John Meurig Thomas
Encyclopedia
Heterogeneous catalysis
In chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis refers to the form of catalysis where the phase of the catalyst differs from that of the reactants. Phase here refers not only to solid, liquid, vs gas, but also immiscible liquids, e.g. oil and water. The great majority of practical heterogeneous catalysts...
, solid-state chemistry, and surface and materials science
Materials science
Materials science is an interdisciplinary field applying the properties of matter to various areas of science and engineering. This scientific field investigates the relationship between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties. It incorporates...
. He has authored over one thousand scientific articles and several books, including Principles and Practice of Heterogeneous Catalysis (with W. John Thomas) and Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution: The Genius of Man and Place. He is the recipient of many awards and honorary degrees. In 1991 he was knighted “for services to chemistry and the popularisation of science”. The mineral meurigite is named after him. Much of his research has involved creating new solid catalysts and trying to understand the structure and activity of existing ones using techniques such as X-ray absorption, NMR spectroscopy
NMR spectroscopy
Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, most commonly known as NMR spectroscopy, is a research technique that exploits the magnetic properties of certain atomic nuclei to determine physical and chemical properties of atoms or the molecules in which they are contained...
, and high resolution transmission electron microscopy
Transmission electron microscopy
Transmission electron microscopy is a microscopy technique whereby a beam of electrons is transmitted through an ultra thin specimen, interacting with the specimen as it passes through...
. He is one of the most cited authors in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. In recent years, he has focused on designing “green” catalysts for clean technology
Clean technology
Clean technology includes recycling, renewable energy , information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, Greywater, and many other appliances that are now more energy efficient. It is a means to create electricity and fuels, with a smaller environmental...
and on developing ways of studying catalysts in situ.
Sir John was born and brought up near the Welsh mining town of Llanelli
Llanelli
Llanelli , the largest town in both the county of Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed , Wales, sits on the Loughor estuary on the West Wales coast, approximately west-north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarthen. The town is famous for its proud rugby...
, South Wales where his father and brother were miners. His interest in science was aroused when as a teenager he heard his physics teacher at Gwendraeth Grammar School talk about the life and work of Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
. Later in life, Sir John would become the Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain
Royal Institution
The Royal Institution of Great Britain is an organization devoted to scientific education and research, based in London.-Overview:...
, in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, a position held by Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
, who has remained one of his scientific heroes.
Sir John holds BSc (1954) and PhD (1958) degrees from the University of Wales, Swansea
Swansea University
Swansea University is a university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Swansea University was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it changed its name to the University of Wales Swansea following structural changes...
, although he completed the work for his PhD at Queen Mary College, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, where his advisor, Keble Sykes, had moved. After a year's work for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of nuclear fusion power. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and was formerly chaired by Lady Barbara Judge CBE...
as scientific officer he joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wales, Bangor where he rose through the ranks from Assistant Lecturer, to Lecturer, and then to Reader. In 1959 he married Margaret Edwards (deceased 2002) with whom he later had two daughters, Lisa and Naomi. While at Bangor, he demonstrated the profound influence that dislocations and other structural imperfections exert upon the chemical, electronic, and surface properties of solids. In 1969 he became Professor and Head of Chemistry at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth University is a university located in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding Member Institution of the former federal University of Wales. As of late 2006, the university had over 12,000 students spread across seventeen academic departments.The university was founded in 1872 as...
, where he broadened his interests in solid-state, surface and materials chemistry and pioneered the application of electron microscopy in chemistry. In 1977 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
.
From 1978 to 1986, Sir John was at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
as Head of the Department of Physical Chemistry (then a separate department from the department of chemistry) and Professorial Fellow at King’s College. There he continued developing new techniques in solid-state and materials science, and designing and synthesizing new catalysts. For example, he extended his earlier electron microscopic and surface studies of minerals and intercalates to encompass the synthesis and structural determination of zeolitic materials by a combination of solid-state NMR, neutron scattering
Neutron scattering
Neutron scattering,the scattering of free neutrons by matter,is a physical processand an experimental technique using this processfor the investigation of materials.Neutron scattering as a physical process is of primordial importance...
, and real-space imaging.
