L. M. Venanzi Distinguished Lecture

Luigi Venanzi was a citizen of the world. Born in Italy in 1927, and fluent in several languages, he received his “Dipl. Chem.” in 1952 from the University of Kiel, Germany. He then joined the Butterwick Research Laboratories of I.C.I. Ltd., Welwyn Garden City, England, working in the group of J. Chatt. In 1956, he was appointed I.C.I. Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, England, where he obtained the degree of D. Phil. in 1958. He then became a Lecturer at the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory of that University and a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, positions he held until 1968 when he joined the State University of New York at Albany, NY, as Professor of Chemistry. In 1971 he became E.I. du Pont Professor and Chairman of the Chemistry Department at the University of Delaware. In 1973, he returned to Europe, as the Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at ETH Zurich, as successor of Gerold Schwarzenbach, where he stayed until his retirement.
His research interests range from homogeneous catalysis to cluster chemistry, with a strong bias for the coordination chemistry of the platinum-group metals, hydrides and polydentate phosphines. He is the author of ca. 250 original publications in these areas.