DOI: 10.1002/chem.

201304737 Editorial

Fresh-Faced Chemistry
Neville Compton[a]

20th Volume: Chemistry—A Euro- Abstracts: The new layout incorporates a number of new
pean Journal has come a long features to increase the visibility and discoverability of the con-
way since its beginnings in April tent. From this issue onwards, all Communications will, like
1995, when ten papers appeared their Full Paper counterparts, contain an abstract as their first
in the first issue. That issue, which paragraph, in which the motivation, methods, results, and con-
featured work by Anthony C. clusions are briefly summarized. The headings in the Full
Legon and co-workers on the Papers now more clearly define the different sections of the
cover (see top left of the cover paper, and the new tables are more clearly discernible from
for this issue), contained only Full the main text. In addition, the
Papers. Since then the journal has society ownership of the jour-
expanded significantly both in nal by ChemPubSoc Europe is
terms of volume as well as scope reflected on each page of
and types of articles published. every article published.
Today, Chemistry—A European Cover Profiles: Starting
Journal also regularly publishes Communications, Concepts, with Issue 2 this year, Chemis-
Reviews, and Minireviews and appears 52 times a year. All con- try—A European Journal will
tent is available online prior to the appearance of the printed publish Cover Profiles, in
issues. The cover picture of the first issue of the 20th volume which the authors of the work
shows the transition from 1995 to the present day as illustrat- featured on the front cover
ed by the covers of the first issue of each of the interim years. will be given the chance to
This picture clearly shows both the consistent quality and provide additional insight into
breadth of chemistry covered over the years by Chemistry—A the work presented. The first
European Journal. of these will focus on work by
2000 Papers Published! Continued growth and internation- our Editorial Board member
al appeal have accompanied Chemistry—A European Journal Karl Anker Jørgensen and his
over the years and 2013 was no exception. For the first time, co-workers on “Hydrogen-
the 52 issues of the journal contained more than 2000 top Bonding in Aminocatalysis”.
quality articles. Submissions were received from 61 countries Social Side: In the course
and significant increases were observed from The Netherlands of 2013, Chemistry—A Europe-
(+ 40%), Sweden (+ 28%), and Spain (+ 20%) among the an Journal launched its Face-
Owner Societies, as well as from Brazil (+ 90%), Russia (+ 44%), book page and Twitter ac-
Japan (+ 18%), and China (+ 15%) from around the world. count (see www.facebook.-
Fresh New Look: When the journal was initially launched, com/ChemistryAEuropean-
the cover and layout reflected the close ties with the mother Journal; www.twitter.com/
journal Angewandte Chemie. In the meantime, the face of Euro- ChemEurJ), providing its read-
pean chemistry has changed dramatically with the develop- ers with information about
ment of the family of ChemPubSoc Europe journals, serving events of general interest to
the needs of different communities. The new design of Chemis- the chemistry community as
try—A European Journal not only represents a modernization well as details and links to top
of the layout, but also strengthens the links to the rest of the quality papers and research
ChemPubSoc Europe family. Chemistry—A European Journal is featured in Chemistry—A Euro-
owned not by one, but now by 15 chemical societies, with the pean Journal and the other
Swiss Chemical Society officially becoming an Owner Society in ChemPubSoc Europe journals.
2014. Better Service: Behind the
scenes, a lot of work and de-
[a] Dr. N. Compton velopment has been going on
Chemistry—A European Journal http://www.chemeurj.org to provide our authors and re-

Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 5 – 15 5  2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

