Inspiring and Instructive Siegfried Hünig Lecture 2014
05/28/2014Students as well as established scientists have learned at this year's Siegfried Hünig Lecture that the classical repertoire of a synthetic chemist needs to be supplemented if one wants to build complex biomolecules in the laboratory.
For decades no method was availabe, neither in textbooks nor in original literature, for the trans-hydrogenation of a triple bond, apart from the Birch reduction which is compatible only with very few functional groups. Prof. Alois Fürstner from the highly renowned MPI für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim has recently discovered such a method and thus opened up new approaches for the total synthesis of highly complex natural products.
Prof. Fürstner reported about this and other impressive applications of his innovative homogeneous catalysts at this year's Siegfried Hünig Lecture entitled "Catalysis for Total Synthesis" and impressed his audience in a well-filled lecture hall B in the central chemistry building at the Hubland campus.
