Richard Willstätter Lecture

For the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the GDCh set up the Richard Willstätter Lecture, to which Israeli scientists are invited from the HUJ to Germany and vice versa German scientists to the HUJ. So far it is the only name lecture with a facility outside of Europe. The GDCh took over the financing.

The German professor Richard Martin Willstätter was a pioneer in his field. For the first time, he succeeded in completely elucidating the constitution and synthesis of the natural substance cocaine. He also worked intensively on naturally occurring pigments such as chlorophyll, hemoglobin and anthocyanins. For this outstanding work, Willstätter received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1915. In 1924 and 1925, Willstätter was President of the German Chemical Society, the predecessor organization of today's GDCh.

Excellent people so far

2022 - Peter H. Seeberger, MPI for Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam

2020 - Dmitri Gelman, Jerusalem / Israel

Professor Dmitri Gelman is an organic chemist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Gelman studies the interaction between the structure and reactivity of organometallic compounds. He has set his focus in the area of the pincer complexes. He researches these as catalysts for hydrogen transfer reactions and for dehydrogenation reactions of formic acid and hydrogenation of CO ₂.

More information on Professor Dmitri Gelman

Commission for the Richard Willstätter Lecture

Prof. Dr. Lutz H. Gade, Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg (lead management)
Prof. Dr. Lutz Ackermann, Georg-August University of Goettingen
Prof. Dr. Karola Rück-Braun, Technical University of Berlin
Prof. Dr. Swetlana Schauermann, Christian Albrechts University in Kiel