James M. Tour Ph.D.
Chao Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Computer Science, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and the Director of the Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory

Rice University Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, MS 222 6100 Main Street, Houston , Texas 77005

Web:http://www.jmtour.com Phone: 713-348-6246, Fax: 713-348-6250 Email: tour@rice.edu

James M. Tour, a synthetic organic chemist, received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Syracuse University, his Ph.D. in synthetic organic and organometallic chemistry from Purdue University, and postdoctoral training in synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Wisconsin and Stanford University. After spending 11 years on the faculty of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of South Carolina, he joined the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University in 1999 where he is presently the Chao Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Computer Science, and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. He is also Director of Rice University’s Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory in the Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology. Tour’s scientific research areas include molecular electronics, nanotubes for health applications, chemical self-assembly, conjugated oligomers, electroactive polymers, combinatorial routes to precise oligomers, polymeric sensors, flame retarding polymer additives, carbon nanotube growth, synthetic modifications and composite formation, hydrogen storage on carbon nanotubes, synthesis of molecular motors and nanocars, use of the NanoKids concept for K-12 education in nanoscale science, and methods for retarding chemical terrorist attacks. Tour has over 300 research publications and over 30 patents.

Tour won the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society for his achievements in organic chemistry. He also won the Small Times magazine’s Innovator of the Year Award in 2006, the Nanotech Briefs Nano 50 Innovator Award in 2006, the Alan Berman Research Publication Award, Department of the Navy in 2006, the Southern Chemist of the Year Award from the American Chemical Society in 2005 and The Honda Innovation Award for Nanocars in 2005. Tour’s paper on Nanocars was the most highly accessed journal article of all American Chemical Society articles in 2005, and it was listed by LiveScience as the second most influential paper in all of science in 2005. Tour has won several other national awards including the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in Polymer Chemistry and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in Polymer Chemistry.

Tour is a founder of NanoComposites Inc. and he serves on the Board of Directors of Ariel Ministries. He has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University, on the Chemical Reviews Editorial Advisory Board, California Molecular Electronics Corporation’s Technical Advisory Committee, the Governor’s Mathematics and Science Advisory Board for South Carolina, and on the Defense Science Study Group through the Institute for Defense Analyses. He has been active in consulting on several national defense-related topics, in addition to numerous other professional committees and panels.