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Owen is Director of Systems Integration for North American Diesel at Umicore Autocat USA. He has over 25 years of heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis experience spanning the petroleum, biochemical, and automotive catalyst industries. He received his BS in Education, MS in Chemistry, and PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Michigan. |
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Richard A. Kemp received his B.S. in Chemistry from Texas Tech University in 1978. After graduation, he attended The University of Texas, Austin, for his graduate work, receiving his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry in 1981 under the direction of Professor Alan H. Cowley, FRS, focusing on the synthesis and coordination chemistry of novel, di-coordinate phosphorus cations and radicals. After a brief time working for Gulf Oil Chemicals, Kemp spent the majority of his industrial career with Shell Development Company, the research arm of Shell Oil. Work in Shell covered both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis of various organic transformations, including oil hydroprocessing, olefin oligomerization and polymerization, partial oxidation chemistry, and most importantly, invention and commercialization of ethylene epoxidation catalysts. The catalytic chemistry done in Shell and Union Carbide led to approximately 65 U.S. patents. In 2001, he left industry to assume a dual position role as a Principal Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories, and as a Full Professor of Chemistry at the University of New Mexico. Since his move to New Mexico, his research has focused on ways to utilize CO2 and related heteroallenes in synthesis using main group metal complexes, on using O2 directly in partial oxidation processes using transition metal pincer complexes, and the design of new ligands and weakly-coordinating anions for olefin polymerization. His academic work is currently supported financially by NSF, DOE-BES, and ACS-PRF. |