Chi-Ming Che has made seminal contributions to: [A] Phosphorescent Transition Metal Compounds. He
pioneered the chemistry of triplet excited states of coordinately unsaturated metal complexes. He made use of
triplet excited states as powerful one-electron oxidant and reductant to study highly exothermic electron transfer
and atom transfer reactions including the first report on biological bimolecular electron transfer reactions in the
Marcus Inverted Region [JACS 1986, 108, 2814-2818]. His seminal works on phosphorescent d10 and d8 metal
complexes include [i] establish the ndσ*  (n+1)pσ excited states of weakly interacting d10-d10 binuclear
complexes of Au(I) [JACS 1999, 121, 4799-4803], Ag(I) [JACS 2000, 122, 2464-2468], and Cu(I) [Angew.
Chem. Int. Ed. 2000, 39, 4084-4088] and provides the proof of emission coming from exciplex formation
involving metal-ligand coordination in excited states [Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1999, 38, 2783-2785]; [ii]
[Pt2(P2O5H2)4]4 as a molecular photocatalyst for light-induced cleavage of C-H bonds of hydrocarbons [Acc.
Chem. Res. 1989, 22, 55-61]; [iii] the two original papers on luminescent platinum(II)-alkynyl complexes
[Coord. Chem. Rev. 1994, 132, 87-97] and observation of long-lived metal-metal to ligand charge transfer
excited states of weakly interacting diplatinum(II,II) complexes in solutions [JCS, Chem Commun. 1992, 1369]
have spearheaded the subsequent huge amount of literatures on phosphorescent platinum(II) complexes; [iv]
luminescent Pt(II) complexes as light switch on probes for DNAs including secondary DNAs [JACS 2009, 131,
1835-1846] and for the detection of proteins at ng level [Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 3652-3656]; [v] prior to the
work by Thompson and Forrest, Che and Ma first reported the application of phosphorescent transition metal
compounds as emitting materials for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) [Synth. Met. 1998, 94, 245] and
pioneered the development of highly robust phosphorescent platinum(II) OLED emitters; [vi] he demonstrates
metal···metal interactions as a driving force for the anisotropic growth of functional molecular nanostructures
including 1-D nanowires [Chem. Commun. 2006, 3972], semiconducting nanostructured materials for LightEmitting Organic Thin-Film Field Effect Transistors [Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 9895-9899], photoresponsive 2-D Nano-Sheets, and supramolecular polyelectrolytes [Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 7621-7625].
[B] Reactive Metal-Ligand Multiple Bonded Complexes for Biomimetic Atom and Group Transfer
Reactions. Che reported the first direct observation of a nitrido coupling reaction between two metal-nitrido
units to give dinitrogen bridged compounds [JCS, Chem. Commun. 1989, 1883]. This reaction is viewed as the
microscopic reverse of the cleavage of dinitrogen compounds to metal-nitrido units proposed by H Taube. Che
is a leading figure in the oxidation chemistry of ruthenium porphyrins with practical applications in organic
synthesis [Chem. Commun. 2009, 3996-4015] and in developing atom and group transfer catalysis for selective
C-H bond functionalisation. He pioneered the ruthenium-carbenoid- and nitrene-transfer catalysis for uses in
organic synthesis. He demonstrated the first which remains the only example of using a molecular catalyst
(chiral dioxoruthenium porphyrin) for direct enantioselective transfer of an oxygen atom from a dioxygen
molecule to an organic molecule (alkene) without the use of a co-reductant [Chem. Commun. 1998, 1583] and
similarly the ruthenium catalysed aerobic Wacker type oxidation of terminal alkenes [Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
