Gregory S. Girolami[1] (born October 16, 1956)[citation needed] is the William H. and Janet G. Lycan Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
[10][11][12] Thereafter, he was a NATO postdoctoral fellow with Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, and his work there focused on the synthesis and chemistry of first-row transition metal-alkyl complexes.
[17] Girolami is also co-founder of a university spin-off company, Tiptek LLC, which manufactures ultrasharp probe tips for use in scanning tunneling microscopy and for fault diagnosis and testing of integrated circuits.
The company has patented its field-directed sputter sharpening (FDSS) technology, which was originally developed in the laboratories of Girolami and fellow UIUC Professor Joseph Lyding.
[18] To date, Girolami's independent research career has encompassed five major themes: mechanistic studies of organometallic reactions such as the polymerization of alkenes and the activation of saturated alkanes, the chemical vapor deposition of thin films from designed molecular precursors, the construction and study of molecular analogs of the photosynthetic reaction center, actinide chemistry, and the synthesis of new molecule-based magnetic materials.
His research approach emphasizes the synthesis of new inorganic and organometallic compounds and materials, investigations of their mechanisms of formation, and measurements and interpretations of their physical properties.
Girolami's early work focused on the synthesis of transition metal compounds with metal-hydrogen and metal-carbon bonds, especially those possessing unusual electronic structures.