Prof. Cheng born in Tianjin, China, received his M.Sc. in 1981 with Chen-Heng Kao at Nankai University and his Ph.D. in 1987 with Fred Bordwell at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., where he learned more details on chemical bonds. He then worked with Ned Arnett as a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University. In 1988, he started his academic career first as a lecturer and then associate professor (1988) and professor (1990) at Nankai University, where he also acted as vice president for research and international relations in 1995−2000. After a service as vice minister of S&T (for basic research), he resumed his full-time research on bond energetics and its applications at the State key Lab on Elemento-organic Chemistry, Nankai University. In 2012, he founded the Center of Basic Molecular Science of Tsinghua University, and he serves as director and professor. He is a member of CAS (2001 to present) and TWAS (2001 to present), and a fellow of RSC (2007 to present). In 2016, he with his team built iBonD (an Internet-based bond-energy databank) for free access to BDE data. He has been also one of the contributors to CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (for BDEs) since 2014.
Prof. Cheng’s research focuses primarily on physical organic chemistry, especially on bond energy studies in both conventional molecular solvents and ionic liquids, and their applications in untangling complicated problems found in organic chemistry. His systematic work in the field of bond energetics has yielded significant influence on promoting innovative researches in this area. Under his guidance and leadership, the most comprehensive, authoritative and intelligent internet-bond-energy-databank (iBonD) was established in 2016, which is free of charge for non-profit academic use and has received worldwide reputation.
Selected Publications
1. Wu, J.-Y.; Li, Z.; Yang, J.-D.*; Cheng, J.-P.* Bonding Energetics of Palladium Amido/Aryloxide Complexes in DMSO: Implications for Palladium-Mediated Aniline Activation. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 23782-23790.
2. Yang, J.-D.*; Xue, J.; Cheng, J.-P.* Understanding the Role of Thermodynamics in Catalytic Imine Reductions, Chem. Soc. Rev. 2019, 48, 2913-2926.
3. Yang, J.-D.; Ji, P.; Xue, X.-S.; Cheng, J.-P.* Recent Advances and Advisable Applications of Bond Energetics in Organic Chemistry, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 8611–8623.
4. Xue, X.-S.; Ji, P.; Zhou, B.-Y.; Cheng, J.-P.* The Essential Role of Bond Energetics in C–H Activation/Functionalization, Chem. Rev. 2017, 117, 8622–8648.
5. Mao, C.; Wang, Z.-D.; Wang, Z.; Ji, P.*; Cheng, J.-P.* Weakly Polar Aprotic Ionic Liquids Acting as Strong Dissociating Solvent: A Typical “Ionic Liquid Effect” Revealed by Accurate Measurement of Absolute pKa of Ylide Precursor Salts. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 5523–5526.
