Dr. Theodor Agapie

Biography

Theodor Agapie is the John Stauffer Professor of Chemistry and the Executive Officer of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. He completed his B.S. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001 and earned his Ph.D. from Caltech in 2007. Agapie's research focuses on the synthesis and study of metal complexes relevant to catalysis, aimed at developing practical catalysts inspired by biological systems. His work addresses important chemical transformations including water reduction, carbon dioxide reduction, and dinitrogen reduction, with an emphasis on inexpensive and abundant first-row transition metals. Agapie has developed new methodologies for synthesizing complex inorganic targets and performed mechanistic studies to understand the properties and reactivity of these compounds. He is also involved in teaching advanced courses such as Intermediate Inorganic Chemistry, which covers group theory, ligand field theory, and the spectroscopy of transition metal compounds.

Research Interests

Courses