Professor Jim Atwood received his B.S. degree in chemistry from Missouri State University in 1971. In 1975, Jim completed his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the direction of Prof. T. L. Brown. After graduation, he conducted postdoctoral studies on the homogenous catalysis program sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Soviet Academy of Sciences with Professor E. L. Muetterties at Cornell University and Professor A. E. Shilov at the Institute of Chemical Physics. After this international stint, Jim joined UB in 1977 and rose in the ranks, being promoted to full Professor in 1989. He was later named SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in 2013, a distinction given to a select few faculty with outstanding teaching competence at the graduate, undergraduate, or professional levels. 

Jim has taken many leadership positions during his time at UB. He served in multiple departmental committees, led several searches, and eventually served as Department Chair from 1998 to 2006, notably recruiting several faculty members. His service extends beyond the department. Jim served as an associate Dean in CAS and several influential university committees, including President’s Advisory Committees. In addition to his administrative roles, Jim generously contributed his time to student-athletes for over two decades, serving on and leading over a dozen committees devoted to UB sports. Since becoming the NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative for the campus in 2010, he has been instrumental in shaping UB's athletics culture and policies and can often be found cheering on the Bulls at football, basketball, and other matches. Jim’s enthusiasm for the athletic success of UB’s student athletes was matched by his dedication to their academic performance. Jim retired from UB in 2022 after a 45-year career building excellence in research, teaching, and mentorship.

The Atwood research group focused on reactivity and mechanistic studies of organometallic complexes, with an emphasis on understanding ligand effects on key transformations. The group also pioneered ways to adapt organometallic complexes to be compatible in aqueous environments for bond cleavage, group- and electron-transfer reactions. Jim’s careful studies of these complexes and their reactivity prompted authorship and co-authorship of over 180 peer-reviewed publications and invited lectures, and four books including the highly regarded “Inorganic and Organometallics Reaction Mechanisms” text. During his time at UB, he mentored 44 graduate students and served as a faculty mentor to many inorganic colleagues.

Jim has served as the editor-in-chief for the Journal of Coordination Chemistry (2006-present), Inorganic Reactions and Methods (1996-98), associate editor for Inorganic Chemistry (1982), and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Coordination Chemistry (1991-93), Complex Metals (2013-18), Organometallics (2003-06), and Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms (1997-2004). His contributions have been recognized by several awards and honors, including the Sloan Fellowship (1981-83), Humboldt Research Fellow (1984), SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2003), the Jacob F. Schoellkopf Medal from the Western New York Section of the American Chemical Society (2005) and SUNY Distinguish Teaching Professorship (2013).