In 1986 he was invited to succeed Sir George Porter
George Porter
George Hornidge Porter, Baron Porter of Luddenham, OM, FRS was a British chemist.- Life :Porter was born in Stainforth, near Thorne, South Yorkshire. He was educated at Thorne Grammar School, then won a scholarship to the University of Leeds and gained his first degree in chemistry...
as Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain
Royal Institution
The Royal Institution of Great Britain is an organization devoted to scientific education and research, based in London.-Overview:...
, London, occupying with his family the same living quarters that Michael Faraday and his wife had occupied at the Royal Institution’s building on Albemarle Street. At this time, he began using synchrotron radiation
Synchrotron radiation
The electromagnetic radiation emitted when charged particles are accelerated radially is called synchrotron radiation. It is produced in synchrotrons using bending magnets, undulators and/or wigglers...
and devised techniques which combine X-ray spectroscopy and high-resolution X-ray diffraction to determine the atomic structure of the active sites of solid catalysts under operating conditions. He also devised new mesoporous, microporous, and molecular sieve catalysts. In 1987 the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
televised his Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are a series of lectures on a single topic, which have been held at the Royal Institution in London each year since 1825. The lectures present scientific subjects to a general audience, including young people, in an informative and entertaining manner....
on crystals, continuing the tradition of lectures for children started by Faraday in 1826. He resigned as Director in 1991 owing to his wife’s health, but remained associated with the Davy Faraday Research Laboratory of the Royal Institution until 2006. In 1991 he published the book Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution: The Genius of Man and Place, which has since been translated into Japanese (1994) and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
(2007).
After a period as Deputy Pro-Chancellor of the University of Wales
University of Wales
The University of Wales was a confederal university founded in 1893. It had accredited institutions throughout Wales, and formerly accredited courses in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students, but in October 2011, after a number of scandals, it withdrew all accreditation, and it was...
(1991–1994), he returned to Cambridge in 1993 as Master
Master (college)
A Master is the title of the head of some colleges and other educational institutions. This applies especially at some colleges and institutions at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge .- See also :* Master A Master (or in female form Mistress) is the title of the head of some...
of Peterhouse
Peterhouse, Cambridge
Peterhouse is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the oldest college of the University, having been founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely...
, Cambridge’s oldest college, and as Honorary Distinguished Research Associate in the Department of Material Science, both of which posts he held until 2002, the year his wife died. During his tenure as Master of Peterhouse, Lady Thomas oversaw the magnificent renovation of the Master’s Lodge, a 1702 mansion on Trumpington Street. In 1997 he co-authored with W. John Thomas (no relation) the text Principles and Practice of Heterogeneous Catalysis. In 1999 he was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Royal Academy of Engineering
-Overview: is the UK’s national academy of engineering. The Academy brings together the most successful and talented engineers from across the engineering sectors for a shared purpose: to advance and promote excellence in engineering....
for work that “has profoundly added to the science-base of heterogeneous catalysis leading to the commercial exploitation of zeolites through engineering processes”.
He is the author of thirty patents, some of which have made chemical processes more environmentally benign (“greener”) by eliminating the use of solvents and reducing the number of manufacturing steps involved. The single-step, solvent-free catalytic synthesis of ethyl acetate that he invented is the basis of a 200,000 ton/year plant in the UK, the largest of its kind in the world. He has recently devised a single-step, solvent-free process for the production of caprolactam
Caprolactam
Caprolactam is an organic compound with the formula 5CNH. This colourless solid is a lactam or a cyclic amide of caproic acid. Approximately 2 billion kilograms are produced annually...
, the raw material for nylon-6
Nylon 6
Nylon 6 or polycaprolactam is a polymer developed by Paul Schlack at IG Farben to reproduce the properties of nylon 6,6 without violating the patent on its production. Unlike most other nylons, nylon 6 is not a condensation polymer, but instead is formed by ring-opening polymerization. This makes...
. (See references below.)
Since 2002 he has been Honorary Professor of Materials Science at the University of Cambridge and Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the Davy Faraday Research Laboratory of the Royal Institution. He also holds an Honorary Distinguished Professorship of Materials Chemistry at Cardiff University
Cardiff University
Cardiff University is a leading research university located in the Cathays Park area of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It received its Royal charter in 1883 and is a member of the Russell Group of Universities. The university is consistently recognised as providing high quality research-based...
