Chemistry

After successful appointments to the two last remaining vacant professorships brought the reorganisation and realignment of the faculty to a close in 2012, the agenda for the coming years is to continue and extend the new fields of research that have successfully been established over the past years. The faculty plans to continue taking a leading and active part in the University’s ­interdisciplinary research areas. This is partly ­attributable to the nature of chemistry as a typical cross-sectional discipline. Because chemistry – as a “synthetic science” – is able to create its own research subjects in the laboratory, it automatically plays a key role in this context. The future focus of research will continue to lie in the area of nano research, in chemistry-based collaborations with biology and medicine, in the broad research field of “Water”, and in educational research. It is in these fields that the faculty has been able to establish nationally and internationally recognised research expertise.
The faculty is committed to continuing the present coordinated programmes and following them up with new initiatives. For example, 2013 will see two evaluations for two new DFG Collaborative Research Centres, one of which is coordinated by the Faculty of Chemistry. Similarly, proposals for a new Graduate School or Research Training Group, two Research Units and an initiative for a new DFG Priority Programme are in preparation. Even in the increasingly difficult situation posed by the general conditions on university research, the faculty therefore considers itself well equipped to maintain its high position among the strongest chemistry faculties for research and education throughout Germany.