Prof. Holger Braunschweig


Holger Braunschweig is head and chair of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Würzburg, as well as managing head and founding director of our newly established research center ICB - institute of sustainable chemistry & catalysis with boron. He obtained his PhD and Habilitation with Prof. P. Paetzold (RWTH Aachen). He was post-doc with Prof. M. F. Lappert  at Sussex and held a position as Reader at Imperial College, London.

 

He made significant achievements over the past decades in various areas of research including (i) the synthesis and reactivity of reactive low-valent main-group compounds, (ii) small-molecule activation by low-valent boron species, (iii) the synthesis of novel and photophysically-active boron, beryllium and aluminum heterocycles, (iv) the study of highly reactive small boron-containing molecules, and (v) the synthesis of boron-chain compounds and boron-containing polymers.


His work was published in over 770 publications, the majority of which appeared in first ranking journals. His discoveries have been highlighted in a wide range of outlets, including New ScientistThe Times of LondonScienceScience AdvancesNatureNature ChemistryNature CommunicationsNature SynthesisChemChemical and Engineering NewsChemistry WorldSpektrumChemie in unserer ZeitJACS, and Angewandte Chemie.

 

He was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (2009), the RSC Main Group Chemistry Award (2014), the Alfred Stock Memorial Prize (2016), the Mond-Nyholm Award (2021), the M. Frederick Hawthorne Award (2024), and the prestigious ENI Prize (2024). He also received numerous named lectureship (e.g. ArduengoBrukerGlenn SeaborgMargot BeckeFrankland) and lecture series (e.g. ScotCHEMIOCFJSPS) invitations. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, and a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. He is/has been a member of several Advisory and Editorial Advisory Boards, as well as a member of the Senate Committee on Research Training Groups (GRKs, DFG), and the Evaluation Committee on Research Buildings of the German Council of Science & Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat).

 

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Major Fellowships, Honors, Awards and Distinctions

Academy

Memberships:

 

since 2019
since 2015
since 2011
since 2009
since 2002
Foreign Fellow, Indian National Science Academy
Corresponding Member, North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts
Member, Leopoldina - German National Academy of Science
Member, Bavarian Academy of Science
Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC)

Board

Memberships:

 

2021-2024
2020-2023
 
2017-2023
 
2017-2021
2017-2024
2017-current
2014-2021
2012-current
2008-2016
2007-2010
2006-2009
2005-current
2004-2019
Member of the International Editorial Board, Angewandte Chemie
Member of the Senate Committee on Research Training Groups (GRKs) of the German Research Foundation 
(Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG)
Member of the Evaluation Committee on Research Buildings of the German Council of Science & Humanities
(Wissenschaftsrat)
Member of the Editorial Board (Kuratorium), Angewandte Chemie
Member of the Editorial Advisory Board, Eur. J. Inorg. Chem.
Member of the Editorial Advisory Board, Organometallics
Member of Advisory Board, Leibniz Institute for Catalysis, Rostock
Member of the Editorial Advisory Board, Dalton Transactions
Member of DFG Review Board for Chemistry (Fachkollegium)
Member of the Wöhler Vereinigung für Anorganische Chemie
Member of the Editorial Advisory Board, Organometallics
Member of Advisory Board, IMEBORON conferences
Member of Advisory Board, EUROBORON conferences

Selected Major

Awards:

 

2024
2024
2021
2016
2014
2009
Eni Prize for Advanced Environmental Solutions
M. Frederick Hawthorne Award of the American Chemical Society
Mond-Nyholm Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Alfred Stock Memorial Prize of the GDCh (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker)
RSC Main Group Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the DFG


Research Funding - Major Grants

2018-2022
2016
 
2016-2021
2011-2016
2009-2015
DFG Reinhart Kosellek Grant PolyboryleneConstructing a One-Dimensional Boron Chain with Molecular Tools
German Science Council Research Building, Institute for Sustainable Chemistry & Catalysis with Boron, Founding Director Prof. H. Braunschweig, Co-directors Profs. T. B. Marder, M. Finze
ERC Advanced Grant 669054 Boron-Boron Multiple Bonding
ERC Advanced Grant 267155 The Versatile Metal-Boron Multiple Bond
DFG Leibniz Prize


Named Lectureships and Lecture Series

2024
 
2023
 
2022
2019
2018
 
2017
 
2016
 
 
2015

 

2014

 
2012 
2009 


M. Frederick Hawthorne Lectureship, University of California Los Angeles (USA)
A. Chakravorty Endowment Lectureship, Chem. Research Society of India (IN)
Frankland Lectureship, Imperial College London (UK)
Margot Becke Lectureship, Univ. Heidelberg (D)
Manchot Research Lectureship, TU München (D)
Leibniz Lecture Tour, IIS Bangalore & IIT Madras(IN)
JSPS Invitation Fellowship / Lecture Tour of 7 Japanese universities (JP)
IOCF Lectureship Award, Universities of Kyoto and Osaka (JP)
Leibniz Lecture Tour, Universities of Calgary and Ottawa (CA)
Glenn Seaborg Lectureship, University of California Berkeley (USA)
Frontiers Lecture Series, Texas A&M (USA)
Clemens-Winkler-Kolloquium, TU Bergakademie Freiberg (D)
Inorganic Lecture Series MIT and Harvard, Boston (USA)
Inorganic Lecture Series UBC and UVic, Vancouver/Victoria (CA)
RSC Main Group Award lecture tour (five UK universities) (UK)
Bruker Lectureship, University of Toronto (CA)
ScotChem Lecture Tour (lectures at five Scottish universities) (UK)
Steinhofer Lectureship, Univ. Freiburg (D)
Arduengo Lectureship, University of Alabama (USA)


Employment History

2017 - current

2016 - current

2012 - current
2010
2009 - current 
10/2007 - 09/2009
10/2005 - 09/2007
10/2004 - 09/2005
2002 - 2009
10/2002
10/2000
03/1998
12/1997
03/1991 - 02/1992
12/1990
Senator, University of Würzburg, Würzburg (D)
Founding Director of the Institute for Sustainable Chemistry & Catalysis with Boron, Würzburg (D)
Head of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Würzburg (D)
Chair offered at the University of Erlangen (D, declined)
Appointed W3 Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Würzburg (D)
Vicedean of the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy 
Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy
Vicedean of the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy
Appointed C4 Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Würzburg (D)
Appointed Reader at Imperial College, London (UK)
Appointed Senior Lecturer at Imperial College, London (UK)
Appointed Privatdozent at RWTH Aachen (D)
Habilitation, RWTH Aachen with Prof. P. Paetzold (D)
Postdoc with Prof. M. F. Lappert (FRS), University of Sussex, Brighton (UK) 
Dr. rer. nat., RWTH Aachen with Prof. P. Paetzold (D)