Professor R Tom Baker

Canada Research Chair in Catalysis Science for Energy Applications
Director, Centre for Catalysis Research and Innovation (CCRI)
Department of Chemistry, University of Ottawa
30 Marie Curie, BSC 512B
Ottawa, ON Canada K1N 6N5

Phone:(613) 562-5698

Fax: (613) 562-5613

EDUCATION

  • Postdoctoral Fellow 1980-1981 (Pennsylvania State University withPhilip S. Skell)
  • PhD 1980 (University of California at Los Angeles with M. Frederick Hawthorne)
  • BSc 1975 (University of British Columbia)

PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS

  • 2009 – Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • 2008 – Present: Canada Research Chair in Catalysis Science for Energy Applications
  • 2008 – Present: Director, Centre for Catalysis Research and Innovation (CCRI)
  • 2008 – Present: Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Ottawa
  • 2008 – Present: Guest scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
  • 1996–2008: Research chemist in the Inorganic, Isotopes and Actinides Group,

Chemistry Division, LANL

  • 1981– 1996: Research chemist in Homogeneous Catalysis group, DuPont CR&D
  • 1993 – 1996: Team Leader for homogeneous catalysis scouting, DuPont CR&D

MANAGEMENT

  • 2008 – Present: CCRI Director. CCRI is a capability-based center with 27 faculty participants from Science, Engineering and Medicine and an annual budget of $600K. Managed facilities include materials characterization, rapid throughput experimentation and computational chemistry.
  • 2010 – Present: Theme leader for Catalytic Processing, NSERC Biomaterials and Chemicals Strategic Research Network.
  • Advisory Board, US Department of Energy’s Energy Frontier Research Center on Molecular Electrocatalysis, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA
  • 2005 – 2008: Tier Coordinator, DOE Chemical Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence. Coordinated ca. 40% of Center work (ca. $3M) with partners at two National Labs, four universities and two companies.
  • 2003 – 2005: LANL Program Manager for DOE’s Industrial Technologies Program. Managed eight research projects (ca. $4M total), ensuring milestones and deliverables were met and reports issued promptly. Secured additional funds for promising projects and helped PIs with project renewals.
  • 1998 – 2002: Project Coordinator for LANL’s Carbon Management research portfolio. Worked with colleagues in Biosciences, Chemistry, Computational Science, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Physics, and Systems Analysis groups to build new research programs, and with DOE, NASA and industrial sponsors to fund new programs. Helped program office to build LANL’s carbon management research portfolio to $15M.
  • 2002: Innovation Through Teaming Workshop, LANL.
  • 2000: Leadership Institute, LANL.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • External examiner for Ph.D. candidates at University of Delaware (1989), Waterloo (1990), New Brunswick (2002), Dalhousie (2004, 2010), IIT Madras (2004), New Mexico (2007), Guelph, Western Ontario, and University of Victoria (2009), Université de Montréal (2010).
  • Guest lecturer, University of Pennsylvania Department of Chemistry, 1994.
  • Member of ACS Ad Hoc Committee for Environmental Chemistry Instructional Materials, 1995.
  • Guest lecturer, University of New Mexico, 1998.
  • Adjunct Professor of Chemistry, University of New Mexico, 1998 – Present.
  • Guest lecturer, Greyhills Navajo High School, 2004.
  • Lecturer and co-organizer, CENTC Summer School on Organometallic Catalysis, University of Washington, 2008; co-organizer, CENTC Summer School on Perspectives in Catalysis, University of Washington, 2010.

TECHNICAL ORGANIZING

Scientific Program Chair, Canadian Catalysis Symposium, Quebec, 2011; Co-Chairman, 1989 Organometallic Chemistry Gordon Research Conference; NSF Inorganic Chemistry Workshop, 2004 – 2006; Co-organizer, 2012 IMEBORON in Niagara Falls, Ontario; 2011 Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference in Washington, DC; 2010 Entretiens Jacques Cartier catalysis colloquium in Lyon, France, 2010 IUPAC Green Chemistry Conference in Ottawa, 2007 LANSCE Neutron Summer School, Los Alamos, NM, 2004 International Conference on Coordination Chemistry, Merida, Mexico, US DOE-SC-BES Catalysis contractor’s meeting, Chicago, IL, 2002 and DOE National Labs Catalysis Conference, Albuquerque, NM, 1999; Symposium Chair, 2003 New Orleans Spring ACS National Meeting, Symposium Co-Chair, 2001 San Diego and 2010 San Francisco ACS National Meetings, Pacifichem '95, Pacifichem ’05, 2002 New Orleans Spring AICHE national meeting and 5th Chemical Congress of North America (1997).

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Alternate Councilor, ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry, 1989-91, Chair, Organometallic Subdivision, ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry, 1999; C-H Bond Activation Review panel for U. S. Department of Energy (1992); Review panel for NRC's Steacie Institute (Canada, 1994), DOE’s Ames Lab, Iowa (2004), Pacific Northwest National Lab’s Catalysis Center (2009) and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s Chemistry program (2010); Committee of Visitors for US DOE Chemical Sciences (2011); Council for Chemical Research Chemical Synthesis team member, 1996, LANL rep, 1999 – 2006, program committee for 2003 national meeting; ACS-PRF Advisory Board, 1998 – 2004; program committee (2003 – 2008) and Chair (2009), Novel Chemistry with Industrial Applications sub-division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry division of ACS; NSERC (Canada) GSC24 member, 2003 – 2005; College of Reviewers, Canada Research Chairs, 2004 – Present; Advisory board member, International Congress of Homogeneous Catalysis, International Conference on Coordination Chemistry; Editorial board member for Inorganic Chemistry, Organometallics, Canadian Journal of Chemistry and Encyclopedia of Catalysis (formerly) andAdvanced Synthesis and Catalysis (2001– Present).

INVITED LECTURES

Canadian Society of Chemistry National Meetings, Calgary (2000), Montreal (2001, 2011), London (2004), Halifax (2006), Edmonton (2008), Hamilton (2009), Toronto (2010); Pacifichem (2000, 2005, 2010); University of Amsterdam (2001); Utrecht University (2001); Eindhoven Technical University (2001); Aachen Technical University (2001); Max Planck Institute for Coal Chemistry, Mulheim (2001); Munster University (2001); University of New Brunswick, Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Brown University (2002); National Research Council workshop on Energy and Transportation, Washington, DC (2002); the Ohio State University, Indiana University, Ohio University (2003); Organometallic Chemistry Gordon Research Conference, Newport, RI (2003, 2008); Indo-US conference on Recent Advances in Organometallic Catalysis and Olefin Polymerization, Chennai, India (2003); University of Washington, Victoria, British Columbia, Alberta and Simon Fraser University (2004); New Mexico State (2004); Exxon-Mobil, University of Houston, Texas A&M (2004); Queen’s, McGill University, University of Montreal (2004); University of Ottawa, Windsor, Western Ontario, Michigan, North Carolina-Chapel Hill, UNC-Charlotte, NC State and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2005); 16th FECHEM meeting on Organometallic Chemistry, Budapest, Hungary (2005); SICC-4 meeting on Chemical Synthesis and Catalysis, Singapore (2005); University of Chicago (2006); International Conference on Coordination Chemistry, Capetown, South Africa (2006); 15th International Society of Homogeneous Catalysis Conference, Sun City, South Africa (2006); Inorganic Chemistry Reaction Mechanisms Gordon Research Conference (2007); Renewable Energy Gordon Research Conference (2007); Oxford-Kobe Energy Seminar, Kobe, Japan (2007); Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory (2007); McElvain Lecture, University of Wisconsin (2008); University of Zurich, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland and Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France (2008); Inorganic Chemistry Gordon Research Conference, Newport, RI (2008); Materials Science Institute Retreat, Oregon, (2008); IMEBORON International Boron Conference, Platjad'Aro,Spain (2008); International Conference on Hydrogen and Hydrogen Storage, Bangalore, India (2009); TU Berlin (2009), University of Texas (2009); 10th Asian Hydrogen Energy Conference, Korea (2009); KIST, Kyung Hee and Korea University (2009); Gordon-Kenan Seminar on Organometallic Chemistry, Newport, RI (2009); Western, Victoria, McGill, Alberta, Calgary (2009); Eastman Chemical (2010), Spring National American Chemical Society meeting (2010, 2011), NRC Hydrogen Storage Workshop (2010, Canadian Catalysis Symposium (2010), University of Massachusetts IGERT lecturer (2010), New Materials Forum, MontecatiniTerme, Italy (2010), Catalysis and Photochemistry, Rostock, Germany (2010), Dalhousie University and University of Kentucky (2010), Swiss National Chemistry Conference, Zurich (2011), Coates Lecture, University of Wyoming (2011).