Professor Leone Spiccia, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, passed away on December 18, 2016.

Spiccia’s research activities ranged from fundamental to applied research and spanned multiple disciplines, e.g., inorganic and organic chemistry as well as biochemistry and nanomaterials research. His recent work covered water oxidation catalysts, materials for dye-sensitized solar cells, the selective binding and sensing of biomolecules, and diagnostics, therapeutics, and biosensors based on metal complex-bioconjugates, as well as treatment and imaging agents for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

Leone Spiccia studied chemistry at the University of Western Australia, Perth, where he received his Ph.D. in 1984. He was a postdoctoral research fellow with Thomas Wilson Swaddle at the University of Calgary, Canada, with Werner Marty at the Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and with Alan Sargeson at the Australian National University, Canberra. In 1987, he joined Monash University as Lecturer. Spiccia was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1993, to Reader in Chemistry in 1998, and to Professor in 2006.

Among other honors, Spiccia received the H. G. Smith Memorial Award from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) in 2012, the Burrows Award from RACI in 2013, and the Helmholtz International Fellow Award from the Helmholtz Association in 2014. He was a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).

Selected Publications

• A Fast Deposition-Crystallization Procedure for Highly Efficient Lead Iodide Perovskite Thin-Film Solar Cells,
  Manda Xiao, Fuzhi Huang, Wenchao Huang, Yasmina Dkhissi, Ye Zhu, Joanne Etheridge, Angus Gray-Weale, Udo Bach, Yi-Bing Cheng, Leone Spiccia,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 9898–9903.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.201405334
• Nanomaterials: Applications in Cancer Imaging and Therapy,
  José A. Barreto, William O’Malley, Manja Kubeil, Bim Graham, Holger Stephan, Leone Spiccia,
  Adv. Mater. 2011, 23, H18–H40.
  DOI: 10.1002/adma.201100140
• Water-oxidation catalysis by manganese in a geochemical-like cycle,
  Rosalie K. Hocking, Robin Brimblecombe, Lan-Yun Chang, Archana Singh, Mun Hon Cheah, Chris Glover, William H. Casey, Leone Spiccia,
  Nat. Chem. 2011.
  DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1049
• High-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells with ferrocene-based electrolytes,
  Torben Daeneke, Tae-Hyuk Kwon, Andrew B. Holmes, Noel W. Duffy, Udo Bach, Leone Spiccia,
  Nat. Chem. 2011, 3, 213–217.
  DOI: 10.1038/nchem.966
• Solar Driven Water Oxidation by a Bioinspired Manganese Molecular Catalyst,
  Robin Brimblecombe, Annette Koo, G. Charles Dismukes, Gerhard F. Swiegers, Leone Spiccia,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 2892–2894.
  DOI: 10.1021/ja910055a
• Development of Bioinspired Mn₄O₄−Cubane Water Oxidation Catalysts: Lessons from Photosynthesis,
  G. Charles Dismukes, Robin Brimblecombe, Greg A. N. Felton, Ruslan S. Pryadun, John E. Sheats, Leone Spiccia, Gerhard F. Swiegers,
  Acc. Chem. Res. 2009, 42, 1935–1943.
  DOI: 10.1021/ar900249x