Prof. Peter Roesky, speaker of our CRC, received the 2024 Marianne Baudler Prize (former Alfred Stock Memorial Prize) from the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, GDCh) in recognition of his "innovative and groundbreaking contributions to lanthanide chemistry". 

The Marianne Baudler Prize is awarded to chemists for outstanding scientific work in the field of inorganic chemistry. In addition to his synthesis of numerous novel compounds, Prof. Roesky also "described their successful applications, for example in catalytic processes or in the production of luminescent and magnetic materials. Excellent and versatile synthesis strategies, consistent structural and property investigations and intelligent ligand design, which recently enabled access to spectacular polynuclear complexes, are the basis of his successes."  

On Aug. 23, 2024, a professional one-day workshop will be held at KIT in the framework of our IRTG (project G): the course "Scientific Writing: What Makes a Good Paper and How to Write It", offered by KIT's Language Center (Sprachenzentrum), will cover various essential topics to equip participants with the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in scientific communication. 

Mr. Matthew Shimohara, accomplished at teaching academic writing, will lead this course. For further information please contact our IRTG manager Mrs. Feye. 

A Turbomole hands-on workshop will be held at KIT, Campus South, on June 26-28, 2024, organized together with the Research Training Group (RTG) 2450. After introductory lectures on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 26, a hands-on workshop for beginners will be held on Thursday, June 27. The hands-on workshop will be completed by a session for advanced users on the morning of Friday, June 28. Contact persons are PIs Prof. Karin Fink, Prof. Willem M. Klopper, and Prof. Florian Weigend.

The workshop is open to (associated) members of RTG 2450 and to (associated) members of the integrated RTG of our CRC 1573. 

Sophie Gutenthaler-Tietze, CRC doctoral researcher in Prof. Lena Daumann's group at HHU Düsseldorf, is very active in educational video clips on chemistry for the classroom, produced by German public broadcasting networks: 

In this entertaining ARD "Planet Schule" video she talks about chemical processes involved in crime-solving, familiarizing pupils with redox reactions, dye chemistry or catalysts, and in a ZDF "Princess of Science" feature she explains (starting at 19:30 min.) the role of rare-earth metals in modern technology. (Both clips are available only in German.) 

Together with her CRC colleague Ioana Ciubotaru at LMU München, also a doctoral researcher with Prof. Daumann, she belongs to the organization team for "Soapbox Science", an annual Munich-based public science communication event that brings cutting-edge science to the public in a fun and un-intimidating way. 

Prof. Lena Daumann gave an interesting lecture on "f-elements and their interaction with living organisms and their biomolecules" in the framework of the FENABIUM II Spring School 2024 (held in Leipzig/Germany), which aimed at introducing interested students to the complex chemistry of f-elements. 

Congratulations to our associate CRC graduate Bianca Schacherl (co-supervised by Dr. Tonya Vitova, project A3) who has won the KIT Doctoral Award 2023 for her thesis on "Advancing actinide high-energy resolution X-ray absorption/emission spectroscopic tools". With this highly competitive award, KIT honors outstanding doctoral researchers, thereby highlighting the great importance of young scientists at KIT.

From December 5-7, 2023, our CRC hosted a hands-on workshop on structure solution and refinement using the crystallographic package "Olex2". The event, organized by the scientific software company Olex Sys Ltd., was a complete success, and the approximately 50 participants found the workshop extremely valuable for their everyday scientific work. 

CRC Mercator Fellow Prof. Roberta Sessoli (University of Florence/Italy), one of the leading experts in molecular magnetism, visited our CRC as a guest of project leader Prof. Annie K. Powell (KIT), in November 2023. In addition to her fascinating lecture "Is there space for magnetic molecules in the second quantum revolution?", she was of course deeply engaged in scientific exchange with CRC researchers and stimulating discussions with young scientists. 

The first annual Fall Workshop of CRC 1573 was successfully held at Bühl (11.-13.10.2023). Organized by project leaders Prof. Dr. Karin Fink and Prof. Dr. Wim Klopper, the first day was directed at the IRTG members (mainly doctoral researchers) and featured two extended poster sessions and two highly interesting tutorials on quantum-chemical theory (given by the chair persons). This was rounded off by an exciting guest lecture by quantum chemist Dr. Maike Bergeler (BASF SE). 

On the second and third day the workshop continued with status reports from the individual project leaders. A total of more than 50 CRC members took part, facilitating various networking activities. The group photo was also taken on this occasion. 

Congratulations to our CRC co-spokesperson Prof. Dr. Stefanie Dehnen (KIT) who was unanimously elected as the future president of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (German Chemical Society, GDCh). During her two-year term in office, starting on Jan. 1, 2024, Prof. Dehnen would like to further open up the GDCh and advance it on its path to becoming a modern, diverse and internationally oriented specialist society. 

With around 30,000 members, GDCh is one of the largest chemical scientific societies worldwide. It promotes scientific work, research and teaching as well as the exchange and dissemination of new scientific knowledge. 

Sandwich compounds are special chemical compounds used as basic building blocks in organometallic chemistry. So far, their structure has always been linear. Recently, "4f for Future" researchers were the first to make stacked sandwich complexes form a nano-sized ring. Physical and other properties of these cyclocene structures will now be further investigated. The researchers report their findings in Nature. 

“These compounds are among the most important complexes used in modern organometallic chemistry,” says CRC 1573 speaker Prof. Peter Roesky (AOC, KIT); "we have now succeeded in forming nano-sized rings for the first time,” Prof. Manfred Kappes (IPC, KIT), and Prof. Florian Weigend (U Marburg) explain. The new nanoring, called ‘cyclocene’ by the researchers, consists of 18 building blocks and has an outer diameter of 3.8 nm. 

After a four-year break due to the pandemic, KIT was able to welcome 25,000 visitors again at its Open Day on June 17, 2023. Embedded in the framework of the EFFEKTE Science Festival, excellent science was presented to the public by guided tours, lectures, and lots of hands-on activities, also for children and young people. 

Our CRC presented itself and its activities in the framework of the KIT Center Materials in Technical and Life Sciences (MaTeLiS), and Dr. Tonya Vitova and her group participated with three spectroscopic experiments specifically addressing kids (cf. summary) with a lot of fun and enthusiasm. 

Professors Stephen T. Liddle (Head of Inorganic Chemistry, The University of Manchester/UK) and Grégory Nocton (CNRS, Laboratoire de Chimie Moléculaire, École polytechnique, Palaiseau/F) were invited guests of our CRC on April 25 & 26, 2023 at KIT, giving highly interesting presentations on "Recent Advances in Actinide Chemistry" and "Organo-f-Elements Complexes", respectively. The photo shows both speakers with their host Prof. Peter Roesky (from left to right). 

This year's Spring Seminar Days for doctoral researchers in CRC 1573 will be held at KIT on March 20 & 21, 2023. Please find the tentative agenda here. 

The kick-off meeting of CRC 1573 was held at KIT on January 23, 2023.