David Leigh (scientist)

David Leigh (scientist)
For the British journalist, see David Leigh.

David Alan Leigh FRS is the Forbes Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh.

He is noted for the development of new methods to construct rotaxanes, catenanes and molecular knots and for the invention of some of the first synthetic molecular motors and functional nanomachines. Using mechanically-interlocked molecular architectures he prepared a novel molecular information ratchet that employs a mechanism reminiscent of Maxwell's demon (although it requires an energy input and so does not challenge the second law of thermodynamics).[1]

He has developed a rotaxane based photoactive molecular switch with the capability of changing the hydrophobicity of a surface and thus causing small droplets of liquid to move "uphill," against the force of gravity.[2]

In 2009 he reported the first small-molecule walker-track system in which a ‘walker’ can be transported directionally along a short molecular track in a manner reminiscent of the way that biological motor proteins ‘walk’ along biopolymers in the cell.[3] In 2011 his research group described the smallest molecular knot prepared to date (a 76-atom-loop trefoil knot - three crossing points[4]) and also the most complex non-DNA molecular knot yet constructed (a 160-atom-loop pentafoil knot - five crossing points[5]).

Contents

Honors

  • Royal Society of Chemistry Award for Supramolecular Chemistry (2003)
  • Royal Society of Chemistry Interdisciplinary Award (2004)
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2004)
  • Institute of Chemistry of Ireland Annual Award for Chemistry (2005)
  • Swiss Chemical Society Troisième Conferencier in Chemistry (2005)
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2005)
  • Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award (2005)
  • EPSRC Senior Research Fellow (2005–2010)
  • Royal Society of Chemistry Award for Nanotechnology (2005)
  • Royal Society of Chemistry-Real Sociedad Española de Química (RSC-RSEQ) Prize for Chemistry (2007)
  • International Izatt-Christensen Award in Macrocyclic Chemistry (2007)
  • Foresight Nanotech Institute Feynman Prize (Theory) (2007)
  • EU Descartes Prize for Research (2007)
  • European Research Council Advanced Grant (2008; inaugural call)
  • Fellow of the Royal Society (2009)
  • Royal Society of Chemistry Merck Award (2009)
  • Royal Society of Chemistry Tilden Prize (2010)

See also

Supramolecular Chemistry

References

  1. ^ "Tiny engine boosts nanotech hopes" BBC News Feb. 1, 2007
  2. ^ "Nanotech team move water droplets" BBC News Aug. 29, 2005
  3. ^ "'Two-legged' molecular walker takes a stroll" Chemistry World Dec. 21, 2009 [1]
  4. ^ "Active-metal template synthesis of a molecular trefoil knot" Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. published online 14 Sept 2011 [2]
  5. ^ "A synthetic molecular pentafoil knot" Nature Chem. published online 6 Nov 2011 [3]

External links


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