Two renowned name lectures in one week

Prof. Alois Fürstner visited the Netherlands and Spain

Alois Fürstner, Director of the Department of Organometallic Chemistry at the MPI für Kohlenforschung, was invited to give prestigious name lectures in the Netherlands and Spain at the beginning of November.

Every year, the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, invites a renowned guest to the so-called “Backer Lecture”, which can therefore look back on a long list of illustrious guests (http://www.backerfoundation.nl/backer-lecturers/). This year’s lecturer was Alois Fürstner, Director at the MPI für Kohlenforschung. In addition to his seminar presentation entitled "A New Reactivity Paradigm: trans-Hydrogenation, gem-Hydrogenation, and trans Hydrometalation of Alkynes", the program of this event included numerous discussions with students and colleagues.

Mr. Fürstner then traveled directly from Groningen to Oviedo, Spain, where he was invited to deliver the "Barluenga Lecture" entitled “Tinkering with Metal-Carbene Chemistry”. This event, which has been taking place since 2014, is the highlight of a two-day symposium co-organized by the Spanish Chemical Society in memory of Prof. José Barluenga, one of the pioneers of modern organic and organometallic chemistry in Spain (https://barluengalecture.org/03barluenga.htm). The very first “Barluenga Lectuerer” was actually Prof. Manfred T. Reetz from our Institute.

Fürstner adds: "It is a very special honor for me to present the Barluenga Lecture 2023. I am well aware that Prof. Barluenga spent his postdoctoral stint at our MPI für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim in the 1960th; as he told me on several occasions, he himself considered this time to be decisive for his further scientific career."