Saxon Professor of Chemistry Anthony J. Arduengo, III was born in Tampa, FL in 1952. An inquisitive experimentalist at an early age, “Bo”, as he is commonly known, mischievously dabbled in the chemistry of household materials until entering the undergraduate program at Georgia Institute of Technology in 1970. After earning his B.S. in 1974 and then his Ph.D. in just two years at Georgia Tech under the guidance of Professor Edward Burgess, Bo spent one year as a Member of the Research Staff at DuPont Central Research. In 1977, Dr. Arduengo was enthusiastically recruited by Professor J. C. Martin onto the faculty at The University of Illinois. At Illinois, Professor Arduengo established milestones in main group chemistry, including creation of the first stable carbonyl ylide, as he set the stage for his scientific triumphs of later years.

In 1984, Professor Arduengo was made an irresistible offer of support and research autonomy by the Central Research and Development Department of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company in Wilmington, DE. The unique opportunity to explore fundamental chemistry with access to the facilities of a world leading corporation

provided the perfect setting for Bo to unveil several of the most meaningful chemistry discoveries of the late 20th century.  These accomplishments included, but are not limited to, the first planar T-shaped (10-P-3) bonding arrangement at phosphorus (e.g., ADPO), discovery and experimental establishment of the edge inversion process, creation of the first stable nitrile and chloronium ylides, design and investigation of highly electrophilic carbenes (e.g., DTTC), isolation and structural characterization of the thiazol-2-ylidene carbene model of the vitamin-B1 cofactor, and design and synthesis of the first thermally stable, structurally characterized imidazolin-2-ylidene carbene. These groundbreaking efforts have fundamentally changed our thinking regarding molecules possessing unusual valencies. As such, the findings have spawned new areas of applied chemical research and catalysis now explored by countless investigators worldwide. 

In 1996 under the auspices of the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Prize, Bo returned to academics with an appointment as guest Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry of the Technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina in Braunschweig, Germany.  Bo became the Saxon Professor of Chemistry at The University of Alabama in 1999.  He continues pioneering research on two continents in the seemingly disparate areas of main group element chemistry, physical and synthetic organic chemistry, unusual valence structures, carbenes, and materials chemistry.  Professor Arduengo has been recognized nationally and internationally through an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Prize, the 1996 Gold Medal for Excellence in Main Group Element Chemistry from the International Council on Main Group Chemistry, the Chute Lectureship in Dalhousie Canada, and in 2007 as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition to his contributions to the scientific literature, Bo has authored or co-authored 17 patents.  His discoveries are incorporated into marketed products including DuPont’s Kapton®-ZT polyimide film and new crosslinking catalysts used in commercial paints and other polymer systems. Professor Anthony J. Arduengo, III is a true chemistry pioneer and a scientific visionary. His remarkable breadth and depth of knowledge, myriad interests, unwavering curiosity, and intrepid drive to explore the unconventional has fostered some of the greatest fundamental and applied chemical discoveries of the last 30 years.