Emeritus Professor Richard Keene

• Biography/ Background

  Richard Keene graduated as a PhD in inorganic chemistry from the University of Adelaide in 1973. Following postdoctoral appointments at the Australian National University and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (USA), he returned to Australia and after a year on staff at the University of Melbourne was appointed to James Cook University (Townsville, Queensland), from where he retired in 2012 as a Distinguished Professor.

  He has held invited Visiting Professorial positions in the UK (Oxford University; University of Sheffield), USA (Stanford University; Brookhaven National Laboratory; University of North Carolina), Japan (Osaka University; Tokyo Institute of Technology), Germany (Universität Leipzig), France (Université Louis Pasteur de Strasbourg; Université Paul Sabatier {Toulouse}), Switzerland (Université de Fribourg), New Zealand (University of Canterbury in Christchurch), and in Australia at Monash University, UNSW Canberra (Australian Defence Force Academy) and the University of Sydney.

  Richard is the recipient of a number of awards for his research (including the Rennie Medal of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute*) and he has been a Fulbright Scholar. He has published in a number of areas of coordination chemistry, but his recent research interests have centred primarily on the stereochemistry of metallosupramolecular assemblies and its effect on their physical properties  in particular intramolecular electron transfer, and their interactions with biological molecules such a nucleic acids. This latter Interest has extended over the last two decades to the efficacy on oligonuclear complexes as anticancer, antimicrobial and antiparasitic agents.

  Richard was awarded a Personal Chair by James Cook University in 1997, a DSc by the University of Adelaide in 1998, and was conferred as an Emeritus Professor on his retirement from JCU in 2012. He is currently an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Adelaide.

  " The Rennie Memorial Medal is an Australian National Award that is awarded annually to a financial member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute with less than 8 years of professional experience since completing their most recent relevant qualification of a BSc, BSc (Hons), MSc or PhD, or the equivalent, "for the person who has contributed most towards the development of some branch of chemical science".

Entry last updated: Thursday, 20 Mar 2025

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