A clean, climate-friendly energy source that is virtually inexhaustible: This is the promise artificial photosynthesis holds. Chemists from the University of Würzburg have now got one step closer to reaching this goal. The scientists present their work in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Frank Würthner has been elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), an honour that is given to a very small number of non-British RSC members.

In autumn 2015 the Research Training School on molecular biradicals took up its work at the University of Würzburg. Currently the cooperation between chemists and physicists led to a first result: a publication on a new molecule, which is of interest for organic electronics.

The Winter Semester Lecture Series in 2015/16 ends with a lecture about „Light-Induced Charge Carriers in Covalent Organic Frameworks“

Professor Dr. Harald Schwalbe, Institute for Organic Chemistry und Chemical Biology of Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Germany

Congratulations to Gustavo Fernández. After five very successful years as a junior research group leader at the University of Würzburg he accepted a call from the University of Münster as professor (W2) of organic chemistry.

Prof. Dr. Ian Manners, Professor and Chair of Inorganic, Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry, European Union Marie Curie Chair, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, UK

Physicists study how to achieve perfect absorption of light with the help of rough ultrathin films.

Frank Würthner recently has become a member of the editorial board of Organic Chemistry Frontiers. He will particularly strengthen the area of functional organic molecules.

The Summer Semester Lecture Series in 2015 ends with a lecture about "Programmed Self-Assembly of Bioactive Architectures"

Prof. Dr. Yves Henri Geerts, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Faculté des Sciences, Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères, Brussels, Belgium

Prof. Dr. Linda S. Shimizu, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA

Prof. Anthony Harriman from the University of Newcastle will give a SolTech-Lecture on Artificial light-harvesting antennae for solar fuel generation.

With a dynamic lesson on switchable agents and molecular rotors Ben L. Feringa inspired an attentive audience during the Siegfried-Hünig-Lecture 2015.

For two months Prof. Dr. Linda Shimizu from the University of South Carolina will work and teach as a visiting professor a the Center for Nanosystems Chemistry and the Institute of Organic Chemistry.