Rate My Professor Glen Deacon

Glen Deacon is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Chemistry at Monash University in the Faculty of Science. He earned his BSc (Hons) Class I and PhD from the University of Adelaide, supported by CSIRO and AAEC Scholarships, an ICIANZ Fellowship, and the Senior Tutorship at Lincoln College. In 1972, the University of Adelaide awarded him a DSc for research on Main Group Element Chemistry. Deacon joined Monash University as a Lecturer in 1966, advancing to Senior Lecturer in 1971, Reader in 1975, and Professor of Chemistry from 2002 to 2012, after which he was appointed Professor Emeritus. He has held visiting lectureships and positions at institutions including the University of Western Australia, multiple German universities such as Universität Dortmund, Technische Universität Berlin, and Universität Leipzig, Queen Mary College London, James Cook University, and the University of Sydney. In 2020, he became an Honorary Professor in the Institute for Frontier Materials at Deakin University. Additionally, from 2005 to 2006, he served as Senior Adviser in the Monash Research Office.

Deacon has gained international recognition for his contributions to inorganic and inorganic materials chemistry, focusing on the chemistry of main group elements, rare earths, precious metals including platinum anti-cancer compounds, small cyano anions, new materials such as semiconductor dopants and precursors, corrosion inhibitors, and synthetic and catalytic chemistry. His research group discovered the SO₃ elimination synthesis of organometallic compounds in the 1970s, now termed the Deacon reaction. He has authored over 600 refereed journal papers and several book chapters, amassing more than 27,000 citations. Deacon has obtained extensive funding, including over 50 Australian Research Council grants, supervised more than 50 PhD students, 24 postdoctoral researchers, 16 research assistants, 4 MSc students, 6 MEnvSci students, and over 70 BSc(Hons) graduates, and delivered over 200 invited lectures and seminars internationally since 1987. His honors include Fellowship of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute in 1975, the Terrae Rarae Prize for Rare Earth Chemistry in 2006, the Burrows Award for Inorganic Chemistry in 2007, and Monash University's inaugural 50 Year Service Medal in 2017. He served on the Australian Research Council Committee of Experts from 2002 to 2004 and has undertaken consulting and contract research, with one patent in commercial use.