TakanoriShima was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1972. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in 2001from Tokyo Institute of Technology on a study of multinuclear polyhydrido complexes, under the supervision of Prof. Hiroharu Suzuki. He undertook postdoctoral research in the group of Prof. John A. Gladysz in the Institute fürOrganischeChemie of Friedrich-Alexander Universität (Erlangen, Germany) as an Alexander-von-Humboldt fellow in 2002. He joined RIKEN in 2004(postdoc 2004-2009, Research Scientist 2009-2011, Senior Research Scientist 2011-present). His research interests include synthesis and developing of new multimetallicpolyhydrido complexes. 

　　Metal hydride complexes are fundamental components in a wide range of stoichiometric andcatalytic reactions.So far, a large number of mono- and dihydrido complexes of the general type “L2MH” or “L2MH2” (such as “metallocene-type” compounds)have been synthesized and extensively studied. In contrast, polyhydrido metal complexes of the type“LMH2”or“LMH3”(such as “half-sandwich-type” compounds)have remained unexplored. Here we show a trinucleartitaniumpolyhydride complex1that reacts with N2 through N≡N bond cleavage and N–H bond formation under mild conditions, with some key reaction steps been elucidated by the 1H and 15N NMR, X-ray crystallographic, andcomputational studies.[1]We also show the C−C bond cleavage and rearrangement of benzene by complex1.