Ingmar Grenthe#

Born 1933-12-21 in Jönköping, Sweden.

Education
Undergraduate and graduate education at the University of Lund, Sweden from fall of 1953 to spring 1964. B.Sc. 1956-10-31. M.Sc. 1957-03-30. Presented a thesis in inorganic chemistry with the title Separation of Plutonium and Fission Products from Neutron Irradiated Uranium for the licentiate degree 1959-12-07. Dissertation for the old Ph.D. on a thesis with the title Komplexkemiska studier av karboxylatkomplex hos trevärda joner i lantan och aktiniumserien (Complex chemical studies of carboxylate complexes of trivalent ions in the lanthanoid and actinoid series) May 19, 1964.

Positions

Ingmar Grenthe had various teaching positions at the University of Lund from January 15, 1957 until the end of December 1974, including appointment to docent in chemistry 1964, and university lecturer in physical chemistry 1968.

1974-08-09 he was appointed professor in inorganic chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and he took up the position January 1:st 1975.

During his period as undergraduate and graduate student he spent a period of two months at the University of Tübingen (Prof. Dr. W. Rüdorff) and a period of three months at Fisons Ltd in Loughborough, UK. He spent one year beginning August 1st 1959 as visiting research associate at the department of chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, State College, USA (Prof. W.C. Fernelius).

Visiting professor/visiting scientist

• Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination and Institute du Genie Chimique in Toulouse from June 1st 1979 to the end of December 1979.
• Commissariat á l’Energie Atomique (CEA), Fonteay-aux-Roses, one year beginning July 1984.
• ETH Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute for Water Research, Prof. Dr. W. Stumm) nine months from August 1990. *From 1986 and until now Ingmar Grenthe has spent four periods at the Joint Research Center, Ispra Italy first at the Institute of Radiochemistry and then at the Environmental Institute, the total time is about nine months.
• From 1991 he has spent several periods as visiting professor at Institut für Radiochemie, TUM, München and at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe.
• During 2000 he spent one month as a visiting professor at Institut fur Radiochemie, Forschungszentrum Rossendorf, Germany

University activities

• Ingmar Grenthe has had positions as dean and prorector (vice president) at KTH.
• He had a large number of assignments as expert in appointment committees for chairs in chemistry in Sweden and abroad.
• He has been a member of the jury for five doctoral dissertations in France.

Other professional activities

1. Industrial and other organizations.
Ingmar Grenthe has been consultant to the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co (SKB) and the Nuclear Energy Agency. He has been engaged by the Finnish Academy for an evaluation of inorganic chemistry in Finland. He was engaged by the Helmholtz Gemeinshaft to chair an international evaluation of the nuclear sciences in Germany.

2. Government committees.
Ingmar Grenthe has been a member of the Consultative Committee for Radioactive Waste (KASAM) and was chairman for the Foundation of Strategic Environmental Research for a period of four years beginning January 1st 1994 until January 10, 1997.
He was appointed by the Government to act as chairman for the Foundation for the International Institute of Industrial Environmental Economy at the University of Lund from August 1994 until January 10, 1997.
Ingmar Grenthe has been engaged by the Natural Science Research Council (NFR) and the Technical Research Council (TFR) in various positions between 1975 and 1993.

3. Memberships.
Ingmar Grenthe is a member of a number of academies and learned societies (IVA; KVA; Royal Physiographic Society in Lund, and Academia Europea).
He was a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry from 1992 to 2001.

Scientific work

Ingmar Grenthe began his scientific work 1956 as a solution coordination chemist. His first thesis (masters) was devoted to halide complexes of bismuth in aqueous solution. His second thesis (for the licentiate degree) also dealt with solution chemistry and a problem related to reprocessing of nuclear fuel. During his stay in USA he shifted focus and made some studies of low temperature physics, but devoted most of his time to lanthanide chemistry. After returning to Sweden he continued this work but expanded the methodology to calorimetry. After his Ph. D. he built up a research group in Lund working both with solution calorimetry and structure chemistry - the problems areas were mainly related to lanthanide and actinide chemistry, but also some studies on hydrogen bonding and isomerisation reactions in the solid state. In Stockholm Ingmar Grenthe has been engaged both in more fundamental research in solution coordination chemistry and applications of solution chemical methodology in material sciences, environmental aquatic chemistry and problems related to nuclear waste disposal. Solution thermodynamics and the theory of electrolyte systems has also been a long-standing interest for him.

Ingmar Grenthe has supervised between twenty and twenty-five graduate students, published about 150 scientific publications and holds about ten patents. A large number of visiting scientists have worked in his laboratory over the years.

Current research

Ingmar Grenthe's current research deals with the chemical modeling of complex aqueous systems and the dynamics of ligand and electron exchange reactions for actinides, studies that involve extensive cooperation with quantum chemists in Sweden and abroad. He has organized a network of cooperation between experimental actinide chemists and theoretical chemists.