Chemistry in Context
Chi siamo
Welcome to my online web site Chemistry in Context, in which I would like to present all aspects of chemistry. Chemical issues confront us every day, many that are discussed by all of us with great emotion but often with little knowledge. Global warming, ozone depletion, asbestos, formaldehyde, drugs, the list of chemicals that strongly influence our life is endless. I will try to inform in an open way about chemistry, showing equally about chances and risks associated with chemistry. This web site is supported by my colleagues and students at the University of Regensburg, so that we can draw a broad picture of chemistry from different points of view. The German version of this web site contains currently more than 100 different articles on more than 350 pages, and with time we will many of those translate to English.
How did I became a chemist? After performing as a high school student for some years experiments in the basement of my parents, I decided to make this hobby my profession. I have studied Chemistry in Hamburg, Jerusalem and Los Angeles and received in 1989 my PhD in Organic Chemistry. Subsequently I moved for more than two years to the United States, as a postdoctoral fellow I worked first at IBM research center in San Jose, California, and subsequently at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. What I did not realize when I started University: Studying chemistry provides excellent opportunities to go abroad with full credit transfer to the home institution. The language of chemistry is universal, and laboratory equipment might differ in the size of flasks, but not much more.
After returning to Germany, I became an assistant professor at the University of Göttingen - by default under the German system a non tenured position -, and hold since 1996 a tenured position for Organic Chemistry, first at the University of Stuttgart as associate professor, and since the end of 1997 I became professor at the University of Regensburg.
My research interest are centered on the synthesis of organic compounds, especially natural products and biologically active compounds such as drugs. Especially, I am interested in processes that make use of catalysts.
