Author: Chris Hardacre

Dr. Thomas John Colacot was born in Central Kerala, India. After finishing his Ph.D in Chemistry from IIT Madras with Prof. M.N.S. Rao in 1989, he moved to the University of Alabama at Birmingham for a combined teaching and post-doctoral research position in the area of Group III-V Chemistry with Prof. L. K. Krannich. In 1992, he became an Asst. Professor at Florida A & M University, while collaborating with Prof. Will Rees at Florida State University. Due to family commitments, he moved to Southern Methodist University, Dallas in 1993 to work with Professor N.S. Hosmane. Although Prof. Hosmane and Dr. Colacot did not have any previous experience in catalysis, Dr. Hosmane gave him complete freedom to explore catalysis research using mixed carborane-cyclopentadiene complexes of early transition metals for the manufacture of plastics (poly olefins). In 1995, Dr. Colacot began his career at Johnson Matthey, USA directing the homogeneous catalysis research group. With an extensive background in ligand technology obtained during his time at IIT Chennai and UAB, in conjunction with his studies in catalysis from SMU, Dr. Colacot focused his research in the area of precious metal catalysis. Through his research, Dr. Colacot and his group have generated highly active, practical palladium based cross coupling catalysts for applications in pharmaceutical, fine chemicals and academic labs. Currently, Dr. Colacot is the R & D Global Manager in Homogeneous Catalysis. He has given numerous invited and plenary lectures in many international conferences and acts as an external Ph. D thesis examiner to IITs and universities. He has contributed several publications, patents, book chapters and reviews. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and has obtained a MBA from Pennsylvania State University. In 2012 Dr Colacot received the Applied Catalysis Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry.