Bren Professor of Chemistry; Director, Resnick Sustainability Institute
B.S., University of Chicago, 1993; Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 1998. Assistant Professor, Caltech, 1999-2004; Associate Professor, 2004-06; Professor, 2006-09; Bren Professor, 2010-; Executive Officer, 2013-2016; Director, Resnick Sustainability Institute, 2015 -
Jonas Peters received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry at the University of Chicago in 1993, where he began research under Professor Gregory Hillhouse in inorganic chemistry. Jonas then spent a year as a Marshall Scholar at the University of Nottingham, UK, working with Professor James J. Turner, FRS. In the fall of 1994, Jonas left Nottingham to begin his doctoral studies under the direction of Professor Christopher C. Cummins at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After receiving his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry in 1998, Jonas was a Miller Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, under the guidance of Professor T. Don Tilley. Jonas began as assistant professor in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Caltech in August of 1999, was promoted to associate professor in 2004, and to Professor of Chemistry in 2006. In July of 2007, he relocated to the MIT Department of Chemistry as the W. M. Keck Professor of Energy. Jonas returned to Caltech in January 2010 as Bren Professor of Chemistry and in 2015, he was appointed director of the Resnick Sustainability Institute.
Jonas has published some 200 primary research articles and is internationally recognized for his work towards the development of catalysts and photocatalysts with applications in renewable solar fuel technologies, distributed nitrogen fixation for fertilizers and fuels, and chemical transformations fundamental to the discovery of new pharmaceuticals. Jonas and his coworkers are recognized for pioneering research relevant to global carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen cycles, with energy storage applications. As director of the Resnick Sustainability Institute, Jonas is leveraging Caltech's unique strengths to innovate solutions for a more sustainable planet.
Ch 154 ab. Organometallic Chemistry.9 units (4-0-5); second, third terms, 2022-23.Prerequisites: Ch 112 or equivalent.
A general discussion of the reaction mechanisms and the synthetic and catalytic uses of transition metal organometallic compounds. Second term: a survey of the elementary reactions and methods for investigating reaction mechanisms. Third term: contemporary topics in inorganic and organometallic synthesis, structure and bonding, and applications in catalysis.
Part b not offered 2022-23.
Instructor: Peters (a)
2019-20
Ch 153 abc. Advanced Inorganic Chemistry.9 units (3-0-6) ; second (Ch 153 a), third (Ch 153 c offered in 2019-20, alternating with Ch 153 b in subsequent years) terms, 2019-20.Prerequisites: Ch 112 and Ch 21 abc or concurrent registration.
Ch 153 a: Topics in modern inorganic chemistry. Electronic structure, spectroscopy, and photochemistry with emphasis on examples from the modern research literature. Ch 153 b: Applications of physical methods to the characterization of inorganic and bioinorganic species, with an emphasis on the practical application of Moessbauer, EPR, and pulse EPR spectroscopies. Ch 153 c: Theoretical and spectroscopic approaches to understanding the electronic structure of transition metal ions. Topics in the 153bc alternate sequence may include saturation magnetization and zero-field splitting in magnetic circular dichroism and molecular magnetism, hyperfine interactions in electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, Moessbauer and magnetic Moessbauer spectroscopy, vibronic interactions in electronic absorption and resonance Raman spectroscopy, and bonding analyses using x-ray absorption and/or emission spectroscopies.
Instructors: Gray, Winkler (a), Hadt/Peters (c)
Ch 154 ab. Organometallic Chemistry.9 units (3-0-6); second, third terms, 2019-20.Prerequisites: Ch 112 or equivalent.
A general discussion of the reaction mechanisms and the synthetic and catalytic uses of transition metal organometallic compounds. Second term: a survey of the elementary reactions and methods for investigating reaction mechanisms. Third term: contemporary topics in inorganic and organometallic synthesis, structure and bonding, and applications in catalysis. Part b not offered 2019-20.
Instructors: Peters, Agapie (a)
