Mechanisms for Homogeneous Catalysis

The Goddard group has been a leading force in developing new generations of organometallic catalysts, working with experimentalists like Brent Gunnoe, Jay Groves, Roy Periana, and Alan Goldman to design the ligands in advance of experiments, greatly accelerating the development of improved catalysts. In these studies, the Goddard group showed tremendous insight and intuition about reaction mechanisms combined with their deep understanding of how to include high levels of correlation and solvation in quantum mechanics [QM] calculations of complex reaction mechanisms in various solvents has been critical. Their predictions nearly always preceded the experiments, often eliminating many potential catalysts that would have to be much less active or selective, and were nearly always correct. Our only real mistake was waiting for the experimental confirmation before publishing. This made the theory easier to publish in good journals, but the result is that the experimental community does not have a way to judge the accuracy in advance of experimental validation.