viewers with a better service. From early in 2014, Chemistry—A
European Journal will move to a new editorial system, Editorial
Manager, which has already been successfully implemented by
the materials journals in our group, such as Advanced Materials
and Small. This system will help speed up the decision-making
process and facilitate the transfer of more specialized material
between journals, thereby lessening the burden on the peer
review process.
It’s App’ening Soon: The Angewandte App, which was
launched in August 2012, has proven to be highly successful
and extremely popular with readers. The technology devel-
oped for this is now being successively rolled out for the
ChemPubSoc Europe family of journals. The Apps for the Euro-
pean Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, the European Journal of Or-
ganic Chemistry, ChemCatChem, and ChemSusChem are already
available, those for the other journals including Chemistry—A
European Journal, with its new layout, will follow shortly. The
App will allow readers to stay up to date with the latest arti-
cles in Early View, download articles and issues for offline pe-
rusal, and save their favorite articles for quick and easy access.
The dynamic reference browser shows references in context,
and the “scrubber” tool makes it easy to navigate within an
issue. In connection with these developments, the Anywhere
Article as the new user interface to Wiley Online Library will
also be coming soon.
Changes across the Board: 2014 marks the next in a series
of regular changes to the Editorial Board. Several of the Editori-
al Board members have been with the journal for a large part
of its development and have been responsible for its success
through their contributions both as authors as well as review-
ers and advisors. Accordingly, a big thank you goes to Gerard
van Koten (University of Utrecht), Mieczyslaw Makosza (Polish
Academy of Sciences, Warsaw), FranÅois Mathey (Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore), Teruaki Mukaiyama (The
Kitasato Institute, Tokyo), Dieter Oesterheldt (Max-Planck-Insti-
tut fr Biochemie, Martinsried), Michael N. Paddon-Row (Uni-
versity of New South Wales, Sydney), Alexander Pines (Universi-
ty of California, Berkeley), Pierre Sinaÿ (Universit Pierre et
Marie Curie, Paris), Gerhard Wegner (Max-Planck-Institut fr
Polymerforschung, Mainz), and Karl Wieghardt (Max-Planck-In-
stitut fr Bioanorganische Chemie, Mlheim) who have com-
pleted their terms of office on the Editorial Board.
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 5 – 15 www.chemeurj.org
Editorial
Table 1. Honorary Board of Chemistry—A European Journal.
Vincenzo Balzani University of Bologna (Italy)
Gerhard Ertl Fritz-Haber-Institut der MPG Berlin (Germany)
Jean-Marie Lehn ISIS, Universit de Strasbourg (France)
Armin de Meijere Georg-August Universitt Gçttingen (Germany)
Kyriacos C. Nicolaou Rice University (USA)
David Reinhoudt University of Twente (Netherlands)
J. Fraser Stoddart Northwestern University (USA)
Barry M. Trost Stanford University (USA)
Chemistry Ambassadors: As part of the development of
Chemistry—A European Journal and to recognize some of
those who have made extra special contributions to the suc-
cess, the journal has instigated an Honorary Board. The inaugu-
ral members of this are listed in Table 1 and include the found-
ing chairman Jean-Marie Lehn, who also has a new paper on
“Highly Organized, Hexameric Supramolecular Architectures” in
this issue (p. 179).
Welcome on Board: After discussions with the Chairman of
the Editorial Board, Jan-Erling Bckvall, and President of the
Owners Societies of Chemistry—A European Journal, Wolfram
Koch, the decision was taken to expand the Editorial Board to
better reflect the world map of chemistry and the developing
fields within the discipline. The new members of the Editorial
Board are listed in Table 2. They are all leaders in their respec-
tive fields and are familiar with the top quality Chemistry—A
European Journal provides its readership. Brief CVs of new
members of the Editorial Board are given at the end of this Ed-
itorial.
125 and Still Going Strong: Angewandte Chemie, the
mother and launching pad for Chemistry—A European Journal,
has just completed a highly successful 125th Anniversary year,
in which a number of special
issues appeared including
one with contributions from
16 Nobel Laureates, and
a number of special events took place in Berlin, New Orleans,
and Singapore. More details can be found on the journal
homepage (www.angewandte.org) and the lectures given at
the Anniversary Symposium in Berlin are still available to view
and enjoy at ChemistryViews (http://www.chemistryviews.org/
view/0/angewandtechemie125.html).
Welcome to the Family: At the other end of the age scale,
ChemElectroChem has just been launched by ChemPubSoc
Europe and Wiley-VCH. This exciting new journal covers all as-
pects of electrochemistry, from analysis and catalysis, to bio
and nano, and energy. ChemElectroChem publishes Communi-
cations, Full Papers, Reviews, Minireviews, Highlights, and Con-
cepts. The co-chairs of the journal, Bing-Wei Mao (Xiamen Uni-
versity), Wolfgang Schuhmann (Ruhr-Universitt Bochum), and
Jean-Marie Tarascon (Universit de Picardie, Amiens) together
with the Editor-in-Chief, Greta Heydenrych, have assembled
a truly international Editorial Board containing many of the
leaders in the various fields of electrochemistry. The response
from the community has been amazing and the first issue will
appear in January 2014, with many papers already available
online on the journal homepage (www.chemelectrochem.org).
6  2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
 Editorial

Table 2. New members of the Editorial Board of Chemistry—A European

Journal.

Isabel Arends Delft University of Technology (The Nether-

lands)
Nicola Armaroli Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche,
Bologna (Italy)
Matthias Beller Leibniz-Institut fr Katalyse,
Rostock (Germany)
F. Matthias Bickelhaupt VU University Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Jean-FranÅois Carpentier Universit de Rennes 1 (France)
Jaephil Cho Ulsan National Institute of Science
& Technology (South Korea)
Kuiling Ding Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (China) Materials; Homogeneous Catalysis; Advanced Microscopy for
Jairton Dupont Institute of Chemistry - UFRGS,
Catalysis; Frontiers in Catalysis Research; European Journal of
Porto Alegre (Brazil)
Antonio M. Echavarren Institut Catal d’Investigaci Qumica, Organic Chemistry: Foldamers; European Journal of Inorganic
Tarragona (Spain) Chemistry: Spin-Crossover Complexes; Polyoxometalates;
Hermenegildo Garca Universidad Politcnica de Valencia (Spain) Small-Molecule Activation by Reactive Metal Complexes. In ad-
J. Justin Gooding The University of New South Wales,
dition, ChemPlusChem had a special issue in memory of Detlef
Sydney (Australia)
Vronique E. Gouver- Oxford University (UK) Schrçder, one of its former Editorial Board members, who trag-
neur ically passed away suddenly.
Karol Grela Biological and Chemical Research Centre, Nobel Achievements: Congratulations go to the most
Warsaw (Poland)
recent recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Martin Kar-
Sang Woo Han KAIST, Daejeon (South Korea)
A. Stephen K. Hashmi Ruprecht-Karls-Universitt Heidelberg plus from the Universit de Strasbourg, France, and Harvard
(Germany) University, USA, Michael Levitt from Stanford University, USA,
Johan Hofkens Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) and Arieh Warshel from the University of Southern California,
Yukishige Ito RIKEN, Wako (Japan)
USA, for their work on developing “multiscale models for com-
Burkhard Kçnig Universitt Regensburg (Germany)
Yadong Li Tsinghua University, Beijing (China) plex chemical systems”. Papers published by all three can be
Luis M. Liz-Marz n Cooperative Centre for Research in Biomateri viewed on Wiley Online Library, including a recent one by
als, (CiC biomaGUNE), San Sebasti n (Spain) Martin Karplus and co-workers, which appeared in Chemistry—
Ilan Marek Technion-Israel Institute of Technology,
A European Journal (Chem. Eur. J. 2012, 18, 8978), and others
Haifa (Israel)
Stefan Matile University of Geneva (Switzerland) by Arieh Warshel and colleagues, which appeared in the Chem-
Ronald Micura Leopold Franzens Universitt, PubSoc Europe journals ChemBioChem (ChemBioChem 2012,
Innsbruck (Austria) 13, 215) and ChemPhysChem (ChemPhysChem 2008, 9, 1767,
Robert E. Mulvey University of Strathclyde (UK)
and 2009, 10, 1125).
Christof M. Niemeyer Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany)
Jean-FranÅois Nieren- Universit de Strasbourg et CNRS (France) Young at Heart: Chemistry—A European Journal may be en-
garten tering its 20th volume, but it is still young at heart. The journal
Jonathan Nitschke University of Cambridge (UK) has always looked to promote young inspiring researchers
Michael G. Organ York University, Toronto (Canada)
who are shaping the future of chemistry. Last year, for exam-
Rinaldo Poli Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination
CNRS, Toulouse (France) ple, I had the pleasure to attend the 3rd Transatlantic Frontiers
Martin Pumera Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) of Chemistry Symposium in Seeon; here I got to meet over 60
Olof Ramstrçm Royal Institute of Technology, of the rising stars in chemistry based in Germany, the US, the
Stockholm (Sweden)
UK, and Brazil. It was a fascinating experience full of energy
Jo¼o Rocha University of Aveiro (Portugal)
Michael Ruck Technische Universitt Dresden (Germany) and stimulating discussions (see the Guest Editorial by A. N.
Nikos Tagmatarchis Theoretical and Physical Chemistry Institute, Alexandrova, S. M. Huber, A. Tavasssoli, Chem. Eur J. 2013, 19,
Athens (Greece) 15777). Chemistry—A European Journal has also been a strong
Younan Xia Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta (USA)
supporter of the European Young Chemist Award, which has
Xi Zhang Tsinghua University, Beijing (China)
been organized and sponsored by the Italian Chemical Society
(SCI) and the Italian Consiglio Nazionale dei Chimici (CNC) and
Something Special for Everyone: The other members of awarded at each of the previous EuCheMS European Chemistry
the ChemPubSoc Europe family of journals also had a success- Congresses (see the Guest Editorials by B. Pignataro, Chem. Eur.
ful 2013. A number of the journals featured special issues on J. 2008, 14, 11252; Chem. Eur. J. 2010, 16, 13888; Chem. Eur. J.
key topics in their respective fields. ChemMedChem: Obesity, 2012, 18, 14881). As part of the continuation of this collabora-
Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome; ChemPhysChem: Aggrega- tion, we shall be publishing a special issue featuring research
tion of Small Molecules; Ultrafast & Theoretical Spectroscopy ; from previous finalists of the European Young Chemist Award.
Photo- and Bioelectrochemistry; NMR Spectroscopy ; ChemSus- The 5th EuCheMS Chemistry Congress is scheduled to take
Chem: Shaping Nanostructures for Applications in Energy place in Istanbul in Turkey from August 31 to September 4th.
Conversion and Storage; ChemCatChem: The World of Cataly- The list of plenary speakers for the event include Luisa DeCola
sis—A Perspective from The Netherlands; Functional Porous (Strasbourg University), member of the Editorial Board of

Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 5 – 15 www.chemeurj.org 7  2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
 Editorial

ChemPlusChem, Luis M. Liz-Marz n (CIC biomaGUNE, San Se-

bastian), new member of the Editorial Board of Chemistry—A
European Journal, Sir Venki Ramakrishnan (University of Cam-
bridge), Yusuf Yagci (Istanbul Technical University), Alexander J.
B. Zehnder (Alberta Water Research Institute in Edmonton and
Nanyang Technological University), and Don Hilvert (ETH
Zrich), co-chairman of the Editorial Advisory Board of Chem-
BioChem. In addition, a special invitation plenary lecture will be
given by Dan Schechtman (Technion, Haifa, and Iowa State
University), winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011, and Concept: P. Dumy et al. Concept: R. A. Murphy
the EuCheMS lecture 2014 will be presented by Maurizio Prato and R. Sarpong
(University of Trieste), who has published more than 20 papers
in Chemistry—A European Journal.

The 20th Volume Is Hereby Declared Open: All the features

discussed above are certainly nice to have and help make the
journal attractive and improve the discoverability and visibility,
but more important than all of these is of course the quality of
the scientific content presented. What better way to start the Back Cover: J.-F. Nierengarten, Inside Cover:
20th volume of Chemistry—A European Journal than by provid- N. Armaroli et al. M. Pumera et al.
ing our readers with a bumper issue packed full of excellent
chemistry from top chemists around the world, including
papers from 13 of our Editorial Board members. This issue con-
tains Concept Articles by Pascal Dumy et al. on “Oxime Liga-
tion” (p. 34) and by Rebecca A. Murphy and Richmond Sarpong
on “Heathcock-Inspired Strategies for the Synthesis of Fawcet-
timine-Type Lycopodium Alkaloids” (p. 42). The back cover fea-
tures work from the groups of two of our new Editorial Board
members, namely, Jean-FranÅois Nierengarten and Nicola Ar-
maroli on “Supramolecular Photosynthetic Models” (p. 223).
The inside cover depicts work on “Platforms for Enhanced Bio- Communication: C. Wang, Full Paper: J. Jimnez-
sensing Applications” by new Board member Martin Pumera J. Xiao et al. Barbero, S. P. Vincent et al.
and his group (p. 217). The frontispieces at the beginning of
the Communications section and the Full Paper section relate groups featured in this issue, namely Jairton Dupont on
to work on “A General Method for N-Methylation of Amines a “Magnetic Ionic Liquid Based on Tetrachloroferrate” (p. 72), A.
and Nitro Compounds with Dimethyl Sulfoxide” by Chao Wang Stephen K. Hashmi on “Polycyclic Indole Skeletons” (p. 292),
and Jianliang Xiao and their co-workers (p. 58) and “Tetrafluori- and Hermenegildo Garca on “N-Doped Graphene Derived
nation of Sugars as Strategy for Enhancing Protein–Carbohy- from Biomass as a Visible-Light Photocatalyst” (p. 187). This is
drate Affinity: Application to UDP-Galp Mutase Inhibition” by supplemented by a mixture of Very Important Papers, as desig-
Board member Jesffls Jimnez-Barbero and Stphane P. Vincent nated by the peer reviewers, and a number of Hot Papers.
(p. 106). The issue also contains a number of papers from the The Chemistry Team would like to thank all our dedicated
groups of long-standing Board members Bernhard Krutler on reviewers and Editorial Board members past and present for
“Hydroxymethylated Phyllobilins” (p. 87), Karl Anker Jørgensen their continued support and advice. Together, we are looking
on “Organocatalytic Asymmetric Epoxidation of a,b-Unsaturat- forward to bringing our readers top quality chemistry all year
ed Aldehydes” (p. 64), Masakatsu Shibasaki on “Enantioselec- round.
tive Total Synthesis of Thuggacin B” (p. 68), and Steven Ley on
“Preparation of Boronates by Using a Cryo-Flow Reactor” (p.
263), as well as a joint paper between the groups of FranÅois
Diederich and new Board member Nicola Armaroli on “Cyano-
buta-1,3-dienes as Novel Electron Acceptors for Photoactive
Multicomponent Systems” (p. 202). In addition, several of our Dr. Neville Compton
new Editorial Board members have work from their respective Editor

Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 5 – 15 www.chemeurj.org 8  2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

