The Chemistry of Heterocycles

Theophil Eicher studied chemistry at the University of Heidelberg and obtaind his Ph.D. under Georg Wittig in 1960. After postdoctoral work at Columbia University, New York, in the laboratories of Ronald Breslow, he habilitated 1967 at the University of Würzburg under Siegfried Hünig. In 1974 he was appointed as Associate Professor at the University of Hamburg, in 1976 as Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Dortmund. Since 1982, he worked as Full Professor at the University of the Saarland, Saarbrücken, and was retired in 2000. Professor Eichers 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.

Siegfried Hauptmann studied chemistry at the University of Leipzig. In 1958, he obtained his Ph.D. under Wilhelm Treibs, habilitated in the field of organic chemistry in 1961 and became Assistant Professor and later Full Professor at the University of Leipzig. He was retired in 1996. His research interests were centred predominantly to the field of synthetic organic chemistry and reaction mechanisms. Professor Hauptmann was author and co-author of several books and deceased in April, 2011.

Andreas Speicher studied chemistry at Saarland University, Saarbrücken. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1994 under Theophil Eicher and was honoured with the Eduard-Martin-Award of his University. He started his independent scientific career and completed habilitation in 2003 (Privatdozent). 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 temporary 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.