profile 6: dr. jonas peters

Wow! An inorganic chemist appears on these pages. It's been a while and so I decided to go for variety this time. Here we have Dr. Jonas Peters of the California Institute of Technology. Who says there arent any hotties over at Caltech? My committee of hotness (they like to call themselves the faculty thermo committee..geee my friends are dorks) has determined that Dr. Peters is most definitely sexy science.

He's a very nice man, pleasant and easy to get along with. He got his BS from UChicago, became a Marshall Scholar (ooooh, smart and sexy?), ended up working at MIT for his PhD and postdoc-ed at Berkeley before ending up at Caltech. I remember talking with him when was at a Caltech SURF; he definitely has a presence and several of us thought he was pretty cute for a professor (I almost even ended up working for him! *sigh*).

So, what does he work on? Well, he works on inorganic synthesis focusing on catalysis, synthesizing new ligands and transition metal complexes. This man is right up my alley in terms of research and he's been on the list of possible post docs. All I remember during my days of the SURF is I used to pas by his lab and I tried to talk with him a lot (yes, it was kind of immature of me, but oh well..I was vulnerable as I had just broken up with the BF previous to that). So Jonas, if ou see this, dont hesitate to call me up ;)

Now for his obligatory research statement:
"The primary goal of Professor Peters' research program is to define and prepare reactive transition metal complexes stabilized by appropriately designed auxiliary ligands. The systems under development in his group are anticipated to show a high affinity for (i) atom and group transfer chemistry and (ii) reactions at robust X-H bonds, where the X-H bond refers generally to a C-H, Si-H, B-H, or H-H bond. The focus of the research is both practical and fundamental. The Peters group has developed a palette of auxiliary ligand systems to explore transformations relevant to binding, activating, and functionalizing small molecule substrates at transition metal centers. Within this broad framework specific processes of interest include: (i) alkane activation and oxidation, as in the direct conversion of light alkanes to alcohols, and (ii) atom and group transfer processes relevant to the activation and utilization of small molecules such as nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen. " - Peters Group Website

Now for what everyone has been waiting for: the picture analysis! (I know you dont go to this website to look at research statements..if you do well..more power to you!)


I like the picture actually, though as a person who's interacted with him personally I dont believe it does him justice. He has a very boy-ish face (he's quite young looking, I was surprised when I found out his actual age) and has a very pleasant presence (you feel quite comfortable around him). He has very good bone structure (gee, I'm feeling ilke I'm Janice Dickenson on ANTM), so yeah..I'll just stop there.

Now for his final score!

Jonas Peters is a.....Aji Long Pepper!