Partnerships and international affairs

Many of the research projects outlined above are highly interdisciplinary. Nearly all research groups at the Faculty collaborate intensively with researchers from other faculties of our university (in particular, Biology, Medicine, Physics, Engineering Sciences and Education Sciences) and with other research groups in Germany and abroad. Our colleagues regularly stay at our international partner institutions as visiting scholars and guest professors, while many international researchers visit our faculty in similar capacities (e.g., as Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellows). The Faculty also maintains close partnerships with its neighbouring universities in Bochum and Dortmund and the universities of applied science in Krefeld and Gelsenkirchen. It collaborates at all levels of research with the Max Planck Institutes for Coal Research and Chemical Energy Conversion in Mülheim and the Max Planck Institute for Physiological Chemistry in Dortmund. Scientists from these institutes hold positions as professors, lecturers and adjunct professors at our faculty.

Within the scope of our ongoing strategic collaboration with Evonik Industries, the industry partner funds joint projects and events held at the Faculty. The Professor Werdelmann Stiftung funds a junior professorship, the ‘Werdelmann Lecture’ and dissertation projects at our faculty.

Members of the UDE’s Faculty of Chemistry are highly regarded throughout Germany, and their membership of national expert associations and committees underscores their excellent reputation. Professor Sumfleth is a member of the review board for the educational sciences of the German Research Foundation (DFG); Professor Schmidt is a review board member in the DFG’s chemistry expert forum; Professor Gutmann is a member of expert group no. 5 of the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations. Professor Schmidt is the current chairman of the Water Chemistry Society; Professor Rumann is the board spokesman of the German Society for Chemistry and Physics Education. Many members of our faculty hold positions on the editorial boards of scientific journals.