University chemistry professor Kevin Smith published and co-edited volumes 40 and 44 of the book series “Handbook of Porphyrin Science” in September with University of Houston chemistry professor Karl Kadish and University of Burgundy in France chemistry professor Roger Guilard. The current volumes, 36-44, were published in June and took about two years to plan and execute.
“The most enjoyable part for me is interacting with all of the internationally recognized experts all over the world who agree to write chapters in the books, and that is done on a first name basis,” Smith said. “ It is very enjoyable to discuss chapter progress with authors from all over the world, and to get to personally know them even better.”
The book series began in 2008 and was first published in 2010. Volumes 1 through 35 were released between 2010 and 2014.
The books are a reference for the work and research area of porphyrins and phthalocyanines. Porphyrins and phthalocyanines are used in chemistry, physics, materials science, engineering, biology and medicine. Porphyrins form part of the prosthetic groups in hemoglobin, myoglobin, cytochromes, catalases and peroxidases.
“The books, as the only ongoing reference work for the area, are extremely important to porphyrin researchers in every discipline of science and engineering,” Smith said.
The phthalocyanines are dyes structurally similar to porphyrins, which have been used extensively in industry. Their resistance to photodegradation by sunlight, metallophthalocyanines are used in automobile paint.
Smith said most of the author recruitment, book editing and chapter writing is done during evenings and weekends. This allows him to devote the right amount of time to teach students, particularly to help graduate students with their publications.
He said one major challenge is balancing editing the books and working on his original published research.
“It is a lot of work, and very consuming of evenings and weekends,” Smith said. “But it is well worth the effort to be a co-editor of a book series that is the premier reference work in my research area.”
Smith is the LSU Foundation James C. Bolton Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. He has received the Corday-Morgan Medal and Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry, U.K., the Alfred Bader Award in Bioorganic or Bioorganic Chemistry from the American Chemical Society, USA and the Robert Burns Woodward Career Achievement Award from the Society of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines. He has more than 750 publications, has edited or co-edited 57 books on the topics of porphyrins and related molecules and has been awarded eight patents.