Richard Hartshorn is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. He has been Secretary General of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) 2016-23, and has just been elected Vice President of CODATA. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry.
As Secretary General, Professor Hartshorn oversaw the IUPAC Secretariat and IUPAC scientific activities of the Union. He has held leadership roles in CODATA (https://www.codata.org/) since 2018, and has been a member of the International Chemical Identifier (InChI) Trust Board (https://www.inchi-trust.org/) since 2013.
Professor Hartshorn’s research interests are the coordination chemistry of dinuclear and heterodinuclear systems. He has a long-standing interest in nomenclature and new ways of systematically naming and representing chemical compounds.
Professor Hartshorn has a record of excellence in teaching, including the UC Teaching Medal (2009) The Federation of Asian Chemical Societies award for Distinguished Contribution to Chemical Education (2023), and the NZIC sciPAD Denis Hogan Chemical Education Award (2019). He has been heavily involved in school and community education, and has been a member of the Trust Board for the National Science-Technology Roadshow since 2007 (Chair 2011-2020).