b. 1962 in Bruck/Mur (Austria); 1987 PhD at the Technical University Graz, Austria (H. Weidmann); 1990-1991 post doc at the University of Geneva, Switzerland (W. Oppolzer); 1992 habilitation in Organic Chemistry at the Technical University Graz, Austria; since 1993 lecturer at the University of Dortmund; 1993-1998 group leader at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung; since 1998 apl. Professor at the University of Dortmund and Director at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung.

Awards and Honors

• Lecturer's scholarship ("Dozentenstipendium") of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (1994);

• Invited Professor at the Université Claude Bernard - Lyon I, France (1994) and at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France (1999);

• Ruhrpreis Mülheim (1998); 

• Leibniz Award of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (1999);

• Thieme-IUPAC prize in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2000);

• AstraZeneca Award in Organic Chemistry (2000);

• Victor Grignard - Georg Wittig Prize of Société Francaise de Chimie (2001);

• Member of Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina (since 2002);

• Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society (2002);

• Merck Academic Development Program Award (2002);

• Centenary Lecture of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2004);

• Member of Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften (since 2004);

• Corresponding Member of Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (since 2004);

• Tetrahedron Chair (2004);

• Junior Award of the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry (2005);

• Mukaiyama Award of the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan (2005);

• Otto-Bayer-Prize (2006);

• Heinrich Wieland Prize (2006);

• Janssen Pharmaceutica Prize for Creativity in Organic Synthesis (2008).

Offices / Committees / Advisory boards

• Member of the Editorial Board of "Topics in Organometallic Chemistry" (since 1997);

• Member of the evaluation commission for the Universities in Niedersachsen (1999);

• Member of the Advisory board of "Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis" (since 2000);

• Scientific Editor of "Chemical Communications" (since 2001);

• Member of the Board of  Editors of "Organic Syntheses" (2001-2006);

• Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of "Journal of Organic Chemistry" (2002-2004);

• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Institut für Organische Katalyseforschung Rostock, since 2003 Leibniz-Institute for Organic Catalysis at the University of Rostock (since 2002);

• Member of the selection committee of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation for the Feodor-Lynen-Programme (since 2002);

• Member of the Board of Governors of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (since 2004);

• Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of "Progress in Heterocyclic Chemistry" (since 2005);

• Chairman of the selection committee of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation for the Feodor-Lynen-Programme (since 2006);

• Member of the committee of "Nachrichten aus der Chemie" (since 2007);

• Member of the Advisory Board of "Synthesis" and "Synlett" (since 2009);

• Member of the Advisory Board of "ChemCatChem" (since 2009).

Research  interests

Organometallic chemistry applied to organic synthesis; homogeneous catalysis; metathesis, synthesis of natural products and pharmaceutically active compounds; metal activation; heterocyclic chemistry, carbohydrate and alkaloid chemistry.

Research report 2005-2007
Research report 2002-2004
Research report 2000-2001
More information

December 2008

November 2005

Vacant positions

Graduate students (BAT IIa/2) and postdocs may send their application or any inquiry directly to Prof. Fürstner per mail or e-mail (fuerstner@mpi-muelheim.mpg.de)

Last Update: 11.11.09