Ronald Hage appointed Honorary Professor of Industrial Catalysis and Bio-Inorganic Chemistry

Ronald Hage (1963) studied chemistry at Leiden University and obtained his PhD (cum laude) with Prof. J. Reedijk from the same university in 1991. His thesis work was on ruthenium and osmium complexes containing triazole ligands. He worked for the Unilever Research laboratories in Vlaardingen from 1990 until 2009 as lead scientist on the development of manganese and iron complexes for detergent cleaning applications. In 1994 a Letter to Nature was published (with Hage as first author), describing the scientific developments of manganese bleach catalysts. Despite the initial commercial set-backs, the catalysts developed by Hage and his team are still the state of the art in the field and widely used nowadays. Ronald Hage was also one of the co-founders of the spin-off company Catexel, that was established to develop new markets for Unilever’s catalyst IP in 2005. He currently holds more than 90 patents, from which many have been granted. Since the early 90s he collaborates with Prof. Feringa and since more recently also with Prof. Browne on a variety of topics related to oxidation catalysis.