Personal Statement
Jianliang Xiao received a B.Eng. in chemical engineering at the Northwest University in Xian in 1982. This was followed by an M.Eng in catalytic engineering with Profs WU Chi and WANG Junyu at the Research Institute of Petroleum Processing in Beijing and a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Alberta under Prof Martin Cowie. After a two-year postdoctoral appointment with Prof Richard Puddephatt (FRS, Canada & UK), he joined the ERATO Molecular Catalyst Project as a Researcher, learning homogeneous catalysis under Prof Noyori (Noble Laureate 2001). In 1996, he took up a Principal Scientist position at the Leverhulme Centre for Innovative Catalysis in the University of Liverpool. He was appointed to a Lectureship in the Chemistry Department in 1999; this was followed by promotion to Reader and then Professor of Catalysis in early 2005.

Thanks to his students and collaborators, his work has been recognized by the UK Prize for Process Chemistry Research (2008), Excelling at Innovation Award (University of Liverpool 2015), and the RSC Tilden Prize 2020.

Research Overview
Research in the Xiao group is mainly concerned with homogeneous catalysis for sustainable chemical synthesis. The focal point of our research is on discovering and developing innovative catalytic methods, aiming at:
1. Faster, more productive and greener organic synthesis.
2. Building molecular complexity from simple, renewable molecules.
3. Gaining molecular-level understanding of the catalytic machinery.
We devise molecular metal catalysts and engineer the catalytic systems for target reactions, and we do this by a cross-disciplinary approach, harnessing chemistry from organometallics through synthetic organic chemistry to physical chemistry, and by close collaboration with academic colleagues and industrialists.