The Faculty Colloquium usually takes place every second Monday each month during the semester (four talks). National and international scientists as well as scientists from our Faculty of Chemistry give insight into their field of research in the framework of 45-minute lectures.
Before the colloquia, there is a faculty coffee, during which faculty members and students are cordially invited to meet for an exchange over coffee and cake.
Program Coordination: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Nuno Maulide
ECTS
If at least three of the four lectures have been attended, this course will have a credit of 0.5 ECTS.
Monday, 14 October 2024, 16:00 / Joseph Loschmidt lecture hall (LH 2) of the Faculty of Chemistry:
Heike Brötz-Oesterhelt is professor for Microbiology at the University of Tübingen, heading the Department of Microbial Bioactive Compounds. She is co-speaker of the Cluster of Excellence “Controlling Microbes to Fight Infection”, and deputy speaker of the partner site Tübingen within the German Center of Infection Research (DZIF). Her main research interest lies in molecular mechanisms of new antibiotic agents and operation modes of novel antibacterial targets.
„Elaborate Mechanisms of Natural Product Antibiotics"
There is an urgent need to discover unprecedented antibacterial mechanisms effective against multi-resistant bacterial pathogens. Secondary metabolites produced by bacteria and other microorganisms (‘natural products’) are a valuable source of new and inspiring antibacterial mechanisms, which are often multi-layered. Natural products produced by commensals from the human microbiome bear potential as decolonizing agents as they evolve on human surfaces and can have antibacterial activities. Also, uptake routes of antibacterial agents across the bacterial cell envelope are important, as they may or may not be prone to resistance development. The talk will showcase selected examples of antibacterial natural products with elaborate mechanisms.
Monday, 11 November 2024, 16:00 / Joseph Loschmidt lecture hall (LH 2) of the Faculty of Chemistry:
Prof. Vaidhyanathan Ramamurthy, University of Miami, USA
"Role of space and weak interactions on excited state processes"
From time immemorial, it is well known that curtailment of freedom often leads to changes in the behaviour of living beings including humans. Molecules are no different- similar restriction of freedom leads to selectivity in the chemical behaviour of molecules embedded in enzyme pockets. Extending these well-known concepts supramolecular chemists have established that even small molecules upon confinement in synthetic hosts exhibit behaviour distinctly different from the ones in an isotropic solution.
In this lecture the role of “medium” in bringing about changes in the well-established behaviour of excited molecules would be illustrated with select examples. Results of steady state and ultrafast experiments will be presented that highlight the role of confinement on the excited state dynamics of anthracene, stilbenes, azobenzenes and dienes. Another topic that would be touched upon, if time permits, is communication between molecules (electron and spin transfer) across a molecular wall.
The main message of the talk is that molecules like humans behave differently when confined, free space makes a difference. Space can be used as a tool to bring about selectivity in chemistry.
References (Reviews)
V. Ramamurthy, Acc. Chem. Res. 2015, 48, 2904-2917.
V. Ramamurthy, S. Jockusch and M. Porel, Langmuir, 2015, 31, 5554-5570
V. Ramamurthy, Chem. Comm., 2022, 58, 6571–6585
V. Ramamurthy, P. Sen and C. G. Elles, J. Phys. Chem. A 2022, 126, 29, 4681–4699
Monday, 09 December 2024, 16:00 / Carl Auer von Welsbach Hörsaal LH1, Halbstock of the Faculty of Chemistry:
Prof. Sir David Clary FRS, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, UK.
"Erwin Schrödinger and Walter Kohn: Sons of Vienna, Stars of Science."
There are few theories that are having more impact on modern chemistry than Erwin Schrödinger’s wave mechanics and Walter Kohn’s Density Functional Theory (DFT). In his great paper of 1926, Schrödinger invented the orbital which has been used in some context by essentially all chemists, and Schrödinger’s equation is applied throughout theoretical chemistry. In recent years, Kohn’s DFT, which he proposed in 1964, has become the most highly cited computational method in the physical sciences.
There are remarkable similarities between these great scientists. They were both born in Vienna, Schrödinger in 1887 and Kohn in 1923. They both went to the same school, the Akademisches Gymnasium Wien, and both had to leave Austria in the late 1930s in the dangerous political situation. Both then briefly came to England, with Schrödinger then taking a position in Ireland while the teenager Kohn was interned and sent to Canada.
David Clary has recently written biographies of these two remarkable physicists. His talk will describe their extraordinary lives and their huge influence on chemistry.
David Clary is a theoretical chemist who is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford. His research is on the quantum theory of chemical reactions. From 2005-20 he was President of Magdalen College Oxford and before that was Head of the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at Oxford. He has been on the faculty at University College London, Cambridge and Manchester University. Clary has been elected to many societies including the Royal Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. He was the first Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Foreign Office from 2009-13 and was President of the Faraday Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry from 2006-9. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2016 for his contributions to international science.
Clary has recently written three books on the history of 20th century science:
D. C. Clary, Schrödinger in Oxford (World Scientific, 2022).
D. C. Clary, The Lost Scientists of World War II (World Scientific, 2024).
D. C. Clary, Walter Kohn: From Kindertransport and Internment to DFT and the Nobel Prize (World Scientific, 2024).
Monday, 13 January 2025, 16:00 / Joseph Loschmidt lecture hall (LH 2) of the Faculty of Chemistry:
Prof. John A. Gladysz, Texas A&M University College of Arts & Sciences, USA
“From Molecular Gyroscopes to Homeomorphic Isomerization: Molecules that Turn Themselves Inside-Out”
The Houdini-like escape of metal fragments from the cage-like dibridgehead diphosphine ligands of so-called "gyroscope-like" complexes (e.g., 1) will be described. The resulting diphosphines P((CH2)n)3P (2) can exist as in,in, out,out, and in,out isomers. The in,in and out,out isomers can interconvert by "homeomorphic isomerization" (3), a process that turns a molecule inside-out, like an article of clothing, exchanging exo and endo functionality. At temperatures sufficient for pyramidal inversion at phosphorus (ca. 150 °C), the in,in and out,out isomers equilibrate with in,out isomers. Trends in the rates and K(eq) values will be interpreted, together with a wealth of crystallographic data.
Metal complexes are easily reconstituted from the "empty" dibridgehead diphosphines 2. Applications of these phenomena in the selective binding and transport of various metal fragments will be reported. The synthesis and properties of analogous diphosphine dioxides, diarsines, and di(triaryl)phosphines will also be described.
References
(1) Lang, G. M.; Shima, T.; Wang, L.; Cluff, K. J.; Skopek, K.; Hampel, F.; Blümel, J.; Gladysz, J. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 7649.
(2) Kharel, S.; Joshi, H.; Bierschenk, S.; Stollenz, M.; Taher, D.; Bhuvanesh, N.; Gladysz, J. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 2172.
(3) Joshi, H.; Kharel, S.; Ehnbom, A.; Skopek, K.; Hess, G. D.; Fiedler, T.; Hampel, F.; Bhuvanesh, N.; Gladysz, J. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 8463.
(4) Ehnbom, A.; Gladysz, J. A. Chem. Rev. 2021, 121, 3701.
(5) Estrada, A. L.; Wang, Y.; Hess, G.; Hampel, F.; Gladysz, J. A. Inorg. Chem. 2022, 61, 17012.
(6) Zhu, Y.; Stollenz, M.; Zarcone, S. R.; Kharel, S.; Hemant, J.; Bhuvanesh, N.; Reibenspiess, J. H.; Gladysz, J. A. Chem. Sci. 2022, 13, 13368.
(7) Zarcone, S. R.; Bhuvanesh, N.; Gladysz, J. A. Chem. Eur. J. 2023, 29, e202302200.
(8) Zarcone, S. R.; Verardi, P. J.; Chu, G. M.; Bhuvanesh, N.; Gladysz, J. A. Organometallics 2024, 43, 1285-1298.
(9) Zarcone, S. R.; Zhang, Z.; Handunneththige, S.; Ni, Z.; Bhuvanesh, N.; Nippe, M.; Meyer, K.; Hall, M. B.; Gladysz, J. A. Inorg. Chem. 2024, 63,