Victor Grignard Georg Wittig Lecture

The Victor Grignard Georg Wittig Lecture is a collaboration between the German Chemical Society 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 in Chemistry in 1912 together with Paul Sabatier for his discovery of the alkylmagnesium compounds, the Grignard compounds named after him. These compounds play a major role in organic chemistry. Georg Wittig, together with Herbert Charles Brown, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1979 for his discovery of the Wittig reaction, which was named after him. This enables the synthesis of alkenes by reacting aldehydes or ketones with ylides.

The first Victor Grignard Georg Wittig Lecture took place in 1994. The awardee was Jean-Pierre Majoral from Toulouse in France. Since then, renowned chemists from Germany and France have regularly received awards.

Excellent people so far

2024 - Jeanne Crassous, Center National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Rennes/France

Commission of the Victor Grignard - Georg Wittig Lecture

Prof. Dr. Ivan Huc, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (lead)
Prof. Dr. Frank Glorius, University of Münster
Prof. Dr. Walter Leitner, MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion
Prof. Dr. Connie Lu, University of Bonn
Prof. Dr. Oliver Reiser, University of Regensburg