Phosphorus Coordination Chemistry: A Special Issue in Honor of Maurizio Peruzzini.

Abstract

The present Article Collection celebrates the outstanding scientific career of Maurizio Peruzzini and his interest in Phosphorus Chemistry. Maurizio was formed as a young chemist at the University of Florence (Italy) under the supervision of Piero Stoppioni and Claudio Bianchini, thus belonging to the numerous heirs of the prestigious chemistry school of Luigi Sacconi. After a period as research assistant at the same University, in 1986 he won a place as researcher at CNR-ISSECC, now CNR-ICCOM, where Maurizio spent most of his further activity as scientist. Since the beginning, he got fascinated by the beauty and complexity of main group and transition metal coordination chemistry, in particular phosphorus in all its allotropic forms. This interest accompanied him throughout his scientific career, that saw promotions first to Senior Researcher (1996–2001) and then to Research Director (2001– 2020). In 2013 he became Director of CNR-ICCOM, after two years as Deputy Director, and in 2017 he took the position of Director of the CNR Department of Chemical Sciences and Materials Technology in Rome, until retirement in 2020. Since then, Maurizio has taken the role of Senior Associate at CNR-ICCOM, and still actively collaborates with his coworkers in various fields of research. His commitment to the development of chemistry in Italy brought him to become President of the Inorganic Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society (2009–2011). He was the mentor of many undergraduate, postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows coming from all over the world to join his research group in Florence. Maurizio’s bibliometric data are truly outstanding, with more than 400 co-authored peer-reviewed papers, more than 13,000 citations and an h-index of 57 (WoS data, 14th April 2021).