Congratulations to the newest Canada Research Chair in Chemistry, Dr. Cathleen Crudden!

The announcement came recently that Dr. Crudden has been awarded a Tier 1 Chair. She is the only new appointee at Queen’s this round, and joins colleagues Drs. P. Andrew Evans, Philip Jessop, Guojun Liu, Jean-Michel Nunzi and Tucker Carrington, other Chairholders in the Chemistry department.

Dr. Crudden’s research involves investigating the interaction of organic compounds with metals in the synthesis of novel materials and for the development of highly active catalysts. Controlling the interaction between organic and metal species is important in the development of new catalysts that are useful in the production of pharmaceuticals and in state-of-the-art biosensing applications where metals must interface with organics. Building on work from her catalyst development, Dr. Crudden has shown that carbon to metal bonds can be significantly more stable than originally believed. Through the Canada Research Chairship, her group will investigate the implications of these novel strong linkages for the preparation of novel biosensors, microelectronics and catalysts. Work will focus on films that are 100,000 times thinner than the human hair and on nanoscopically ordered particles featuring bonds between metal clusters and organic ligands.