Marcus Drover

Background

About Marcus Drover

Marcus began his chemistry career at Memorial University in St. John’s, NL (Canada), having completed a BSc (Hons.) degree in 2012 with Prof. Francesca M. Kerton in main group coordination chemistry with an emphasis on ‘green polymer’ applications. In 2016, he was granted his doctorate in chemistry from the University of British Columbia (UBC) under the co-supervision of Profs. Laurel L. Schafer and Jennifer A. Love. At UBC, Marcus studied new reactions aimed at the synthesis of phosphorus-containing agrochemicals. As a PhD student, Marcus was also a Michael-Smith visiting scholar at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Prof. Andrew S. Weller. As a result of his thesis work, Marcus was awarded the 2016 Canadian Institute for Chemistry’s inorganic division award for graduate research. In 2017, Marcus began at Caltech as a joint NSERC Banting & Resnick Sustainability fellow working with Prof. Jonas C. Peters to identify new methods for proton-coupled electron transfer using Fe-based reagents. In 2020, Marcus received the John C. Polanyi Prize in Chemistry. Currently, Marcus is an Assistant Professor (tenure to Associate Professor granted July 2025) of inorganic chemistry at Western University in Ontario, Canada. Research in the Drover Group spans the traditional bounds of synthetic inorganic and organic chemistry, with an overarching goal to develop new functional molecules: ligands, transition metal complexes, and main group compounds that promote the equitable use of resources, specifically with regard to global hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen cycles. We are motivated by a desire to revise the way in which we, as humans, interact with the planet by inventing ways to utilize greenhouse gasses as feedstocks, designing new catalysts for clean energy, and providing better methods for the synthesis of specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and bulk consumer products. ​ Check out our website ->