Jonas C. Peters

Peters was born in 1971 in Chicago, Illinois.{{cite web |title=Profile of Prof Jonas Peters |url=https://cce.caltech.edu/people/jonas-c-peters |website=Caltech CCE Website}} He received his Bachelor of Sciences from the University of Chicago in Chemistry in 1993. While an undergraduate student, he worked under Gregory L. Hillhouse on synthetic methods in inorganic chemistry, specifically with regard to the stabilization of reactive species including diazene and nitroxyl.{{Cite journal|last1=Cheng|first1=Tan Yun|last2=Peters|first2=Jonas C.|last3=Hillhouse|first3=Gregory L.|date=1994-01-01|title=Reactions of coordinated diazene in rhenium and tungsten complexes. Deprotonation of ligated NH:NH and subsequent hydrogen-migration to carbonyl ligands to give metal formyls|url=https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00080a023|journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|volume=116|issue=1|pages=204–207|doi=10.1021/ja00080a023|bibcode=1994JAChS.116..204C |issn=0002-7863|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite journal|date=1994-06-01|title=Synthesis, structure and reactions of trans,trans-Cr(H)(CO)2(NO)(PPh3)2. Preparation of a stable phenyldiazene complex of chromium(0)|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277538700801059|journal=Polyhedron|language=en|volume=13|issue=11|pages=1741–1746|doi=10.1016/S0277-5387(00)80105-9|issn=0277-5387|last1=Peters |first1=Jonas C. |last2=Hillhouse |first2=Gregory L. |last3=Rheingold |first3=Arnold L. |url-access=subscription}} Following his undergraduate, Peters spent a year as a Marshall Scholar at the University of Nottingham working with James J. Turner, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|}}. There, he studied physical inorganic chemistry including the photochemical generation and detection of short-lived transient organometallic species by rapid time-resolved infrared spectroscopy.{{Cite journal|last1=Peters|first1=Jonas|last2=George|first2=Michael W.|last3=Turner|first3=James J.|date=1995-03-01|title=Photochemistry of [CpMo(CO)3]2. Direct Detection and Kinetics of the Radical CpMo(CO)3 in n-Heptane Solution at Room Temperature by Fast Time-Resolved Infrared Spectroscopy|url=https://doi.org/10.1021/om00003a060|journal=Organometallics|volume=14|issue=3|pages=1503–1506|doi=10.1021/om00003a060|issn=0276-7333|url-access=subscription}}

In fall of 1994, Peters went on to do graduate studies with Christopher "Kit" C. Cummins at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At MIT, he studied the activation and functionalization of small molecules using low coordinate tris-amido molybdenum and titanium complexes and prepared the first terminal carbide complex of a transition metal,{{cite journal |last1=Peters |first1=J. C. |title=A terminal molybdenum carbide prepared by methylidyne deprotonation |journal=Chemical Communications |date=1997 |issue=20 |page=1995-1996|doi=10.1039/a704251e |url=https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20120125-111723380 }} earning his PhD in 1998.{{Cite journal|last1=Peters|first1=Jonas C.|last2=Johnson|first2=Adam R.|last3=Odom|first3=Aaron L.|last4=Wanandi|first4=Paulus W.|last5=Davis|first5=William M.|last6=Cummins|first6=Christopher C.|date=1996-01-01|title=Assembly of Molybdenum/Titanium μ-Oxo Complexes via Radical Alkoxide C−O Cleavage|url=https://doi.org/10.1021/ja960564w|journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|volume=118|issue=42|pages=10175–10188|doi=10.1021/ja960564w|bibcode=1996JAChS.11810175P |issn=0002-7863}}

After graduating, Peters conducted postdoctoral studies as a Miller Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, under the guidance of T. Don Tilley. In Tilley's group, he concentrated on the synthesis and employment of novel phosphine and silane ligands relevant to late metal Si-C, Si-H, C-H, and C-C bond breaking and forming processes.{{Cite journal|last1=Peters|first1=Jonas C.|last2=Feldman|first2=Jay D.|last3=Tilley|first3=T. Don|date=1999-10-01|title=Silylene Extrusion from a Silane: Direct Conversion of Mes2SiH2 to an Iridium Silylene Dihydride|url=https://doi.org/10.1021/ja992367d|journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|volume=121|issue=42|pages=9871–9872|doi=10.1021/ja992367d|bibcode=1999JAChS.121.9871P |issn=0002-7863|url-access=subscription}}

Peters began as assistant professor in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Caltech in August 1999, was promoted to associate professor in 2004, and to Professor of Chemistry in 2006. In July 2007, he relocated to the MIT Department of Chemistry as the W. M. Keck Professor of Energy. Peters returned to Caltech in January 2010 as Bren Professor of Chemistry and in 2015 he was appointed Director of the Resnick Sustainability Institute.{{cite web |title=Resnick Sustainability Institute (Caltech) |url=https://resnick.caltech.edu/ |website=Resnick Sustainability Institute Website}}

Peters' laboratory focuses on the synthesis of new inorganic and organometallic species with interesting electronic structure, bonding, and reactivity properties. His laboratory has advanced new concepts for catalysis (including electro- and photocatalysis), with significance to renewable solar fuel technologies, distributed nitrogen fixation for fertilizers and fuels, and chemical transformations fundamental to the synthesis of organic molecules. Peters' research studies are mechanistic in nature and include the characterization of highly reactive species that populate open-shell ground spin states amenable to spectroscopic characterization. He collaborates with many talented scientists, including Gregory Fu on methodology in organic synthesis.{{Cite journal|last1=Zhao|first1=Wei|last2=Wurz|first2=Ryan P.|last3=Peters|first3=Jonas C.|last4=Fu|first4=Gregory C.|date=2017-08-25|title=Photoinduced, Copper-Catalyzed Decarboxylative C–N Coupling to Generate Protected Amines: An Alternative to the Curtius Rearrangement|url= |journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|volume=139|issue=35|pages=12153–12156|doi=10.1021/jacs.7b07546|issn=0002-7863|pmc=5624330|pmid=28841018|bibcode=2017JAChS.13912153Z }} In 2021, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2024 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Jonas C.}}

Category:1971 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American chemists

Category:California Institute of Technology faculty

Category:University of Chicago alumni

Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni

Category:American inorganic chemists

Category:Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers