Dr Thomas J Colacot

MilliporeSigma (a Business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany), 6000 N, Teutonia Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53209, USA

Dr Thomas J. Colacot joined MilliporeSigma (a business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) in 2018 as an R&D Fellow and Director of Global Technology Innovation, Life Science Business, in Milwaukee, WI, USA. He has extensive experience in developing new and innovative products and technology with a very strong track record of commercialisation globally. He is considered an industrial expert in organometallics and homogeneous catalysis geared for organic synthesis. He has about 120 peer-reviewed publications and over 60 patents internationally, plus three books with Royal Society of Chemistry, Wiley-VCH and Springer.

Dr Colacot has received many awards and honours, including the 2021 Scientific Curriculum Vitae Award (Life Time Achievement Award) from the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany; the 2018 Outstanding Researcher Award from Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany; the 2017 Catalysis Club of Philadelphia Award for outstanding contributions in the area of catalysis; the 2015 ACS Industrial Chemistry Award; the 2015 IPMI Henry Alfred Award; the 2016 IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award for Technology Innovation; the 2016 Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) Medal; and the 2012 RSC Applied Catalysis Award and Medal.

Dr Colacot holds an MBA degree from Pennsylvania State University, USA, and a PhD degree in chemistry from Indian Institute Technology, Madras, India. In addition, he did postdoctoral research in the areas of metal organic chemistry for applications in electronic industry and homogeneous catalysis for olefin polymerisation at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Birmingham, Alabama, USA, and Southern Methodist University (SMU), Dallas, Texas, USA, respectively. He also worked as an Assistant Professor at Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA. He has been a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai and Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India. Dr Colacot was responsible for developing a very successful homogeneous catalysis programme from scratch at Johnson Matthey from 1995 to 2018. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.