New Editorial Board Members
Isabel Arends received her M.Sc. in
1988 in physical organic chemistry at
Leiden University (The Netherlands). In
1993, she received her Ph.D. on the ther-
molysis of arene derivatives with coal-
type hydrogen donors under the super-
vision of Prof. R. Louw and Dr. P. Mulder
at Leiden University (The Netherlands).
After doing postdoctoral research with
Prof. K. U. Ingold at NRC-Ottawa
(Canada), she received a Fellowship of
the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences at Delft University of Tech-
nology (The Netherlands). Between 2001 and 2006 she was an
assistant and then associate professor at the Department Bio-
technology, Delft University of Technology and was made a full
professor and group leader in Biocatalysis and Organic Chemis-
try, Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Applied Sciences,
Delft University of Technology in 2007. Her research interests in-
clude: enzymes as catalysts for biotransformations; selective oxi-
dations, using biomimetic and enzymatic catalytic systems; de-
velopment of novel enzymes; and design of hybrid enzymes.
Nicola Armaroli was awarded his Ph.D.
in 1994 from the University of Bologna
(Italy). After postdoctoral research in
both the USA and in Italy, in 1997 he
joined the Italian National Research
Council (CNR), where he became Re-
search Director in 2007. His scientific ac-
tivity is concerned with the photochem-
istry and photophysics of coordination
compounds, carbon nanostructures and
supramolecular materials, with focus on
luminescence, light harvesting, and photoinduced energy- and
electron-transfer. To date he has published 5 books and over 160
papers and review articles in international journals, giving invited
lectures worldwide. Since 2010, he has served as chairman of the
Working Party on Chemistry and Energy of EuCheMS. He is also
an active consultant and science communicator for the public at
large on the issues of energy and natural resources. He was
awarded the 2001 Grammaticakis–Neumann International Prize
in Photochemistry and the Italian Galileo Prize 2009 for science
dissemination.
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 5 – 15 www.chemeurj.org
Editorial
Matthias Beller, born 1962 in Gudens-
berg, studied chemistry at the University
of Gçttingen (Germany), where he com-
pleted his Ph.D. thesis in 1989 in the
group of L.-F. Tietze. As recipient of
a Liebig scholarship, he then spent one-
year with K. B. Sharpless at MIT (USA).
From 1991 to 1995, Beller worked in in-
dustry. Then, he moved to the Technical
University of Mnchen (Germany) as
Professor for Inorganic Chemistry. In
1998, he relocated to Rostock (Germany) to head the Institute for
Organic Catalysis, which became the Leibniz-Institute for Cataly-
sis in 2006. He has received several awards including the Otto
Roelen Medal and the Leibniz Prize of the DFG. In 2006, he was
also awarded “Entrepreneur of the Year” of Rostock and he re-
ceived the German Federal Cross of Merit. He received the first
“European Prize for Sustainable Chemistry”, the “Paul Rylander
Award” of the Organic Reaction Catalysis Society of the USA and
the Gay-Lussac Humboldt Prize of the French Academy of Scien-
ces.
F. Matthias Bickelhaupt holds chairs in
theoretical organic chemistry at VU Uni-
versity Amsterdam and Radboud Uni-
versity Nijmegen (The Netherlands). He
studied theoretical chemistry and or-
ganic chemistry and did his Ph.D. with
Nico Nibbering and Evert Jan Baerends
in mass spectrometry and theoretical
chemistry. Thereafter, he was a postdoc-
toral associate with Paul Schleyer, Tom
Ziegler, and Roald Hoffmann. Before he
returned to Amsterdam in 1999, he was Assistant Professor in
Marburg (Germany). Matthias Bickelhaupt is interested in devel-
oping chemical theories and methods for rationally designing
molecules, nanostructures and materials as well as chemical pro-
cesses toward these compounds, based on quantum mechanics
and advanced computer simulations. Matthias Bickelhaupt is
winner of various national and international awards and grants
among which the Dutch VICI award. He is chairman of the Hol-
land Research School of Molecular Chemistry, board member of
the Amsterdam Center for Multiscale Modeling, and held a visiting
professorship at Warsaw University of Technology (Poland).
9  2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Jean-FranÅois Carpentier graduated
from the Chemical Engineering School
of Lille (France) in 1989 and received
a Ph.D. in catalysis, organic, and poly-
mer chemistry from the University of
Lille in 1992 under the supervision of
Prof. Andr Mortreux. After a post-doc-
toral internship at the French nuclear
agency (CEA), Tours, he returned to Lille
in 1993 to take up a CNRS research
fellow position. In 1997, he spent one
year as a research associate with Prof. Richard F. Jordan at the
