Inorganic Mechanisms Award 2011 winner

Awarded for his seminal contributions to our mechanistic understanding of dioxygen activation by nonheme iron enzymes.

About the Winner

Larry Que grew up in Manila and received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota. He had postdoctoral stints with Professor Richard H. Holm at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was introduced to synthetic bioinorganic chemistry, and with Professor Eckard Münck at the University of Minnesota, where his long-term interest in the activation of dioxygen by biological non-haem iron centers was kindled. 

He started his independent academic career at Cornell University and then moved to the University of Minnesota, where he is now Regents Professor of Chemistry. Over the past thirty-five years, he has investigated the mechanisms of non-haem iron oxygenases by a combination of biophysical and biomimetic approaches. These enzymes are quite versatile and catalyse a diverse array of challenging transformations including the functionalisation of C-H bonds, the cis-dihydroxylation of C=C bonds, C-C bond cleavage, and even methane hydroxylation. 

His biomimetic efforts have focused on the design and synthesis of functional models for these enzymes and the trapping and spectroscopic characterization of key reactive intermediates. Accomplishments of particular note are the synthesis of the first examples of mononuclear and dinuclear iron(IV)-oxo complexes in non-haem ligand environments and the discovery of bio-inspired iron catalysts for olefin cis-dihydroxylation. 

Besides chemistry, Larry enjoys gardening, bicycling, going to the theater, and traveling with his wife and daughters, one of whom is pursuing postdoctoral research at the interface of biology and inorganic chemistry.