir Anthony K. CHEETHAM
Fellow of the Royal Society
Distinguished Visiting Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NUS
Research Professor, Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Distinguished Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge
Fellow of the Royal Society of London
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Prof Sir Anthony Cheetham has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of the UK as a Knight Bachelor, for his services to Material Chemistry, to UK Science and to Global Outreach. He is an important leader in the materials chemistry community, and renowned for his contributions to the development of procedures to study the structures of materials to deduce their mechanical and chemical properties. His work on novel inorganic and hybrid inorganic-organic materials has a remarkable range of applications in storing gases, in separating mixtures of gases, in magnetism and optoelectronics, and in catalysis. In the area of hybrid materials, he has led one of the most exciting aspects of chemistry in the last twenty years, creating novel crystalline structures of great diversity in composition and properties. This has enormous potential in energy conversion and storage, renewable energy production, and as sensors and delivery materials in medicine.
After his postdoctoral research at Harwell, he took up a lecturer position in Oxford. In 1992, he took up the directorship of the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), which he led for 12 years. He became Director of the International Center for Materials Research at UCSB in 2004, before moving to Cambridge in 2007 to become the Goldsmiths’ Professor of Materials Science. In 2017, he returned to UCSB as a Research Professor and also took up a position as a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at the National University of Singapore. He has held several other positions during his career, including the Chief Scientific Advisor for Unilever.
His scientific excellence is matched only by the outstanding mentorship he has provided, and many of his former students now occupy Chairs in major academic institutions and are now Fellows of the Royal Society or of equivalent national academies. His former doctoral students include Paul Attfield, Clare Grey, Matthew Rosseinsky, and Russell E. Morris.
The impact that Prof Sir A. K. Cheetham has had on the chemistry landscape is phenomenal.
When asked about his recent honour, he said: “The knighthood is very special in a number of ways. It was awarded not only for my scientific achievements, but also in recognition of my international outreach efforts, especially to developing countries. In addition, the award recognizes the outstanding support from my wife, Janet, who now bears the title Lady Janet Cheetham.”
- D. Phil. University of Oxford, UK, 1972
- BA (Hons) 1st Class, Chemistry, University of Oxford, UK, 1969
2020 Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of the UK, named in the Queen’s 2020 New Year Honours List as a Knight Bachelor (https://news.nus.edu.sg/research/knighthood-nus-distinguished-visiting-professor-anthony-cheetham)
2019 Elected a Foreign Fellow, Indian National Science Academy
2018 Elected a Honorary Fellow, Singapore National Academy of Science
2017 Elected a Honorary Fellow, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, England
2017 Basolo Medal, Northwestern University
2017 International Gold Medal for Materials Science and Technology, MRSI, India
2012-2017 Treasurer and Vice-President (Fellow of the Royal Society, London)
2016 Honorary Fellow, Chemical Research Society of India
2015 Honorary DSc, University of Warwick
2014 Chemical Pioneer Award, American Institute of Chemists
2014 Humboldt Research Award, Germany
2014 Elected Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2013 Elected Member of German National Academy of Engineering (acatech)
2012 Nyholm Prize for Inorganic Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry, London)
2012 Honorary Fellow, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore
2012 Treasurer and Vice-President, The Royal Society
2011 Elected Member of German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina)
2011 Platinum Medal of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining
2011 Raman Chair, Indian Academy of Sciences
2011 Honorary DSc, University of St. Andrews
2011 Honorary DSc, Tumkur University, India
2011 TWAS Medal Lecturer (Academy of Sciences for the Developing World)
2009 Elected Member of Academia Europaea
2008 Royal Society Leverhulme Medal
2008 European Research Council Advanced Investigator Award (2008-2013)
2007 Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2007-2012)
2006 Docteur Honoris Causa, Université de Versailles St. Quentin-en-Yvelines
2004 Somiya Award of the IUMRS (with Professor C.N.R. Rao)
2002 Bonner Chemiepreis, Univ. Bonn
2001 Elected Honorary Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences
2001 International Chair Francqui, Brussels (2001-2)
1999 Elected Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS)
1997-1999 Chaire Internationale de Recherche, Blaise-Pascal, Paris
1998 Elected Foreign Member of National Academy of Sciences of India
1997 Elected Foreign Member of Pakistan Academy of Sciences
1996 Structural Chemistry Award (Royal Society of Chemistry, London)
1994 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society, London
1988 Solid State Chemistry Award (Royal Society of Chemistry, London)
1982 Corday-Morgan Medal (Royal Society of Chemistry, London)
- Discovery, characterization and computer simulation of inorganic and hybrid organic-inorganic materials for Green Energy.
- Discovery of new catalysts for methane and CO2 conversion
- Monte Carlo and Density Functional Theory calculations in relation to CO2 reduction
- A. K. Cheetham, G. Kieslich and H. H.-Y. Yeung. Thermodynamic and Kinetic Effects in the Crystallization of Metal-Organic Frameworks. cc. Chem. Res. 2018, 51, 3, 659-667. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.accounts.7b00497
- N. Li, X. Chen, W.-J. Ong, D. R. MacFarlane, X. Zhao, A. K. Cheetham, and C. Sun. The understanding of electrochemical mechanisms for CO2 capture and conversion into hydrocarbon fuels in transition-metal carbides (MXenes). ACS Nano, 2017, 11, 10825-10833. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.7b03738
- T. D. Bennett, A. H. Fuchs, A. K. Cheetham and F. X. Coudert. Interplay between defects, disorder and flexibility in metal-organic frameworks. Nature Chem, 2017, 9, 11-16. https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2691
- B. K. Chang, P. D Bristowe and A.K. Cheetham. Computational studies on the adsorption of CO2 in the flexible perfluorinated metal- organicframework zinc 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethane tetrafluoroterephthalate. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2013, 15, 176-182. https://doi.org/10.1039/C2CP43093B
- A. Thirumurugan, W. Li and A. K. Cheetham. Hybrid bismuth 2,6-pyridinedicarboxylates: Assembly of coordination molecular units into coordination polymers, CO2sorption and photoluminescent properties. Dalton Trans., 2012, 41, 4126-4134. https://doi.org/10.1039/C2DT12330D
- A.T . Ashcroft, A.K. Cheetham, M.L.H. Green and P.D.F. Vernon. Partial oxidation of methane to synthesis gas using carbon dioxide. Nature, 1991, 352, 225-226. https://doi.org/10.1038/352225a0
- A.T. Ashcroft, A.K. Cheetham, J.S. Foord, M.L.H. Green, C.P. Grey, A.J. Murrell and P.D.F. Vernon. Selective oxidation of methane to synthesis gas using transition metal catalysts. Nature, 1990, 344, 319-321. https://doi.org/10.1038/344319a0