James Tour

James Mitchell Tour is an American chemist and nanotechnologist.

He is a Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Tour received degrees from Syracuse University (BS, 1981), Purdue University (PhD, 1986 under Ei-ichi Negishi) and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1986–1987) and Stanford University (1987–1988).

Tour's work is primarily focused on carbon materials chemistry and nanotechnology.

Tour's work on carbon materials encompasses fullerene purification, composites, conductive inks for radio frequencies identification tags, carbon nanoreporters for identifying oil downhole, graphene synthesis from cookies and insects, graphitic electronic devices, carbon particle drug delivery for treatment of traumatic brain injury, the merging of 2D graphene with 1D nanotubes to make a conjoined hybrid material, a new graphene-nanotube 2D material called rebar graphene, graphene quantum dots from coal, gas barrier composites, graphene nanoribbon deicing films, supercapacitors and battery device structures, and water splitting to H2 and O2 using metal chalcogenides.

In addition, Tour has conducted research on the synthesis of graphene oxide, its mechanism of formation, and its use in capturing radionuclides from water.

Tour has developed oxide-based electronic memories that can also be transparent and built onto flexible substrates.

His group has also developed the use of porous metal structures to make renewable energy devices including batteries and supercapacitors, as well as electronic memories.

More recently, the Tour group's discovery of laser-induced graphene (LIG) has spurred innovations including an array of device structures made from LIG foams.

In 2005, Tour's journal article "Directional Control in Thermally Driven Single-Molecule Nanocars" was ranked the Most Accessed Journal Article by the American Chemical Society.

Tour has twice won the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching at Rice University in 2007 and 2012.

Tour was ranked one of the top 10 chemists in the world over the past decade by Thomson Reuters in 2009.

That year, he was also made a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Tour won the ACS Nano Lectureship Award from the American Chemical Society in 2012.

Tour was named "Scientist of the Year" by R&D Magazine in 2013.

He was named among "The 50 most Influential Scientists in the World Today" by TheBestSchools.org in 2014.

Tour was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2015.

In 2016, Tour was listed as an ISI highly cited researcher.

Tour became a born-again Christian in his first year at Syracuse and identifies as a Messianic Jew.

Tour signed the Scientific Dissent from Darwinism, a statement issued by the Discovery Institute disputing the scientific consensus on evolution, but, in spite of the Discovery Institute's promotion of the pseudoscience of intelligent design, Tour does not consider himself to be an intelligent design proponent.

According to The New Yorker, Tour said his signing of the "Dissent" "reflected only his personal doubts about how random mutation occurs at the molecular level... [and] that, apart from a habit of praying for divine guidance, he feels that religion plays no part in his scientific work."

His lab's discovery of the flash graphene process in 2019 for the 10-millisecond bulk formation of graphene from carbon sources including coal, petroleum coke, biochar, food waste and mixed plastic waste, has implications in environmental stewardship through materials and waste upcycling.

Tour worked in molecular electronics and molecular switching molecules.

He pioneered the development of the Nanocar, single-molecule vehicles with four independently rotating wheels, axles, and light-activated motors.

Tour was the first to show that Feringa-based motors can be used to move a molecule on a surface using light as opposed to electric current from an STM tip.

His early career focused upon the synthesis of conjugated polymers and precise oligomers.

Tour has also been involved in scientific outreach, such as NanoKids, an interactive learning DVD to teach children fundamentals of chemistry and physics.

He also developed SciRave, a Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero package to teach science concepts to middle school and elementary school students.

He has testified before the US Congress on two occasions to warn about budget cuts.

In the Scientific American article "Better Killing Through Chemistry", which appeared a few months after the September 11 attacks, Tour highlighted the ease of obtaining chemical weapon precursors in the United States.

Tour is on the board and working with companies including Weebit (silicon oxide electronic memory), Dotz (graphene quantum dots), Zeta Energy (batteries), NeuroCords (spinal cord repair), Xerient (treatment of pancreas cancer), LIGC Application Ltd. (laser-induced graphene), Nanorobotics (molecular nanomachines in medicine), Universal Matter Ltd. (flash graphene synthesis), Roswell Biotechnologies (molecular electronic DNA sequencing), and Rust Patrol (corrosion inhibitors).

Tour's lab's research into graphene scaffolding gel has been shown to repair spinal cords of paralyzed mice.

Tour has about 650 research publications and over 200 patents, with an H-index > 170 with total citations over 130,000 (Google Scholar, as of November 2023).

Tour was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry's Centenary Prize for innovations in materials chemistry with applications in medicine and nanotechnology.