, an Honorary Distinguished Professorship of Materials Chemistry at the University of Southampton
University of Southampton
The University of Southampton is a British public university located in the city of Southampton, England, a member of the Russell Group. The origins of the university can be dated back to the founding of the Hartley Institution in 1862 by Henry Robertson Hartley. In 1902, the Institution developed...
, and an Honorary Distinguished Professorship of Chemistry and Nanoscience at the University of York
University of York
The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...
. He is an Advisory Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University or SJTU), sometimes referred to as Shanghai Jiaotong University , is a top public research university located in Shanghai, China. Shanghai Jiao Tong University is known as one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China...
as well as at the Catalysis Center of Hokkaido University
Hokkaido University
Hokkaido University is one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. It can be seen in the several rankings such as shown below.-General Rankings:...
. He was recently appointed to the Advisory Committee on Science, Wales. He is an Honorary Bencher
Bencher
A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher can be elected while still a barrister , in recognition of the contribution that the barrister has made to the life of the Inn or to the law...
of Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
.
He is the recipient of twenty honorary degrees from Australian, British, Canadian, Chinese, Dutch, Egyptian, French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and U.S. universities, and has been elected to honorary membership in over fifteen foreign academies, including the American Philosophical Society
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, the Accademia dei Lincei
Accademia dei Lincei
The Accademia dei Lincei, , is an Italian science academy, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy....
(Rome), and the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
. His recent awards include the Kapitza Gold Medal from the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (2011), the Jayne Prize Lectureship of the American Philosophical Society (2011), the Bragg Prize Lectureship of the British Crystallographic Association (2010), the Sven Berggren
Sven Berggren
Sven Berggren was a Swedish botanist, explorer and university professor. He was a professor at Lund University 1883-1902, later at Uppsala University. He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1880....
Prize Lectureship, Lund (2010), the Ertl Prize Lectureship of the Max Planck Gesellschaft (2010), the Sir George Stokes Gold Medal from the Royal Society of Chemistry
Royal Society of Chemistry
The Royal Society of Chemistry is a learned society in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences." It was formed in 1980 from the merger of the Chemical Society, the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the Faraday Society and the Society for Analytical Chemistry with a new...
(2005), the Giulio Natta Gold Medal from the Società Chimica Italiana (2004), the Linus Pauling Gold Medal from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
(2003), and the American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
Annual Award (first recipient) for Creative Research in Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Catalysis (1999). He has won the Davy Medal
Davy Medal
The Davy Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London "for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry". Named after Humphry Davy, the medal is awarded with a gift of £1000. The medal was first awarded in 1877 to Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff "for...
of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
and the Faraday Lectureship Prize
Faraday Lectureship Prize
The Faraday Lectureship Prize, previously known simply as the Faraday Lectureship is awarded once every three years by the Royal Society of Chemistry for "exceptional contributions to physical or theoretical chemistry". Named after Michael Faraday, the first Faraday Lecture was given in 1869, two...
of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Royal Society of Chemistry
The Royal Society of Chemistry is a learned society in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences." It was formed in 1980 from the merger of the Chemical Society, the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the Faraday Society and the Society for Analytical Chemistry with a new...
. In 1995 he became the first British scientist in 80 years to be awarded the Willard Gibbs Gold Medal by the American Chemical Society. In recognition of his contributions to geochemistry, a new mineral, meurigite, was named after him in 1995 by the International Mineralogical Association
International Mineralogical Association
The International Mineralogical Association is an international group of 38 national societies. The goal is to promote the science of mineralogy and to standardize the nomenclature of the 4000 plus known mineral species...
.
His 75th birthday (attended by Dr Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
and Prof. Ahmed Zewail
Ahmed Zewail
Ahmed Hassan Zewail is an Egyptian-American scientist who won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry. He is the Linus Pauling Chair Professor Chemistry and Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology.- Birth and education :Ahmed Zewail was born on...
) was celebrated with a symposium and several musical and social events at the University of Cambridge. The papers presented at the symposium were published in 2008 by the Royal Society of Chemistry as Turning Points in Solid-State, Materials and Surface Science: A Book in Celebration of the Life and Work of Sir John Meurig Thomas. In 2010 Imperial College Press published 4D Electron Microscopy: Imaging in Space and Time, which he co-authored with Ahmed Zewail. In April 2010 he married Prof. Jehane Ragai of the American University in Cairo
American University in Cairo
The American University in Cairo is an independent, non-profit, apolitical, secular institution of higher learning located in Cairo, Egypt...
