Solar-powered water splitting is a promising means of generating clean and storable energy. A novel catalyst based on semiconductor nanoparticles has now been shown to facilitate all the reactions needed for “artificial photosynthesis”.

Dr. Prince Ravat is among the 13 junior research group leaders who are supported for five years by the University of Würzburg, with a programme called “Excellent Ideas”. On 1 August he started his research project at the Institute of Organic Chemistry.

For the third time in only 13 months, the PhD candidate from the Lehmann group has been awarded a poster prize at an international conference. This time in Kyoto, Japan.

The University of Pretoria has awarded the professor from Würzburg and President of the Scholarship Program BEBUC an Extraordinary Professorship. It is intended to intensify the already most fruitful collaboration between the South‐African University, the German NGO Förderverein Uni Kinshasa e.V. (fUNIKIN), and the University of Würzburg.

The Siegfried Hünig Lecture, this year presented by Professor Cynthia Burrows, once again demonstrated the importance of interdisciplinary research and an open scientific mind.

The Seibel group has modified the enzyme levansucrase using a new method. The enzyme can now produce sugar polymers that are exciting for applications in the food industry and medicine.

“Physical Organic Chemistry of the Genome” is the title of this year’s Siegfried Hünig Lecture on June 7. Prof. Cynthia J. Burrows, internationally renowned chemist at the University of Utah, will give the audience an overview of her highly successful DNA research.

Frank Würthner has been awarded an Advanced Grant of the European Research Council worth EUR 2.5 million. He wants to use the money to push the conversion of solar energy to fuel.

The PhD candidate from Würzburg was awarded one of only two poster prices at the 45th German Liquid Crystal Conference in Luxembourg

The Institute of Chemistry of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan honors Frank Würthner, nominating him as the recipient of the “Ta-shue Chou Lectureship Award” and inviting him to Taipeh.

Claudia Höbartner, since July 2017 Chair of Organic Chemistry I at the University of Würzburg, explores the blueprint of life – the nucleic acids DNA and RNA.

This prestigious distinction has been awarded to Frank Würthner and four other scientists from the University of Würzburg this year. The five faculty members and one researcher honored as “Citation Laureate” are among the most frequently cited and hence most influential authors in their fields of research.

The German foundation Else‐Kröner‐Fresenius‐Stiftung has again granted the support of the Excellence

Scholarship Program BEBUC for the next three years. The aim of the project is to recognize brilliant talents in the Congo and to promote them on their way to a professorship.

Dr. Xiaobo Hu is awarded a two years research fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Scientists from Würzburg have synthesized a complex sugar molecule which specifically binds to the tumor protein Galectin-1. This could help to recognize tumors at an early stage and to combat them in a targeted manner.