Victor Grignard - Georg Wittig Lecture

The Victor Grignard - Georg Wittig Lecture is a cooperation between the German Chemical Society eV and the Société Chimique de France. Grignard and Wittig - both big names in chemistry, both Nobel Prize winners in chemistry.

Victor Grignard received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1912 together with Paul Sabatier for his discovery of the alkyl magnesium compounds, which are named after Grignard compounds. These compounds play a major role in organic chemistry. Georg Wittig and Herbert Charles Brown received the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of the Wittig reaction named after him. This enables the synthesis of alkenes by reacting aldehydes or ketones with ylides.

In 1994 the first Victor Grignard - Georg Wittig lecture took place. The winner was Jean-Pierre Majoral from Toulouse in France. Since then, renowned chemists from Germany and France have been honored on a regular basis.

Excellent scientists so far

2020 - Walter Leitner, Aachen

Professor Walter Leitner specializes in Technical Chemistry and petrochemistry. His research focus is in the field of organometallic catalysis and ranges from molecular principles to reaction engineering concepts. The thematic focus is the interface between energetic and chemical value creation.

More information on Professor Walter Leitner

2017 - Paolo Samorì, Strasbourg / France

Professor Paolo Samorì is a physical chemist at the University of Strasbourg. Samorì's research areas are multifunctional Nanomaterials for electronics, energy and sensor applications, the production and application of 2D materials (e.g. graphene) and supramolecular systems.

Samorì also deals with "Internet of functions in tailored-made 0D to 3D multicomponent nanostructures", which was the title of the lecture at the University of Würzburg.

More information on Professor Paolo Samori

Commission of the Victor Grignard - Georg Wittig Lecture

Prof. Tanja GAICH, Konstanz (lead)
Prof. Sabine LASCHAT, Stuttgart
Prof. Frank GLORIUS, Münster
Prof. Oliver REISER, Regensburg
Prof. Markus ANTONIETTI, MPI Potsdam