University of Iowa, Iowa City (USA). In 2001, he moved to the Uni-
versity of Rennes (France) as a full Professor. His current research
interests lie in the organometallic chemistry of oxophilic ele-
ments, with the design of discrete neutral and cationic com-
pounds, and their use as catalysts for the synthesis of tailor-
made polymer materials and fine chemicals. He was elected at
the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) in 2005, and currently
heads the Organometallics, Materials and Catalysis department
of Institute of Chemical Sciences at the University of Rennes.
Jaephil Cho received his Ph.D. in 1995
from Iowa State University (USA). He is
currently the Dean and Professor, School
of Energy & Chemical Engineering,
Ulsan National Institute of Science and
Technology (UNIST, South Korea) and Di-
rector of Converging Research Center
for Innovative Battery Technologies and
Director of the IT Research Center for
Lithium Batteries. His current research
interests include Li-ion batteries, Zn-air
batteries (cell design and non-metallic catalysts) and vanadium
redox-flow batteries. He has received the following honours and
awards: the Inchon Award in Natural Science (Inchon Memorial
Foundation, 2013), PBFC Research Award (Korean Electrochemical
Society, 2011), UNIST Professor of the Year (UNIST, 2011), Technol-
ogy Development Achievement Major Award (Ulsan Metropolitan
City, 2010), Young Chemist Award (Korean Chemistry Society-
Wiley VCH, 2007).
Kuiling Ding received his B.Sc. degree
in chemistry from Zhengzhou University
(1985) and was awarded his Ph.D.
degree from Nanjing University (1990)
under the supervision of Professor Y.-J.
Wu. He became an assistant professor
at Zhengzhou University in 1990 and
full professor at the same place in 1995.
During 1993–1994, he did postdoctoral
research with Professor T. Matsuura at
Ryukoku University, Japan. In the period
of 1997–1998, he was a UNESCO research fellow with Professor
K. Mikami at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. In 1999, he
joined the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), CAS,
where he is currently the director of the institute. His research in-
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 5 – 15 www.chemeurj.org
Editorial
terests include the development of new methodologies and cata-
lysts for organic synthesis. He received a number of scientific
awards, including the State Award for Natural Science (2009),
Shanghai Peony Award for Natural Science (2011), SciFinder Inno-
vation Award for Synthetic Organic Chemistry, CCS (2011), and Eli
Lilly Scientific Excellence Award in Chemistry (2011).
Jairton Dupont received his Ph.D. at
the Universit de Strasbourg (France)
and after a period as a post-doc at the
University of Oxford (UK), he became
a Professor of Chemistry at the Institute
of Chemistry, UFRGS (Brazil). He has
been an invited Professor at ULP and
Montpellier (France), Nuremberg-Erlan-
gen (Germany) and Universidad de
Alcala de Henares and Rovira i Virgili
(Spain). He is a member of the Brazilian
Academy of Sciences and the World Academy Sciences; among
the various distinctions he has received the Humboldt Award, the
Conrado Wessel Science Award, TWAS Chemistry Award, WIPO
Award and the Brazilian Gran Cruz. He is an associate editor of
the New Journal of Chemistry and Topics in Organometallic
Chemistry. His research interests are mainly centered on ionic liq-
uids with special emphasis in catalysis, nanomaterials and alter-
native energies.
Antonio M. Echavarren obtained his
Ph.D. at the Universidad Autnoma de
Madrid (UAM; Spain) in 1982. After
postdoctoral stays at Boston College
(USA) and Colorado State University
(USA), he joined the CSIC (Institute of
Organic Chemistry) in Madrid (Spain). In
1992 he became Professor of Organic
Chemistry at the UAM (Spain). He is
also Professor of Research of the CSIC.
In 2004 he moved to Tarragona (Spain)
as Group Leader at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalo-
nia (ICIQ). His research interests are the discovery of new catalytic
methods based on the chemistry of transition metals as well as
the synthesis of natural products and polyarenes.
Hermenegildo Garca received his Ph.D.
in the Organic Chemistry Department of
the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Universi-
dad de Valencia (Spain) under the su-
pervision of Professor Miguel A. Miranda
working on preparative organic photo-
chemistry. In 1983 he became Assistant
Professor at the Chemistry Department
of the Technical University of Valencia,
and became full professor at the same
University in 1996. He is staff member
of the Instituto de Tecnologa Qumica, a joint center of the Tech-
nical University of Valencia and the Spanish National Research
Council chaired by Professor Avelino Corma. He did postdoctoral
10  2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

