Chi-Ming Che

Che-Ming Che
File:Prof che.jpg Professor Chi-Ming Che Registered as Foreign Associate of National Academy of Sciences USA
Born	1957 Hong Kong, China
Nationality	Hong Kong, China
Occupation	Professor, Researcher, Member of Chinese Academy of Science
Known for	Inorganic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry
Notable work	Metal Catalyst, OLED, Anticancer metal complexes

Chi-Ming Che (支志明), born in 1957 in Hong Kong, is currently a Dr. Hui Wai-Haan’s Chair of Chemistry at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), Hong Kong, China. Also, since 1995, he has been a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences in China; where he was the first elected member from Hong Kong. He is known for extensive work in inorganic chemistry, photochemistry, and medicinal chemistry.  

Career

Chi-Ming Che received his B.S. degree at HKU in 1978. He then received his Ph. D degree in inorganic chemistry at HKU working under Professor Chung-Kwong Poon in 1980. After earning his Ph. D., he spent 3 years at California Institute of Technology conducting research in organometallic and bioinorganic chemistry in the laboratory of Harry B. Gray.

Following his research stay in the United States, Che moved back to China and started his independent career as a faculty at HKU. During the past 20 years, he has also held visiting lecturer positions at National Taiwan University, Jilin University, Sun Yat-sen University. Moreover, he has been a professor at Nanjing University, Nankai University, and Tsinghua University; and an honorary professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Northeast Normal University, Nanjing University, and other universities.

Currently, he is the Chair Professor of the Department of Chemistry at The University of Hong Kong.

Research

Che’s research interests cover various areas in chemistry such as inorganic chemistry, materials science, photochemistry, and biomedical sciences. He has been engaged in inorganic chemistry research, organometallic synthesis where he and his group have studied high-valent and multimetallic complexes. These molecules have been investigated for their luminescent and catalytic properties. Notable systems that Che has developed include: catalysts for asymmetric olefin epoxidation, biomimetic oxidation catalyst featuring recognition elements, and molecular devices based on luminescent materials.

Metal Catalysts

Che has pioneered the developed of Ru-OXO system which has opened up numerous opportunities for efficient catalytic oxidation processes.

File:Epoxidation and Cyclopropanation of Alkene Based on Using Ru(III) Catalyst.jpg

Ruthenium(III) porphyrin functionalized with PEG group is used as a catalyst to drive selective pathway of alkene to epoxide or cyclopropane.

Furthermore, Che and co-workers developed new methods for epoxidation, cyclopropanation, and aziridination of alkenes. His work on bioinorganic chemistry, has produced new understanding for several important processes including modern nitrogen fixation.

Anti-Cancer Metal Complexes

Another notable work from Che’s group has been the development of gold-based organometallic compounds with anti-tumor activity. Specifically, they found that PEGylated gold(III) conjugates can exhibit multifunctional properties and undergo selective delivery to tumor tissues. Importantly, some of these compounds do not exhibit harmful cytotoxicity to normal cells, as many Pt-based anti-cancer agents do.

File:Structure of PEGylated Gold(III) Conjugates.jpg

Structure of PEGylated Gold(III) Conjugates

Notable Awards

2006 First Class Prize of the State Natural Science Award of China

2006 TWAS Prize in chemistry from the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World

2013 Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Centenary Prize