Richard Willstätter Lecture

The Richard Willstätter Lecture was launched in 1993 by the GDCh and the HUJ to promote scientific relations between Israel and Germany. The original agreement between the HUJ and the GDCh expires in December 2023 and the role of the Israeli partner will be transferred from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to the Israel Chemical Society (ICS). From January 2024, the lecture will take place annually alternately in Israel and Germany and will be held by German or Israeli scientists who are nominated by selection committees. Doctoral students have the opportunity to accompany the award-winning scientists and present their research in a short lecture following the lecture. To date, it is the only named lecture with an institution outside 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 synthesizing 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 of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam

Professor Peter H. Seeberger and his working group are researching vaccines based on sugars, for example against malaria. It is thanks to him that oligosaccharides can be synthesized automatically, which is a major milestone for further research.

More information about Professor Seeberger

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 of the Richard Willstätter Lecture

Prof. Dr. Lutz Ackermann, Georg-August University Göttingen (lead)
Prof. Dr. Roland A. Fischer, Technical University of Munich
Prof. Dr. Karola Rück-Braun, Technical University of Berlin
Prof. Dr. Swetlana Schauermann, Christian Albrechts University of Kiel