Robert Gilliard


Robert J. Gilliard, Jr. is an American chemist and researcher who is the Novartis Associate Professor of Chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research involves the synthesis of molecules for energy storage, molecular materials, and main-group element mediated bond activation. He is a member of the editorial advisory board at Inorganic Chemistry, Chemical Communications, and Angewandte Chemie, among other scientific journals.

Early life and education

Gilliard is from Hartsville, South Carolina. He attended Hartsville High School, where he was president of the student body. He was an undergraduate student at Clemson University, where he studied chemistry and worked on organometallic transition metal compounds.
He moved to the University of Georgia for his doctoral research, where he worked alongside Gregory H. Robinson. His doctoral research considered Group 2 organometallic chemistry. He was a UNCF Merck Fellow at ETH Zurich and Ford Foundation Fellow Case Western Reserve University, and worked on highly reactive phosphorus species.

Research and career

In 2017, Gilliard joined the faculty at the University of Virginia, where he was promoted to associate professor in 2022. He spent 2021 as a Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and moved there in 2022.
Gilliard investigates molecular systems for energy storage and catalysis. He has investigated smart materials that are responsive to external stimuli, such as light, heat and mechanical force. Gilliard has proposed thermochromic materials that could be used in combat uniforms when soldiers adapt to different temperatures or terrains. The thermochromic materials developed by Gilliard contain thermoluminescent air-stable, colour-tuneable borafluorenium ions.
Gilliard has also investigated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons for energy conversion. He introduces main-group atoms into polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and investigates the optical and electronic properties. He has shown that the introduction of boron can facilitate modulation of electronic structure or the ability to activate gas molecules such as carbon dioxide. He has demonstrated alkaline earth complexes with redox- and coordination-state flexibility that offer new possibilities for bond activation, and bismuth-containing small molecules for C-H activation.

Awards and honors

*