Ilya Moiseyev

Biography Moiseev was born in Moscow. He studied organic chemistry at Moscow State University of Fine Chemical Technologies (MITHT). After graduating in 1952, his first jobs were as an engineer, a junior researcher in physical chemistry, then a senior researcher in organic chemistry. From 1963, he worked at the N. S. Kurnakov (IGIC) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Moscow, as head of the laboratory of metal-complex catalysis and coordination chemistry. From 2003 onward, he was a professor at the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas (RGUNG Gubkin). He discovered Palladium catalysts that have selective effects under mild conditions, and synthesized new classes of inorganic compounds. The reaction proceeds only in the presence of sodium acetate; Moiseev used benzoquinone to regenerate the Pd(II) catalyst.

CH2=CHOOCCH3 + 2 NaCl + Pd + CH3COOH

Honours and awards In 2002 he received the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology. In 2011 he was awarded the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology. He also received the Orders of the Red Banner of Labour (1986), Honour (1999) and Friendship (2009). and the RAS Chugaev Prize for his work on coordination compounds in industrially important redox reactions. In 2013 he received the RAS Mendeleev Medal for outstanding work in the field of catalysis and energy-saving technologies.

He became a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union in 1990, and an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1992. He was a full member of the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Literature in Paris, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Academia Europaea.