Professor Len Barbour

Professor Len Barbour’s research interests include various solid-state phenomena, with particular emphasis on the design and characterisation of porous materials for inclusion chemistry, e.g. chemical separations, gas sorption. Prof Barbour obtained his PhD from the University of Cape Town, where he investigated thermodynamic and structural aspects of solvate formation and decomposition. He completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Missouri where he was later appointed Research Assistant Professor. In 2003 he established a laboratory at SU to investigate various aspects of solid-state supramolecular chemistry and was later awarded a Tier 1 South African Research Chair in Nanostructured Functional Materials. Prof Barbour has published over 230 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature and Science and has served as associate editor of the nine-volume major reference work Comprehensive Supramolecular Chemistry (2nd Edition, 2017) and the New Journal of Chemistry. Awards his work has garnered include the South African Chemical Institute’s Gold Medal and SU’s Chancellor’s Award for Research.