Dr. Michael J. Chen Chemical
Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division Office of Basic Energy Sciences SC-22.1/Germantown
Building U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585-1290
Dr. Chen is a detailee from the Catalysis
Research Group of Chemical Engineering Division, Argonne
National Laboratory (ANL) and is a Program Manager in the
Catalysis and Chemical Transformations program. He received
his B.Sc. from National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan) in 1964 and
Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1972.He held postdoctoral positions at the University of
Southern California and at Indiana University. He
has been a staff chemist at ANL since 1977.
Dr. Chen's main research interests are in the
mechanistic studies of catalytic reactions.He has studied the oxidative addition reactions of
low-valence
transition metal complexes, the homologation of methanol in basic media, the
isomerization of quadricyclane to norbornadiene, and the oxidation
of amines to amine N-oxides with molecular oxygen.He has also studied the use of metallophthalocyanines as
catalysts for C–H bond activation and for the oxidation of
olefins.Dr. Chen’s
current research employs the in-situ NMR and IR spectroscopy under
high temperatures and high pressures to study the hydrogenation of
carbon monoxide and the hydroformylation of olefins.These techniques make it possible for in-situ
identification of previously unknown and unsuspected species.