; the events took place in Cambridge and London.
The recreations he lists in Who's Who
Who's Who (UK)
Who's Who is an annual British publication of biographies which vary in length of about 30,000 living notable Britons.-History:...
include ancient civilisations, bird watching, and Welsh literature. In 2003, he was the first scientist to be awarded the Medal of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion
Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion
The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion was founded in 1751 as a literary society devoted to the preservation of the Welsh language. It was founded by two brothers, Lewis Morris and Richard Morris, natives of Anglesey...
(London) for services to Welsh culture and British public life. He is also a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales
Learned Society of Wales
The Learned Society of Wales is a society that exists to “celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines”.The society was launched on 25 May 2010 at the National Museum of Wales...
and is a Member of its inaugural Council.
Selected bibliography
- Introduction to the Principles of Heterogeneous Catalysis, 1967, Academic Press. (With W.J. Thomas).
- Selections and Reflections: The Legacy of Sir Lawrence Bragg, 1990, Science Reviews. (With Lord David Phillips, editors).
- Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution: The Genius of Man and Place, 1991, Institute of Physics Publishing.
- Perspectives in Catalysis, 1992, Blackwells. (With K.I. Zamaraev, editors).
- Principles and Practice of Heterogeneous Catalysis, 1997, Wiley. (With W.J. Thomas).
- 4D Electron Microscopy: Imaging in Space and Time, 2010, Imperial College Press. (With A.H. Zewail).
- Design and Applications of Single-Site Heterogeneous Catalysts: Contributions to Green Chemistry, Clean Technology and Sustainability, 2012, Imperial College Press.
Part 1: On the design and application of solid catalysts
- Sheet silicates: Broad spectrum catalysts for organic synthesis, J.A. Ballantine, J.H. Purnell and J.M. Thomas, J. Molecular Catalysis, 27, 157-167, 1984. (See also U.S. Patent 4,999,319 (1985), which is the basis of the world’s largest solvent-free, single-step production of ethyl acetate.)
- Uniform heterogeneous catalysts: The role of solid-state chemistry in their development and design, J.M. Thomas, Angew. Chem., Intl. Ed. Engl., 27, 1673–1691, 1988.
- New micro-crystalline catalysts, J.M. Thomas, (Bakerian Lecture of the Royal Society), Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A, 333, 173-207, 1990.
- Solid acid catalysts, J.M. Thomas, Scientific American, 266, 85-88 (UK Edition), 112-118 (US Edition), April 1992.
- Heterogeneous catalysts obtained by grafting metallocene complexes onto mesoporous silica, T. Maschmeyer, F. Rey, G. Sankar and J.M. Thomas, Nature, 378, 159-162, 1995.
- Design, synthesis and in situ characterisation of new solid catalysts, J.M. Thomas, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 38, 3588-3628, 1999. (Linus Pauling Lecture, California Institute of Technology, March 1999 and Karl Ziegler Lecture, Max Planck Institute, Mülheim, November 1998.)
- Molecular sieve catalysts for the regioselective and shape-selective oxyfunctionalization of alkanes in air, J.M. Thomas, R. Raja, G. Sankar and R.G. Bell, Accnts. Chem. Res., 34, 191-200, 2001.
- Solvent-free routes to clean technology, J.M. Thomas, R. Raja, G. Sankar, B.F.G. Johnson and D.W. Lewis, Chemistry - A European Journal, 7, 2972–2978, 2001.
- High-performance nanocatalysts for single-step hydrogenations, J.M. Thomas, B.F.G. Johnson, R. Raja, G. Sankar and P.A. Midgley, Accnts. Chem. Res., 36, 20-30, 2003.
- Constraining asymmetric organometallic catalysts within mesoporous supports boosts their enantioselectivity, R. Raja, J.M. Thomas, M.D. Jones, B.F.G. Johnson and D.E.W. Vaughan, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 125, 14982-14983, 2003.
