Reactions and Syntheses

Lutz F. Tietze obtained his Ph.D. in 1968 in Kiel. He then worked as a research associate with Prof. G. Büchi at MIT, Cambridge, USA,as well as with Prof.A.Battersby in Cambridge, UK. Since 1978 he has been Professor and Head of the Institute of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry at the Georg-August-University in Göttingen. His research focuses on the development of efficient synthetic methods as domino reactions, the total synthesis of natural products, and the design of new selective anticancer agents. Professor Tietze has received many prizes, inter alia the highly prestigious Emil Fischer Medal of the GDCh. He was speaker of a Sonderforschungsbereich, delegate of the DFG Fachkollegium and obtained several guest professorships. He is member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Dr. h.c. of the University of Szeged, Chairman of the DZfCh, member of the DHKZ, and has been awarded in 2012 with the position of a Distinguished Research Professor. He has over 460 papers, 34 patents and five books to his name.

Theophil Eicher studied chemistry at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and obtained his Ph.D. under Georg Wittig in 1960. After postdoctoral work at Columbia University, New York, USA, in the laboratories of Ronald Breslow, he habilitated 1967 at the University of
Würzburg, Germany, under Siegfried Hünig. In 1974 he was appointed as Associate Professor at the University of Hamburg, Germany, in 1976 as Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Dortmund, Germany. Since 1982, he worked as Full Professor at Saarland University, Germany, and was retired in 2000. His research interests concerned the synthetic chemistry of cyclopropenones and triafulvenes, as well as natural product synthesis in the field of bryophyte constituents. He is co-author of several books. Jointly with L. F. Tietze, he was awarded the literature prize of the "Fonds der chemischen Industrie". He is Dr. h. c. and Prof. a. h. of the Facultad de Quimica of the Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo/Uruguay.

Ulf Diederichsen studied Chemistry in Freiburg, Germany, with a diploma work in organic synthesis and completed his Ph.D. in 1993 under the supervision of Albert Eschenmoser at the ETH Zürich working on homo- and glucose-DNA. After postdoctoral work on radical chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, in the group of Dennis Curran, he gained his habilitation at the Technical University Munich, Germany. In 1999, he was appointed professor of Organic Chemistry at the University Würzburg, Germany, until joining the Georg-August-University in Göttingen, Germany, in 2001 as full professor of Organic Chemistry. He was visiting professor at the LMU Munich and Goering Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin, USA. He got the Karl Winnacker stipend and Hellmut-Bredereck award and is member of Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Andreas Speicher studied chemistry at Saarland University, Germany. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1994 under Theophil Eicher and was honored with the Eduard-Martin-Award of his university. He started his independent scientific career and completed habilitation in 2003. He is head of a research group and university lecturer for organic chemistry at the Saarland University and was appointed extraordinary professor in 2011. He is temporarily holding a guest professorship at the University of Strasbourg/France since 2006 and is co-author of several books. His research interests are directed to synthesis and characterization of chemically and biologically relevant natural products, especially to axially chiral macrocyclic compounds.

Nina Schützenmeister studied chemistry at the Georg-August-University in Göttingen. After finishing her diploma thesis at the ETH Zürich in the group of Peter H. Seeberger she completed her Ph.D. in 2012 under supervision of Lutz F. Tietze at the Georg-August-University in Göttingen. She then worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Christian Griesinger at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and is currently a Marie-Curie fellow in the group of Varinder K. Aggarwal F.R.S. at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom.