James Wilton-Ely joined Imperial in 2009 after leading research groups at the University of Oxford and UCL. He currently holds the position of Professor of Inorganic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College. He has extensive experience in coordination and organometallic chemistry of metals from groups 8-11 and their use in catalysis. In 2021, he received the Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Current research focuses on topics as diverse as catalysis using recovered metals and the immobilisation of metal units on gold nanomaterials. These materials address applications in catalysis, bioimaging (targeted MRI contrast agents, PET radiotracers, fluorogenic CO detection) and sensing (mainly of carbon monoxide). The group has also worked on the dissolution of biomass in ionic liquids and subsequent conversion into platform chemicals.
Professor Wilton-Ely directed the MRes Green Chemistry Programme for 12 years (2010-22) and is Founder and former Co-Director of the MRes in Catalysis and the MRes in Advanced Molecular Synthesis. He has held the positions of Director of MRes Studies (2016-19) and Director of Postgraduate Studies (2019-22) in the Department of Chemistry, where he is now EDI Co-Director. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and a Chartered Chemist (CChem) and has published over 110 papers.