- Highly efficient, one-step conversion of cyclohexaneCyclohexaneCyclohexane is a cycloalkane with the molecular formula C6H12. Cyclohexane is used as a nonpolar solvent for the chemical industry, and also as a raw material for the industrial production of adipic acid and caprolactam, both of which being intermediates used in the production of nylon...
to adipic acid using single-site heterogeneous catalysts, R. Raja, J.M. Thomas, M. Xu, K.D.M. Harris, M. Greenhill-Hooper, K. Quill, Chem. Commun., 448-450, 2006. - Design of a "green" one-step catalytic production of ε-caprolactam (precursor of nylon-6), J.M. Thomas and R. Raja, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 102, 13732-13736, 2005. See also J. Am. Chem. Soc., 123, 8153, 2001 and Nature, 437, 1243–1244, 2005.
- The advantages and future potential of single-site heterogeneous catalysts, J.M. Thomas and R. Raja, Topics in Catalysis, 40, 3-17, 2006.
- Single-site photocatalytic solids for the decomposition of undesirable molecules (Focus Article), M. Anpo and J.M. Thomas, Chem. Commun., 3273-3278, 2006.
- Innovations in oxidation catalysis leading to a sustainable society, J.M. Thomas and R. Raja, Catalysis Today, 117, 22-31, 2006.
- Systematic enumeration of microporous solids: Towards designer catalysts, J.M. Thomas and J. Klinowski, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 46, 7160-7163, 2007.
- Facile, one-step production of niacin (vitamin B3) and other nitrogen-containing pharmaceutical chemicals with a single-site heterogeneous catalyst, R. Raja, J.M. Thomas, M. Greenhill-Hooper, S.V. Ley, and F.A. Almeida Paz, Chemistry: A European J., 14, 2340–2348, 2008.
- Nanoporous oxidic solids: The confluence of heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis, J.M. Thomas, J.C. Hernandez-Garrido, R. Raja and R.G. Bell, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 11, 2799–2825, 2009. (Based on a lecture by J.M. Thomas at the Symposium of Molecular Frontiers held at the Swedish Academy of Sciences in May 2008).
- Heterogeneous catalysis: Enigmas, illusions, challenges, realities, and emergent strategies of design, J.M. Thomas, J. Chem. Phys., 128, 182502-1–182502-19, 2008.
- Can a single atom serve as the active site in some heterogeneous catalysts?, J.M. Thomas, Z. Saghi and P.L. Gai, Topics in Catalysis, 54, 588-594, 2011.
- The principles of solid state chemistry hold the key to the successful design of heterogeneous catalysts for environmentally responsible processes, J.M. Thomas, Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 146, 3-10, 2011.
Part 2: On new techniques
- Localizing active sites in zeolitic catalysts: Neutron-powder-profile analysis and computer simulation of deutero-pyridine bound to gallozeolite-L, P.A. Wright, J.M. Thomas, A.K. Cheetham and A.K. Nowak, Nature, 318, 611-614, 1986.
- Tracing the conversion of aurichalcite to a copper catalyst by combined X-ray absorption and diffraction, J.W. Couves, J.M. Thomas, D. Waller, R.H. Jones, A.J. Dent, G.E. Derbyshire and G.N. Greaves, Nature, 354, 465-468, 1991.
- Review lecture: Topography and topology in solid-state chemistry, J.M. Thomas, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A, 277, 251-286, 1974.
- Resolving crystallographically distinct tetrahedral sites in silicalite and ZSM-5 by solid-state NMR, C.A. Fyfe, G.C. Gobbi, J. Klinowski, J.M. Thomas and S. Ramdas, Nature, 296, 530-533, 1982.
- Revolutionary developments from atomic to extended structural imaging, J.M. Thomas, in Physical Biology – From Atoms to Cells (ed. A.H. Zewail), Imperial College Press, 51-114, 2008. See also Nanotomography in the chemical, biological and materials sciences, P.A. Midgley, E.P.W. Ward, A.B. Hungría and J.M. Thomas, Chemical Society Reviews, 36, 1477–1494, 2007.
- Mono- bi- and multifunctional single sites: exploring the interface between heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis, J.M. Thomas and R. Raja, Topics in Catalysis, 53, 848-858, 2010.
- The modern electron microscope: A cornucopia of chemico-physical insights, J.M. Thomas and P.A. Midgley, Chemical Physics, 385, 1-10, 2011.