Siegfried Hünig Lecture 2012 will be given by Nobel Laureate

Jean-Marie Lehn is one of the world’s most preeminent supramolecular chemists having earned the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Donald J. Cram and Charles J. Pederson, "for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity" and having first introduced the term “supramolecular chemistry” for the burgeoning research field.

His research interests are focused on the development of supramolecular systems at the interface of chemistry and biology and deeply rooted in the principles of molecular recognition. Through careful implementation of supramolecular constructs such as hydrogen bonding, metal-ligand coordination, and electrostatic interactions, he has described a wealth of functional macrocycles and cryptands, helicates, nanocylinders, supramolecular polymers, and self-assembling foldamers. More recently his laboratory has expanded on the concept of dynamic combinatorial chemistry (DCC). In DCC, a complex mixture of many constituents undergoing continuous reversible interconversions may be shifted to a single favorable species upon addition of an external stimulus. This self-sorting process involved in DCC has opened many new research avenues in both materials science and drug discovery.

„Perspectives in Chemistry: From Supramolecular Chemistry towards Adaptive Chemistry“. is the title chosen by Prof. Lehn for the Siegfried Hünig Lecture 2012 which will take place on May, 7th at 5:15 pm in lecture hall B, located in the central building of the chemistry center.

Abstract