Jürgen Seibel has been appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Würzburg. He succeeds Carsten Schmuck who left the institute in summer 2008.

Thomas Meinhardt from the group of Prof. Anke Krüger has received the BASF junior researcher award for his outstanding diploma thesis at the chemistry department of the Christiania Albertina University of Kiel.

Anke Krüger has been appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Würzburg. She succeeds Prof. Manfred Christl who retired in spring 2007.

Marina Safont, PhD student at the institute of organic chemistry (supervisor Prof. Würthner), was awarded the Royal Chemical Society's 2008 OBC Poster prize at an international symposium held in Geneva.

Prof. Dr. Carsten Schmuck accepted a call for a chair of organic chemistry at the University Duisburg-Essen and will leave the University of Würzburg by the end of this summer term. He declined another call for a chair at the University of Jena.

The School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Peking University has awarded Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Gerhard Bringmann the status of an Honorary Guest Professor. The School thus honors Prof. Bringmann as a leading, worldwide renowned scientist in the field of natural products chemistry, working, in particular, on the discovery of novel natural products from plants and sponges, with activity against infectious diseases and cancer.

The Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) Würzburg-Schweinfurt grants 30.000 EUR to the Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen-Center for Complex Material Systems (RCCM).

For about 3 weeks from end of November the Congolese Professors Dibungi Kalenda and Virima Mudogo (University of Kinshasa) visit the Institute of Organic Chemistry.

This year the Klaus-Grohe-Award for Medicinal Chemistry / Drug Research goes to Tanja Gulder, Ph.D. student at the group of Prof. Bringmann.