The University of Ruwenzori in the Congo has awarded the professors Gerhard Bringmann (Würzburg) and Virima Mudogo (Kinshasa) the honorary doctorate. By this, the two scientists are honored for their search for new agents against tropical infectious diseases, but also for the initiation of the excellence scholarship system BEBUC.

Prof. Michael R. Wasielewski will give the first CNC lecture of the winter 2012/13 semester. The title is "Artificial Photosynthesis: Solar Fuels to Address Global Energy Needs"

Bringmann’s contributions to science and his continued dedication to reviving Congolese universities were recently recognized in the form of The Congolese Medal of Merits in gold, his appointment as a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and an invitation to the Federal President’s garden party.

Professor Seibel has been awarded a DuPont Young Professor Award for his promising research on enzymatic preparation of prebiotic oligosaccharides. He is the only non-US citizen to be awarded in 2012.

For the first time, three BEBUC scholars from the partner university of Kinshasa (UNIKIN), Democratic Republic of the Congo, are guest students at the University of Würzburg. The scholarship program BEBUC has been initiated by Professor Bringmann, chair of Organic Chemistry I, and his African partner Prof. Mudogo.

The Institute of Organic Chemistry will invest 1.6 million euros to purchase two new NMR spectrometers and upgrade one of the existing NMR instruments.

Chemists and physicists at the Center for Nanosystems Chemistry have initiated a new collaboration at the University of Würzburg. The aim of their work is to design and produce novel materials with tailored properties for efficient interaction with light. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding the new Research Unit (Forschergruppe) with 2.3 million € over the next three years.

Prof. Jean-Marie Lehn (Université de Strasbourg) will give the Siegfried Hünig Lecture 2012 on May, 7th.

Axel Muck was awarded "Best Apprentice in the Region Würzburg/Schweinfurt", and Dr. Alfons Ledermann was honoured for his outstanding commitment to apprentice training.

Professor Siegfried Hünig's 90th birthday was celebrated on May 20th with an impressive gathering of scientists from all over the country. The testimonial lecture given by Professor Manfred Reetz turned out to be the initiation of the annual "Sigfried Hünig Lecture" which is funded by donations.

The group of Jürgen Seibel and researchers from Brunswick have discovered how a particular enzyme synthesizes natural large sugar molecules. With this knowledge, they can now produce tailor-made sugars, which are known as prebiotics.

Matthias Lehmann has been appointed to the new professorship of organic materials. Actually, Lehmann is not really new to the University of Würzburg, which he joined already in October 2010 as a Heisenberg-fellow and junior research group leader.