2011 Award Recipient

Professor Chao-Jun Li (Green Chemistry)

Professor Chao-Jun Li (McGill University)
Professor Chao-Jun Li is cited for his expertise in the field of Green Chemistry and Organic Synthesis. Professor Li is widely recognized in Canada and internationally for his innovative research in developing new chemical reactivities for synthetic efficiency.

Educational Background
Professor Li received his B.Sc. at Zhengzhou University (1983), his MS at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing (1988) and Ph.D. (with honors) at McGill University (1992). He spent 1992-94 as a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University (US), and began his independent career at Tulane University (US) as an Assistant Professor in 1994. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1998 and Full Professor in 2000. Since 2003, he has been a Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Green Chemistry and a Professor (and E. B. Eddy Professor, since 2010) at McGill University. He was a Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley (2002) and a Visiting Professor at Nagoya University in Japan (2007).

Major Contributions
Professor Li is considered one of the global leaders in the field of Green Chemistry. He has published about 300 original research papers and reviews. In 2007, his research was listed by Canadian Chemical News as ‘one of the most important chemistry discoveries of the past century in Canada’. In 2010, his research was named as a top 10 scientific discoveries of the year in Quebec. He has given over 250 plenary and invited lectures worldwide. His work has been cited extensively (>12,500 times) and in 2011 was ranked among the top 500 living chemists in the world with the highest h-index by the Web of Science. He authored (together with Prof. T. H. Chan) the popular book ‘Organic Reactions in Aqueous Media’ (John Wiley, 1997) and the ‘Comprehensive Organic Reactions in Aqueous Media’ (John Wiley, 2007), and edited two volumes of the Handbook of Green Chemistry Series: ‘Green Solvents’ and ‘Green Syntheses’.

Dr. Li received a number of prestigious awards/honors worldwide. While at Tulane University, he received a US NSF’s CAREER Award (1997), an outstanding young Chinese Scientist Award (overseas) by the Chinese NSF (2000), a Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award by the US EPA (2001), a Faculty Research Award of the year by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Tulane (2002), an Annual Award by the Business Association of New Orleans (2002) and the 2010 Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Award (Individual). He was a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Senior) Fellow in 2002 and has been an honorary research professor at the Chemistry Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences since 1996. Dr. Li was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) in 2007.

Dr. Li serves as the Co-Chair of the Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network (since 2008), the Director of the CFI Infrastructure for Green Chemistry and Green Chemicals, and the Co-Director of the FQRNT Center for Green Chemistry and Catalysis. He also serves as the Associate Editor for (the journal of) Green Chemistry (RSC) (since 2005) and serves on the editorial boards of several other journals. He has chaired numerous Conferences and symposia on Green Chemistry.