Richard Willstätter Lecture

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

The German professor Richard Martin Willstätter was a pioneer in his field. He succeeded for the first time in a complete clarification of the constitution and synthesis of the natural substance cocaine. He also worked intensively on naturally occurring dyes such as chlorophyll, hemoglobin and anthocyanins. For this excellent 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 scientists so far

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

2013 - Klaus Meerholz, Cologne

Commission of the Richard Willstätter Lecture

Prof. Lutz GADE, Heidelberg (lead)
Prof. Karola RÜCK-BRAUN, Berlin
Prof. Lutz ACKERMANN, Göttingen
Prof. Swetlana SCHAUERMANN, Kiel