Chemistry

Outlook

The main priority of research at the Faculty of Chemistry in the coming years will be the success of the recently launched collaborative projects, the SFB 1093 “Supramolecular Chemistry on Proteins” and the ALSTER Research Unit, in order to secure extensions for both projects. This will also entail strategic and structural measures, which will be implemented in the Faculty in the next few years. Within the SFB, a fixed-term W2 Professorship for Computational Chemistry and a W1 Junior Professorship for Biosupramolecular Chemistry have been established. The appointments procedure for both professorships is currently underway, and we are confident of finding excellent scientists whose work will further strengthen the SFB to fill the posts. The early ­reappointment to the professorship of Prof. Elke Sumfleth is intended to ensure continuity in the work of the ALSTER Research Unit. A further ­Research Unit on Nanobiophotonics is currently at the pre-review stage with the DFG. In this ­Research Unit, several research groups from Chemistry, Biology and Medicine headed by Prof. Sebastian Schlücker and Prof. Stephan Barcikowski intend to conduct basic research on the very ­current and recent Nobel Prize-winning field of high-resolution molecular spectroscopy.

Another main priority of the Faculty of Chemistry in the years to come will be to support the next generation of scientists and scholars. On completion of the present appointments procedure for the Junior Professorships in Biosupramolecular Chemistry and Colloid and Interface Chemistry, a total of five independent young research groups (three junior professorships, a BMBF early stage researcher group and a Liebig stipend) will be working in our Faculty. These young scientists will bring new work and experience to the Faculty and extend our research scope with many exciting and innovative projects. Three of the early stage scientists have already begun establishing their own research groups and developing their own fields of research in our Faculty. As a Technical Chemist, Dr. Philipp ­Wagener is working with the support of the BMBF on catalysis. He specialises in laser-generated nanoparticles for energy technology applications such as fuel cells, energy storage and photocatalysis. Junior Professor Michael Giese from Organic Chemistry is supported by the Werdelmann Foundation and is working on new approaches to the synthesis of liquid crystals using the self-­assembly of tiny molecules; these, for example, join to form larger, disk-shaped assemblies that are then stacked on top of each other, like molecular lego, to form a liquid crystal. Dr. Jochen Niemeyer, similarly from Organic Chemistry, is working towards his goal of using molecules for infor­mation storage. In conjunction with the Junior Professorship for Biosupramolecular Chemistry still to be assigned and the Evonik Foundation Professorship for Colloid and Interface Chemistry, these young colleagues will make a significant and lasting contribution to the existing research ­priorities of our Faculty. With its major collaborative projects, the SFB 1093, the ALSTER Research Unit, the progress group “Fortschrittkolleg – Future Water” and other projects currently in preparation, such as the Nanobiophotonics Research Unit, our Faculty continues to be well placed for the years ahead.