Hidden gems of inorganic chemistry

<p>Hello, I'm a senior chemistry major who is in the process of compiling lists of schools/professors I'd like to work with for a PhD and was wondering whether people knew of little known "gems" or professors who are leaders in the areas I'm interested in but are not from top schools (I've looked at the professors in the top 10 or so and compiled lists from there, and in addition looked at princeton, upenn, and chapel hill) I'm looking for schools in the range of top 15-30 to round out my applications that might suit me.</p>

<p>My gpa is 3.6 from a research intensive state university
GRE general 680V 780Q 6.0AW
GRE chem (practice tests) approx 840.
U.S. student (not international)
4.5 years of research (2.5 Pchem 1 publication, second author. 2.0 inorganic, no publications thus far)</p>

<p>I'm interested in alternative fuels (biodiesel, solar, fuel cell, etc.), transition metal catalysis, and transition metal chemistry.</p>

<p>My inorganic projects have been on heterogeneous biodiesel catalysis, cellubiose breakdown, and luminescence imaging.</p>

<p>so...any suggestions for professors outside of the top 10 school crowd with similiar interests?</p>