50th Anniversary of Electron Counting Paradigms for Polyhedral Molecules

Michael Mingos was born in Basra, Iraq in 1944 and was educated in England (Manchester, B.Sc. in Chemistry 1965) and University of Sussex (D.Phil, 1968). He has held academic posts at QMC, Oxford (Keble College), Imperial College, St Edmund Hall (Principal,1999-2009). His theoretical research has resulted in generalisations which have greatly influenced the development and teaching of modern inorganic chemistry. Specifically the Wade-Mingos Rules which rationalise the structures of polyhedral inorganic molecules and the Green-Davies-Mingos Rules, which account for some of the nucleophilic reactions  of organometallic compounds. His group has experimentally verified some of his theoretical predictions, for example an icosahedral molecule containing gold atoms -which is relevant for understanding the metal’s nano-technological possibilities. He has also contributed to the understanding of the bonding properties of nitric oxide, an important cellular signalling molecule involved in many physiological processes and pioneered the acceleration of chemical reactions using microwave energy. He was elected the Royal Society in 1992 and the European Academy of Sciences in 2017. He holds honorary doctorates from Sussex and Manchester Universities and received many prizes – the most recent was the Blaise Pascal Medal in 2017.

• Electron Counting Rules for Gold Clusters Which Are Stereochemically Non-rigid  and Exhibit  Skeletal Isomerism.- Electron Counting in Ligated High Nuclearity Late Transition Metal Clusters.- Binary Zintl Anions Involving Group 13–15 (Semi-) Metal Atoms, and the Relationship of Their Structures to Electron Count.- Molecules Meet Solids: From Wade-Mingos Clusters to Intermetalloid Clusters.- Structure and Bonding of Group 14 clusters: Wade’s rules and Beyond.