Inspiration comes from many places.  If I trace back why we were interested in dinitrogen chemistry, it no doubt begins with my graduate student days at the University of Toronto and a member of my PhD committee, Bert Allen, who in 1965 reported the iconic dinitrogen complex, [Ru(NH3)5N2]2+.  My interactions with Professor Allen were of an advisory nature, but the connection to N2 must have been subliminal because it tuned me to dinitrogen chemistry.  It was at a joint Chemical Institute of Canada/ACS meeting in Montreal in 1977 that I happened to attend a lecture on zirconium dinitrogen chemistry by a very young John Bercaw.  I decided then and there that this was an area that would be fun to get into.  I feel privileged to have had such giants of N2 chemistry as inspirations in my career.  This lecture will allow me to present a concise retrospective look at how we got to where we are in dinitrogen chemistry.

Dinitrogen chemistry in the Fryzuk lab: There and back again

248th National Meeting (2014)

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