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James Tour

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James Tour
Tour in 2018
Born
James Mitchell Tour

New York City, U.S.
Alma materSyracuse University (BS)
Purdue University (PhD)
Known forAdvocate of intelligent design
AwardsOesper Award (2021)
Centenary Prize (2020)
Trotter Prize (2014)
Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology (2008)
Scientific career
FieldsOrganic Chemistry
Materials Science
Nanotechnology
InstitutionsRice University, 1999-present
University of South Carolina, 1988–1999
ThesisMetal-Promoted Cyclization and Transition-Metal-Promoted Carbonylative Cyclization Reactions (1986)
Ei-ichi Negishi
Websitewww.drjamestour.com

James Mitchell Tour is an American chemist and nanotechnologist. He is a proponent and advocate of intelligent design, a pseudoscientific creationist argument for the existence of God. Tour is a member of Discovery Institute,[1] the main organization behind the intelligent design movement.[2][3][4] Professionally, he is a chemistry professor at Rice University, and a joint professor of materials science and nanotechnology.[5]

Education

Tour graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry in 1981. He then earned his Ph.D. in synthetic chemistry and organometallic chemistry from Purdue University in 1986 under Nobel laureate Ei-ichi Negishi. After receiving his doctorate, he completed postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1986–1987) and Stanford University (1987–1988).[6]

Career

Tour and colleagues worked on materials science, specifically on the use of graphene as a scaffolding gel, as reported by The New Yorker.[7]

Tour has also been involved in scientific outreach, such as NanoKids, an interactive learning DVD to teach children fundamentals of chemistry and physics.[8] He has testified before the US Congress on two occasions to warn about budget cuts.[7]

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.[9]

Religion and evolution

Tour became a born-again Christian as an undergraduate, and in 2001 he signed the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism statement that relies on pseudoscientific reasoning to offer various religiously motivated arguments against evolution. In a 2014 profile in The New Yorker, Tour was reported to have indicated that this signing "reflected only his personal doubts about how random mutation occurs at the molecular level. Although he ends e-mails with 'God bless', he says that, apart from a habit of praying for divine guidance, he feels that religion plays no part in his scientific work."[7] Tour has worked with Stephen C. Meyer to promote intelligent design.[10][11] Tour has subsequently become more outspoken about his scepticism regarding origin of life research, including in a debate with science YouTuber Dave Farina at a May 2023 event at Rice University.[12]

Honors and awards

See also

References

  1. ↑ "James Tour". Discovery Institute. Retrieved August 11, 2026.
  2. ↑ Forrest, Barbara (May 2007). "Understanding the Intelligent Design Creationist Movement: Its True Nature and Goals. A Position Paper from the Center for Inquiry, Office of Public Policy" (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Center for Inquiry, Inc. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 6, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2007.
  3. ↑ "Small Group Wields Major Influence in Intelligent Design Debate". ABC News. November 9, 2005. Archived from the original on February 11, 2006.
  4. ↑ "ID's home base is the Center for Science and Culture at Seattle's Discovery Institute. Meyer directs the center; former Reagan adviser Bruce Chapman heads the larger institute with input from the Christian supply-sider and former American Spectator owner George Gilder (also a Discovery senior fellow). From this perch, the ID crowd has pushed a "teach the controversy" approach to evolution that closely influenced the Ohio State Board of Education's recently proposed science standards, which would require students to learn how scientists "continue to investigate and critically analyze" aspects of Darwin's theory." Chris Mooney. The American Prospect. December 2, 2002 Survival of the Slickest: How anti-evolutionists are mutating their message. Retrieved on 2008-07-23
  5. ↑ "James Tour | Faculty | The People of Rice | Rice University".
  6. ↑ "James M. Tour". James Tour Group.
  7. 1 2 3 Colapinto, John (December 14, 2014). "Material Question". The New Yorker. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  8. ↑ Rovner, Sophie L.; C; Washington, En (January 21, 2025). "'Nanokids' Try to Get into Middle School". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved January 2, 2026.
  9. ↑ Musser, George (November 2001). "Better Killing through Chemistry: Buying chemical weapons material through the mail is quick and easy". Scientific American. 285 (6): 20–21. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1201-20. PMID 11759580. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
  10. ↑ "Extravagant Claims: James Tour & Stephen Meyer Critique Origin of Life Research". Discovery Institute.
  11. ↑ "Beyond Evolution: Unraveling the Origins of Life with Stephen Meyer and James Tour". Hoover Institute. August 5, 2024.
  12. ↑ "Rice's James Tour and YouTuber 'Professor Dave' debate the origins of life". Rice's James Tour and YouTuber 'Professor Dave' debate the origins of life - The Rice Thresher. Retrieved March 17, 2025.
  13. ↑ Buriak, Jillian M.; Maier, Stefan A.; Parak, Wolfgang J.; Wee, Andrew T. S.; Weiss, Paul S. (2012). "Announcing the Recipients of the 2012 ACS Nano Lectureship Awards". ACS Nano. 6 (2): 987–989. doi:10.1021/nn300584t.
  14. ↑ "2023 Centenary Prize Winner". Royal Society of Chemistry. Archived from the original on December 1, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Dr. James Mitchell Tour". National Academy of Engineering.
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