BSc (Hons), PhD
Contact details for Professor Ian Jenkins
- Professor Emeritus, Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies
Biography
Professor Jenkins obtained his PhD from the University of New South Wales in 1969. He carried out postdoctoral work at Syntex in California, the University of Sussex, and the Australian National University, before moving to Griffith University as a Lecturer in Chemistry in 1975. He has spent periods of sabbatical leave at Imperial College, London, The National Jewish Centre for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, Denver, Colorado, The University of Cambridge, UK, Departement de Chimie, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, and Astra, Charnwood, UK. He was promoted to Professor in 1999.
Research interests include organic synthesis, reaction mechanisms, medicinal chemistry, synthesis of bioactive natural products and natural product analogues, free radical chemistry, carbohydrate chemistry, organophosphorus chemistry, organometallic chemistry and polymer chemistry. Since arriving at Griffith University, Ian and his students have made significant contributions to understanding the mechanism of the Mitsunobu reaction and were among the first to identify and rationalise key intermediates. They have also used the Mitsunobu and related reactions in synthesis often in new and novel ways.
Professor Jenkins joined Natural Product Discovery, Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies, as head of the Medicinal Chemistry Group in 1999. He retired in April 2010, and returned in May as Professor Emeritus.