2008, 47, 6638-6642]; he pioneered the chemistry of diverse classes of highly oxidizing ruthenium-oxo
complexes including their isolation, structural characterisation via X-ray crystallography, systematic tuning of
their redox properties and structures and reactivity studies [JCS, Chem. Commun. 1985, 988; Inorg. Chem. 1987,
26, 2289-2299]. The monooxoruthenium(IV) complex of tetramethylcyclam synthesized by Che and coworkers in 1985 [Chem. Commun. 1985, 546] is iso-structural to the first non-heme iron oxo complex
structurally characterised by X-ray crystallography [Science, 2003, 299, 1037]. He developed the first
structurally characterised non-OsO4 metal-oxo complexes (cis-dioxoruthenium(VI)) for converting alkenes to
cis-diols [JACS, 2005, 127, 14239-14249]. Che pioneered the chemistry of reactive metal-tosylimido complexes
and has examined the effects of driving force and C-H bond dissociation energy on H-atom abstraction
reactions by reactive metal-imido species [JACS, 2005, 127, 16629-16640]. He developed chiral rutheniumimido porphyrins for probing the primary steps involved in enantioselective imido group transfer reactions
[Chem. Eur. J., 2002, 8, 1563-1572] and was the first to realize enantioselective intramolecular amidation of
saturated C-H bonds with PhI(OAc)2 catalysed by metal complexes [Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2002, 41, 34653468]. He recently reported the highly selective functionalisation of 1º C-H bonds and highly enantioselective
functionalisation of 2º C-H bonds with practical interest through metal catalysed carbenoid insertion to
unactivated hydrocarbons [Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 9747-9751]. Che contributes to the description of
ruthenium-carbon multiple bonding by computational studies and spectroscopic and electrochemical means
[JACS, 2005, 127, 13997-14007]. His group has isolated and structurally characterised highly reactive
ruthenium-and iron-carbene, and bis(carbene)osmium complexes supported by porphyrin ligands [JACS, 2001,
123, 4119-4129, 4843-4844; 2002, 124, 13185-13193; Chem. Eur. J. 2004, 10, 3486-3502]. [C] Inorganic
Medicines. Che’s recent works on “Inorganic Medicines” are summarized in a Dalton Perspective article:
Dalton Trans. 2007, 4884-4892; Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, 2010, DOI 10.1016/j.cbpa.2009.11.015].
Che has developed a series of physiologically stable Au(III) complexes that display exhibit up to 100-fold
stronger anti-cancer activities in vitro and in vivo compared with the clinically-used cisplatin and are capable of
overcoming multidrug- and cisplatin-resistant cancer cells but remain non-toxic to normal human cells at the
anti-cancer dosage concentrations (Chem. Commun. 2003, 1718; Cancer Res. 2005, 65, 11553-11564). Using a
Buffulo rat liver cancer model, one of these Au(III) complexes was found to significantly prolong the survival
time of the tumor-bearing rats while cisplatin offered no protection (Int. J. Cancer, 2009, 124, 1971-1979) and
to inhibit the growth and induce apotosis of Neuroblastoma Cells (Br. J. Cancer, 2009, 101, 342-349). A new
gold-porphyrin developed by Che is a particularly effective Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor Targeting Wnt/betaCatenin Pathway [Cancer Res. 2010, 70, 329-337]. Che’s team has extended the bio-medical horizon of metal
nanoparticles by reporting that silver nanoparticles exhibit potent anti-HIV [Chem. Commun. 2005, 5059], and
anti-HBV [Antiviral Therapy, 2008, 13, 253-262], and examined the antibacterial action of silver nanoparticles
through proteomic and biochemical studies [Journal of Proteome Research, 2006, 5, 916-924].
