The Liebig Association for Organic Chemistry in the German Chemical Society awards the ORCHEM Award for Young Scientists who have distinguished themselves through new, original and groundbreaking scientific work in the field of organic chemistry and who have not yet held a leadership position for several years.
The prize is endowed with EUR 5000 and is supported by BASF. It is usually awarded to two people and includes a certificate of award and prize money of €2500 per person.
The ORCHEM Prize is traditionally awarded at the ORCHEM Conference . The awardee present the results of their award-winning work in a lecture.
The Liebig Association for Organic Chemistry in the German Chemical Society is once again offering the ORCHEM Prize for 2026. The prize is supported by BASF and will be awarded at the ORCHEM Conference, which will take place in Freiburg from September 7 to 9, 2026.
The award is given to younger scientists who have distinguished themselves through new, original and groundbreaking scientific work in their field and who have not yet held a leadership position for several years.
Nominations are open to individuals from academia and industry. Self-nominations are expressly encouraged. The Liebig Association's Board will make the selection. The prize is typically awarded to two people and includes a certificate and prize money of €2,500 per person.
A compelling application/proposal should include a CV with a list of publications and a brief outline of the research work. Applications and proposals should be submitted electronically only to the GDCh Office at n.buerger@gdch.de by March 30, 2026.
Places and academic titles at the time of the award ceremony
2024
Dr. Malte Gersch, Technical University of Dortmund, in recognition of his fundamental and pioneering work on the investigation of proteolytic enzymes of the ubiquitin system.
Dr. Golo Storch, Technical University of Munich, in recognition of his fundamental and pioneering work in the field of organic photochemistry, in particular the investigation of flavin systems in molecular photocatalysis.
2022
Dr. Johannes Broichhagen, Leibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology Berlin, in recognition of his work on the development of new molecular tools to answer important questions in the life sciences.
Junior Professor Dr. Max Hansmann, Technical University of Dortmund, in recognition of his fundamental and pioneering work in the field of synthesis and characterization of reactive intermediates and the development of organic redox systems.
2020 (awarded due to the pandemic at the GDCh Science Forum Chemistry 2021)
Dr. Josep Cornella (Mülheim an der Ruhr) in recognition of his groundbreaking work on redox catalysis with bismuth.
Prof. Dr. Philipp Heretsch (Berlin) in recognition of his highly regarded work on the synthesis of steroids and terpenes.
2018
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Florian Beuerle (Würzburg) in recognition of his innovative and highly regarded work in the field of dynamic covalent chemistry on the construction of highly defined cage compounds and two-dimensional π-conjugated polymer materials.
Junior Professor Dr. Ivana Fleischer (Tübingen) in recognition of her innovative and highly regarded work in the field of selective functionalization of olefins and carboxylic acid derivatives and resource-efficient catalysis with non-precious metals.
2016
Prof. Dr. Olga Garcia Mancheño (Regensburg) in recognition of her innovative and highly regarded work on the topic of “Novel Synthetic Methods based on CH bonds & Modern Catalysis for Sustainable Synthesis”.
Dr. Thomas Magauer (Munich) in recognition of his highly regarded and innovative work on the topic of “Natural products as a rich source of pharmaceuticals and inspiration for innovative chemical transformations”.
2014
Prof. Dr. Franziska Schoenebeck (Aachen) in recognition of her innovative and widely acclaimed theoretical and experimental studies on reaction mechanisms, especially of palladium-catalyzed reactions
Prof. Dr. Daniel Werz (Braunschweig) in recognition of his highly regarded and innovative work on the chemistry of carbohydrates and on the synthesis of heterocycles via donor-acceptor cyclopropanes
2012
Prof. Dr. Christian Hackenberger (Berlin) in recognition of his highly regarded and innovative work on chemoselective ligation and the efficient synthesis of protein-protein and protein-carbohydrate conjugates
Prof. Dr. Axel Jacobi von Wangelin (Regensburg) in recognition of his highly regarded and innovative work on iron-catalyzed coupling reactions and on metal-, organo- and photocatalytic syntheses of carbo- and heterocycles.
2010
Dr. Hans-Dieter Arndt (Dortmund) in recognition of his highly regarded contributions to synthesis-based chemical biology, in particular his organic-synthetic and molecular biological work in the field of cyclic thiopeptide antibiotics
Prof. Dr. Nicolai Cramer (Zurich) in recognition of his highly regarded and innovative work on selective transition metal-catalyzed bond activation via ring opening and the efficient synthesis of complex natural compounds and pharmaceuticals.
2008
Dr. Peter Spiteller (Munich) in recognition of his highly regarded work on the isolation and structural elucidation of novel metabolites of higher fungi and their ecological function in defense against predators
Prof. Dr. Magnus Rueping (Frankfurt a. M.) in recognition of his groundbreaking contributions in the highly competitive field of organocatalysis, in particular his work on enantioselective Brønsted acid catalysis
2006
Dr. Lutz Ackermann (Munich) in recognition of his much-discussed development of air-stable phosphine oxides as preligands for Pd-, Ni- and Ru-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of chloroaromatics
Prof. Dr. Martin Oestreich (Münster) in recognition of his innovative contributions to asymmetric synthesis, in particular using bicyclic organosilicon compounds with Si-based chirality
2004
Dr. Frank Glorius (Mülheim) in recognition of his design of bis(oxazoline)-derived carbene ligands for organometallic catalysis and his asymmetric hydrogenation of chirally modified pyridines
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Hans-Joachim Wagenknecht (Garching) in recognition of his research on the mechanism of novel, reduction-initiated charge transfer processes through DNA
2002
Prof. Dr. A. Stephen K. Hashmi (Stuttgart) in recognition of his contributions to the homogeneous gold catalysis of organic reactions and to the chemistry of metallacycloalkanes
Dr. Michael Müller (Jülich) in recognition of his work on the development of enantioselective enzymatic syntheses
2000
Dr. Dr. Clemens Richert (Konstanz) in recognition of his original contributions to the molecular recognition of nucleic acid structures, in particular his work on "molecular caps", which point to new avenues for the development of active substances.
Dr. Stefan Bräse (Aachen) in recognition of his outstanding contributions to organic solid-phase synthesis, which opens up new possibilities for the development of biologically active compounds.
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last modified: 12.03.2026 14:29 H from Translator