research at the University of Reading with Professor Andrew Gil-
bert (1987) and has had several sabbaticals, joining the Laser
Flash Photolysis group of Professor J. C. Scaiano at the University
of Ottawa with whom he has collaborated since 1992. He has
been active in the field of photochemistry and heterogeneous
catalysis in which he has applied materials such as carbon nano-
tubes, diamond nanoparticles, graphene and metal organic
frameworks among others.
J. Justin Gooding graduated with
a B.Sc. from Melbourne University
before spending two years researching
explosives. He then completed a D.Phil.
from the University of Oxford (UK) and
received postdoctoral training at the In-
stitute of Biotechnology at Cambridge
University (UK). He returned to Australia
in 1997 as a Research Fellow at the Uni-
versity of New South Wales and became
a full professor in 2006. He has won sev-
eral awards including one of the recipients of a 2004 NSW Young
Tall Poppy award, the 2009 Eureka Prize for Scientific Research,
the RACI 2011 H. G. Smith Medal for contributions to chemistry,
and a 2013 NSW Science and Engineering award. He is currently
an ARC Professorial Fellow and a co-director of the Australian
Centre for NanoMedicine. Between 2006 and 2011 he was Chair
of the Electrochemistry Division of the Royal Australian Chemical
Institute and is currently one of the Vice Presidents of the ISE. He
leads a research team of 30 people interested in surface modifi-
cation and nanotechnology for biosensors, biomaterials, electron
transfer, and medical applications.
Vronique E. Gouverneur was born in
1964 in Belgium. She received her B.Sc
(1985) and Ph.D. (1991) in chemistry
from the Universite Catholique de Lou-
vain (LLN, Belgium). She then left Bel-
gium and moved to a postdoctoral po-
sition with Professor Richard Lerner at
the Scripps Research Institute (Califor-
nia, USA). She returned to Europe in
1994 where she accepted a position of
Maitre de Conference at the University
Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg (France). She started her independent
research career at the University of Oxford in 1998. Her most
recent interest is aimed at developing new tactical approaches
towards fluorinated molecules to address long-standing problems
in the synthesis of fluorinated analogues of natural products,
pharmaceutical drugs and molecular probes for PET imaging.
Her research was recently recognised by the AstraZeneca award
for organic chemistry 2005. In 2006, she was conferred the title
of Reader in Chemistry by the University as a recognition of dis-
tinction.
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 5 – 15 www.chemeurj.org
Editorial
Karol Grela was born in Warsaw
(Poland) in 1970. He received a Master
degree from Warsaw University of Tech-
nology in 1994, and received his Ph.D.
degree from the Institute of Organic
Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences,
in 1998. He then spent one year in the
Max-Planck-Institut fr Kohlenforschung,
Mlheim an der Ruhr (Germany), in the
laboratories of Professor Alois Frstner.
He returned to Warsaw, and completed
his Habilitation in 2003, at the Institute of Organic Chemistry,
Polish Academy of Sciences, where he leads a small but very effi-
cient research group of dedicated co-workers. In 2008 he was
promoted to Full Professor. Since 2008, he is also a Director of
newly formed group at the Biological and Chemical Research
Centre of the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw. His syn-
thetic research focuses on improving synthetic efficiency of or-
ganic reactions, organometallic chemistry and catalysis. His work
with metals involves the development of new catalysts and con-
ditions for alkene and alkyne metathesis.
Sang Woo Han was born in Seoul
(South Korea) in 1971. He received his
B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Chemis-
try from the Seoul National University in
1995, 1997, and 2000, respectively. He
then worked as a postdoctoral research
associate with Professor Kwan Kim at
the Seoul National University until 2002
and with Professor Chad Mirkin at
Northwestern University (USA) until 2004.
He started as an Assistant Professor of
Chemistry at the Gyeongsang National University (South Korea) in
2004. In 2009, he joined the Department of Chemistry at KAIST
(South Korea) and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010.
His research interests include the synthesis of nanostructured build-
ing blocks, assembly of building blocks into higher-order architec-
tures, and the electro–photo behaviour of nanomaterials.
A. Stephen K. Hashmi is Professor of Or-
ganic Chemistry at the University of Hei-
delberg (Germany). He obtained his
Ph.D. from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universi-
tt Mnchen (Germany) with Gnter
Szeimies. After his postdoctoral studies
with Barry M. Trost at Stanford University
(USA), he started his Habilitation at the
Freie Universitt Berlin (Germany) with
Johann Mulzer. During that time he fol-
lowed J. Mulzer to the Johann Wolfgang
Goethe-Universitt Frankfurt (Germany) and subsequently to the
Universitt Wien (Austria). He then returned to Frankfurt to finish
his Habilitation. After short stays at the University of Tasmania
(Australia), and Universitt Marburg (Germany), he was at the Uni-
versitt Stuttgart (Germany) as a Professor for Organic Chemistry
for six years. Since 2007 he is a full professor at Heidelberg Univer-
11  2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