Prof. Che has received the following prizes and awards in recognition of his achievements. In 1993, he received
the Sixth National Natural Science Award of China for his contributions in the area of Oxidation Chemistry of
High-Valent Ruthenium-Oxo Complexes. At the age of 38, he became an elected member of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences (CAS) and remained the youngest academician in the history of CAS. He was the first
Hong Kong citizen to receive this honor. In 1997, he received the first Croucher Senior Fellowship award from
Croucher Foundation of Hong Kong. He is the recipient of the First Class Prize of State Natural Science
Award of China (2006) and is the first and only Hong Kong scientist and one of the six Chinese scientists
as Principal Investigator on whom this honor has been bestowed by People’s Republic of China from
year 1990 to 2010. Other awards include: IUF Invited Professorship from France (2002); National Outstanding
Young Scholar Award (2003); Federation of Asian Chemical Societies Foundation Lectureship (2003); Fellow
of World Innovation Foundation (2004); Fellow of Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (2005); TWAS
Prize in Chemistry from the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (2006); Pfizer Lectureship
(2006); Seaborg Lectureship at the University of California at Berkeley (2007); Fellow of the Academy of
Sciences for the Developing World (2007); Prize of Ho Leung Ho Lee (HLHL) Foundation for Scientific and
Technological Progress (2007) (the first Hong Kong scientist to receive this honor); Edward Clark Lee
Lectureship at University of Chicago (2008); the Leader of Year 2008 Hong Kong (Research); Fellow of
Royal Society of Chemistry (2008); Molecular Sciences Forum Lecture Professorship at Institute of Chemistry,
CAS (2009). He holds Honorary and/or concurrent Professorships, including at The National Taiwan University,
Nanjing University, Peking University, and State Key Laboratory of Organometallic Chemistry at Shanghai
Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS. In 2005, he was ranked 21st in a list of the world’s top 40 most cited
authors for their papers published in the widely-read journal Chemical Communications between 1965 and 2004,
and Chemical Communications published an interview with Prof. Che. He is listed as one of the Highly Cited
Researchers worldwide by ISIHighlyCited.com (Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Knowledge,
Thomson-ISI). According to the Web of Science (Thomson-ISI), Prof. Che has an H-index of 70, with over
9094 total citations excluding self-citations. Prof. Che is an International Advisory Board Member of
Chemistry-A European Journal, Chemistry-An Asian Journal, ChemCatChem, and Journal of Inorganic
Biochemistry. He is a former International Advisory Board member of Journal of Chemical Society, Dalton
Transactions (1998–2002), European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry (20012006), and New Journal of
Chemistry (1998–2000). He has published over 640 papers in leading chemistry journals, including 48
papers in J. Am. Chem. Soc., 23 papers in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 35 papers in Chem. Eur. J., 94 papers in
Chem. Commun., 107 papers in Dalton Trans., 72 papers in Inorg. Chem., 19 papers in Organometallics, 25
papers in Org. Lett., 8 papers in Advanced Materials, 12 papers in App. Phys. Lett., 1 paper in Acc. Chem. Res.,
8 papers in Coord. Chem. Rev., 6 papers in Proteomics, and 3 papers in Cancer Research. He is ranked the
92nd most cited chemist worldwide according to SCI citations between January 1, 1999-Februray 28, 2009. He
holds 10 patents on New Materials, and 4 patents related to Catalysis and Inorganic Medicines. Since 1983,
Prof. Che has delivered more than 32 plenary and keynote lectures, and 51 invited lectures at prestigious
international as well as national conferences. He delivered a Plenary Lecture at the 30th International
Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ICCC) at the age of 37 [Plenary Speakers of this conference
included Prof. M. L. H. Green of Oxford University, Prof. R. H. Holm of Harvard University, Prof. J. P.
Sauvage of Louis Pasteur University]. He was a Keynote Speaker at the Dalton Discussion 10 (2007). He
delivered another Plenary Lecture at the 38th ICCC held at Israel in July 2008 [Plenary Speakers of this
conference include Prof. R. R. Schrock (2005 Nobel Prize Laureate) and Prof. H. B. Gray (2004 Wolf Prize
Laureate)]. On 17 occasions, his publications are highlighted on the front covers (11) or inside front covers (6)
in Chem. Eur. J., Chem. Asian J., Inorg. Chem., Dalton Trans., Chem. Commun., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., and J.
Am. Chem. Soc. His works have been highlighted in Chemtracts-Inorganic Chemistry, Highlights section of
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Chemical and Engineering News USA, SYNFACTS, and Nature China. He has
graduated a total of over 100 Ph.D. students and launched the HKU-CAS Joint Laboratory on New Materials
and Shanghai-HK Joint Laboratory in Chemical Synthesis with Chinese Academy of Sciences for developing
new functional molecular materials, medicinal inorganic chemistry, green chemistry and solar energy storage
reactions.