UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE
Description:
The University of Cologne was founded in 1388 and set up its first chemical laboratory in 1777. Since then, the Department of Chemistry prospered to become a renowned teaching and research centre.
Kurt Alder, the 1950 Nobel laureate, worked here from 1939-1958. Today, the Department of Chemistry is one of the largest in Germany hosting more than 1200 students. Research is especially focused on materials, biochemistry and synthesis.
The AJvW group hosts a wide array of research activities revolving around the themes of catalysis and synthesis. We address questions of sustainable chemistry and aim at the development of operationally simple, synthetically efficacious and environmentally benign synthesis methodology. Current areas of investigation include practical metal-catalyzed cross-coupling and hydrogenation reactions, reactions with N-heterocyclic carbenes, organocatalytic cycloaddition reactions, asymmetric Lewis acid catalysis and ligand design. Currently, 6 graduate students, 2 undergraduate students, and 1 postdoc are part of the team.