James M. Mayer

Mayer has delved deeply into chemical reactivity by interconnecting the thermodynamics, mechanism, and kinetics of complex reactions. He found the first examples of oxidative addition of a strong CO double bond, aryl migration to an oxo ligand, and hydroxide/oxo-hydroxide interconversions. He also gained valuable insights about low-valent, high electron count metal oxo complexes. He showed how the bond strengths control inorganic H atom transfer and proton-coupled electron transfer, adapting Marcus theory to calculate rate constants and developing these principles to understand scaling relationships in electrocatalysis. His studies in nanochemistry and interfacial reactivity highlight the same principles of protons accompanying electrons.