Monday, 20th October 2025, 16:00 / Joseph Loschmidt lecture hall (LH 2) of the Faculty of Chemistry:

Christa Schleper, Department of Functional and Evolutionary Biology, University of Vienna Austria

"What is wrong with the Nitrogen cycle - and what can we do about it?"

Nitrogen is an important nutrient for all living things and at the same time so-called reactive nitrogen pollutes the environment, with serious consequences for biodiversity, surface and groundwater water quality and our climate. For this reason, the current nitrogen cycle has been highlighted as one of the major planetary systems, whose boundary has been irreversibly exceeded (see planetary boundary concept). In this talk, I will address the current global nitrogen cycle, including the role of nitrifying microorganisms, the extent of fertilizer production in agriculture and the impact of our own eating habits. There are large differences worldwide and there are already a few effective reduction strategies for nitrogen pollution coming into place, in particular to reduce the associated greenhouse gas (laughing gas). But it is also important to discuss how better bioremediation strategies could be developed for agriculture and be implemented in the future.

Monday, 17th November 2025, 16:00 / Joseph Loschmidt lecture hall (LH 2) of the Faculty of Chemistry:

Bert Meijer, Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands

"From supramolecular polymers to functional materials and chiral systems"

Since the discovery of the first polymers, scientists have debated their structures. Before Hermann Staudinger published the brilliant concept of macromolecules, it was generally assumed that the properties of polymers were based on the colloidal aggregation of small particles or molecules. Since 1920, polymers and macromolecules have been synonymous with each other; i.e. materials made by means of many covalent bonds that connect monomers in 2 or 3 dimensions. Although supramolecular interactions between macromolecular chains are clearly important, e.g. in nylons, it was unthinkable to imagine polymeric materials based on the interaction of small molecules. Breakthroughs in supramolecular chemistry have shown that polymer materials can be made by small molecules using strong directional secondary interactions; the field of supramolecular polymers was born. In a sense, we have come full circle [1]. By controlling the supramolecular interactions between molecular fragments, it became easier to design systems materials with unconventional responsive behavior and dynamic functionalities. In all cases, control over the position of the molecules in time and space is essential to achieve the required functionality. In our group we focus on the emergence of homochirality in time and space and some examples of this will be discussed in the lecture. We use this to design supramolecular materials and chiral systems with highly ordered morphologies that change their properties on the action of light, pressure, temperature, or the addition of chemicals. On the other hand, applications in spin filtering, biomaterials and OLEDs will be discussed with a continues focus on the molecular interactions using non-covalent synthesis [2].

E.W. "Bert" Meijer is Distinguished University Professor in the Molecular Sciences, Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Eindhoven University of Technology, and co-director of the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems. After receiving his PhD degree at the University of Groningen with Hans Wynberg, he worked for 10 years in industry (Philips and DSM). In 1991 he was appointed in Eindhoven, while in the meantime he has part-time positions at MPI-Mainz, UC Santa Barbara, and UNSW Sydney. Bert Meijer is associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Bert Meijer has received several awards, including the Spinoza Award (2001), the ACS Award for Polymer Chemistry (2006), the Cope Scholar Award of the ACS (2012), the Prelog Medal (2014), the Nagoya Gold Medal (2017), the Chirality Medal (2018), the Hermann Staudinger Award (2022) and the Grand Prix in Paris (2024). In 2020 he is knighted by the King to be Commander in the Order of the Netherlands Lion. He is an honorable member of several academies and societies, including the US National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science, where he is appointed to Academy Professor in 2014.

Tuesday, 9th December 2025, 16:00 / Carl Auer von Welsbach Lecture Hall (LH 1) of the Faculty of Chemistry:

Nicola Armaroli,CNR Research Director, Istituto per la Sintesi Organica e la Fotoreattività, Bologna, Italy

„The great energy transformation.”

Global warming caused by human activities calls for a profound transformation of the global energy system, to be largely accomplished within mid-century. This is a gigantic technological, economic and societal challenge. The process will be characterized by an increasing electrification of energy end uses, with solar and wind electricity – in combination with storage technologies – playing a dominant role, thanks to a unique combination of technical and economic features. The lecture will discuss a series of topics, including the enhancement of energy security with renewables, the decarbonization of the transportation system, the problems of the hydrogen vector, the specific challenges of the so-called hard-to-abate sectors and chemical industry, and the availability of mineral resources for the manufacturing of the converters and accumulators of renewable energy fluxes.

Monday, 19th January 2026, 16:00 / Joseph Loschmidt lecture hall (LH 2) of the Faculty of Chemistry:

Eli Zysman-Colman

"Tba"

Monday, 16th March 2026, 16:00 / Joseph Loschmidt lecture hall (LH 2) of the Faculty of Chemistry:

Stefan Hecht

"Tba"