Satoshi Maeda Receives the Karl Ziegler Visiting Professorship
The theoretical chemist Satoshi Maeda is being honored with the Karl Ziegler Visiting Professorship. Professor Maeda is internationally recognized for his work in theoretical chemistry and computational reaction mechanisms. This year, he receives the distinction from the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the automated exploration of chemical reaction networks.
From May 27 to 28, he will visit the institute to present his research and exchange ideas with scientists on site.
Maeda is Director of the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (ICReDD) at Hokkaido University. Through the development of innovative algorithms for predicting chemical reactions, he has made major contributions to theoretical chemistry. He is particularly known for methods such as the Artificial Force Induced Reaction (AFIR) approach, which enables the systematic identification of complex reaction pathways.
The public honorary lecture and certificate presentation for the 2026 Karl Ziegler Visiting Professor will take place on Tuesday, May 27, at 4 p.m. in the Grand Lecture Hall of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung (Lembkestraße 7, Mülheim an der Ruhr). In his lecture, “Toward Reaction Design and Discovery through Quantum Chemistry,” Professor Maeda will discuss how quantum chemistry is increasingly enabling the predictive understanding of chemical reactivity beyond traditional trial-and-error approaches. He will present recent advances in automated reaction pathway exploration, which systematically map complex reaction networks and uncover previously unknown reaction mechanisms. These methods provide a foundation for quantum-chemistry-driven reaction design and discovery, opening new possibilities for the rational development of catalysts and chemical processes. The lecture will be held in English.
About the Karl Ziegler Visiting Professorship
The Karl Ziegler Visiting Professorship commemorates the chemist, Nobel laureate, and honorary citizen of Mülheim an der Ruhr, Karl Ziegler, who served as director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung from 1943 to 1969. Through the development of new catalysts for the polymerization of ethylene, he laid important foundations for industrial plastics production and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963.
Since 1980, the institute has awarded the Karl Ziegler Visiting Professorship as its highest scientific distinction to international researchers invited to Mülheim an der Ruhr for scientific exchange. Following Karl Ziegler’s death, his wife and daughter established a foundation to support the professorship.