sity (Germany), where he was also involved in the Catalysis Re-
search Laboratory (CaRLa) and in the Heidelberg Center of the En-
vironment (HCE). His research covers transition-metal catalysis,
since 2000 with a major focus on homogeneous gold catalysis.
Catalyst preparation, methodology development, detailed mecha-
nistic studies, and synthetic applications are covered.
Johan Hofkens received his MSc. and
Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the Uni-
versity of Leuven (KULeuven). After post-
doctoral research with Prof. Masuhara
at Osaka University and Prof. Barbara
at the University of Minneapolis, he re-
joined the KULeuven supervising the
Single Molecule Unit in the group of
Prof. De Schryver. In 2005 he was ap-
pointed Research Professor at the KU-
Leuven and in 2008 he was promoted
to full professor. His research interests are fast spectroscopy,
single molecule spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy and
the development of new microscopy modes, development of fluo-
rescent proteins, and plasmonics.
Yukishige Ito graduated from Faculty of
Pharmaceutical Sciences, the University
of Tokyo (Japan) in 1977 and obtained
his Ph.D. in 1982 from the same school
(Supervisor, Professor Masaji Ohno). After
two years of postdoctoral training at De-
partment of Chemistry, Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology (USA; advisor, Pro-
fessor Satoru Masamune), he joined
RIKEN (Japan) and started his career in
carbohydrate chemistry under the direc-
tion of Dr. Tomoya Ogawa. In the same institute, he became inde-
pendent as a chief scientist in 1998. He is also a director of the
ERATO project of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)
(2009–). His current research interests cover carbohydrate chemis-
try, glycotechnology and synthetic organic chemistry. He received
the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology and Agrochemistry
Award for Young Scientists (1993), Roy L. Whistler Award in Carbo-
hydrate Chemistry (2008), and Japan Society for Bioscience, Bio-
technology, and Agrochemistry Award (2012).
Burkhard Kçnig received his Ph.D. in
1991 from the University of Hamburg
(Germany), and continued his scientific
education as a postdoctoral fellow
with Prof. M. A. Bennett, ANU, Canberra
(Australia), and Prof. B. M. Trost, Stan-
ford University (USA). In 1996 he ob-
tained his „Habilitation“ at the Univer-
sity of Braunschweig (Germany). In
1999 he became a full professor of or-
ganic chemistry at the University of Regensburg (Germany). His
research interests focus on intermolecular interactions and their
use in (photo)catalysis, chemosensors or new reaction media.
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 5 – 15 www.chemeurj.org
Editorial
Yadong Li, born in 1964, received his
B.S. degree at the Department of
Chemistry, Anhui Normal University
(China) in 1986, and received his Ph.D
degree at the Department of Chemistry,
University of Science and Technology of
China in 1998. He joined the faculty of
the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua
University (China) in 1999 as a full pro-
fessor. His research interests focus on
structure-, size-, and morphology-con-
trollable synthesis of monodisperse nanocrystals as well as prop-
erties and applications of nanomaterials. He was elected as acad-
emician of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011.
Luis M. Liz-Marzn received his Ph.D. in
1992 from the University of Santiago de
Compostela (Spain). He then spent
some time at Utrecht University (The
Netherlands) as a postdoctoral fellow
and more recently as a visiting profes-
sor at various universities and research
centers worldwide. After holding a chair
in Physical Chemistry at the University
of Vigo (Spain), he is currently Ikerbas-
que Research Professor and Scientific Di-
rector of CIC biomaGUNE, in San Sebastian (Spain). Liz-Marzn
was the President of the Division of Colloids and Interfaces of the
Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (2009–2013). He holds editori-
al responsibilities in various chemistry and nanoscience journals
His current interests include nanoparticle synthesis and assembly,
nanoplasmonics, and development of nanoparticle-based sensing
and diagnostic tools.
llan Marek, born in Haifa and educated
in France, moved to the Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology in 1997. He is
a professor of chemistry and since 2005
he holds the Sir Michael and Lady
Sobell Academic Chair. His research ac-
tivities are primarily concerned with the
design and development of new and ef-
ficient stereo- and enantioselective strat-
egies that do not have precedent in
classical organic chemistry for the syn-
thesis of important complex molecular structures. His vision is
that challenging synthetic problems should be answered with ef-
ficiency and elegance. He chairs the organic division of the Euro-
pean Association of Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMs)
and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in
2011. He has received several major international awards over
the years including the 2013 Moore Distinguished Scholar Ap-
pointment from CalTech, the 2013 Israel Chemical Society Award
for Excellence, the 2012 Janssen Award for creativity in organic
synthesis, and the 2011 Royal Society Chemistry Organometallic
Award.
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Stefan Matile was educated at the Uni-
versity of Zurich (Switzerland) and at
Columbia University in New York (USA).
He started his independent career at
Georgetown University, Washington DC
(USA), in 1996, and moved to the Uni-
versity of Geneva (Switzerland) three
years later. He currently is a Full Profes-
sor in the Department of Organic
Chemistry and the National Centre of
Competence in Research (NCCR) in
Chemical Biology, and an ERC Advanced Investigator. His re-
search interests are at the interface of synthetic organic, biologi-
cal, and supramolecular materials chemistry. Emphasis is on mol-
ecules and supramolecular systems that are synthesized from
scratch, have interesting functions, address lessons from nature,
and integrate less recognized, “exotic” interactions (anion–p in-
teractions, halogen bonds, dynamic covalent bonds). Current
functions of interest concern transport and sensing in lipid bilay-
er membranes, artificial photosystems, cellular uptake, and catal-
ysis.
Ronald Micura studied Chemistry at the
Johannes Kepler University in Linz (Aus-
tria). He received his Ph.D. in the field of
phycobilin pigments under the supervi-
sion of Karl Grubmayr in 1995. Immedi-
ately thereafter he joined the laboratory
of Albert Eschenmoser at ETH Zurich
(Switzerland) (1996–1997), and later on,
at The Scripps Research Institute (USA)
(1998), to perform postdoctoral research
on alternative nucleic acids. Following
his time in California, he started independent research funded by
an APART-fellowship from the Austrian Academy of Science
(OeAW) at the University of Linz. In 2004, he became Professor
for Organic Chemistry at the Leopold-Franzens University in Inns-
bruck (Austria). His research focuses on the chemistry, chemical
biology, and biophysics of RNA.
Robert Emmet Mulvey was born in
Glasgow (Scotland) in 1959. He received
his B.Sc. and his Ph.D.—in organolithi-
um chemistry under the direction of Dr.
Ron Snaith—at the University of Strath-
clyde in 1981 and 1984 respectively. Fol-
lowing two years as a postdoctoral
fellow at the University of Durham
(under the direction of Prof. Ken Wade),
he returned to Strathclyde in 1986 and
was promoted to a Professorship in
1995. His research on polar organometallic chemistry has won
him several awards and prizes including a Royal Society Wolfson
Research Merit Award, a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior
Research Fellowship, the RSC Main Group Element Award, and
the RSC Meldola Medal. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh (FRSE), he has a long held fascination with the synergies
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 5 – 15 www.chemeurj.org
Editorial
created when different metals are mixed within the same ligand
environment. This work was recognised most recently by the
GDCh Arfvedson Schlenk Prize for 2013, awarded for “outstand-
ing achievements in discovering synergistic effects of mixed main
group metal compositions”.
Christof M. Niemeyer is Professor of
Chemical Biology at Karlsruhe Institute
of Technology (KIT; Germany) and Di-
rector of the Institute for Biological In-
terfaces. He received his Ph.D. at the
Max-Planck Institut fr Kohlenfor-
schung in Mlheim/Ruhr (Germany)
under the supervision of Manfred T.
Reetz and was then a postdoctoral
fellow at the Center for Advanced Bio-
technology in Boston (USA) with
Charles R. Cantor. He returned to Germany, where he received his
habilitation at the University of Bremen. In 2002 he was appoint-
ed as Professor of Chemistry at the Technical University of Dort-
mund (Germany) before moving to Karlsruhe in 2012. From 2005
to 2008, he held an additional appointment as group leader at
the ISAS—Institute for Analytical Sciences, Dortmund. From 2008
to 2013 he was appointed by Max-Planck Society as research
fellow of the Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Dort-
mund. His research interests concern the chemistry of semisyn-
thetic DNA-, protein-, and nanoparticle-conjugates and the devel-
opment of artificial biological interfaces.
Jean-FranÅois Nierengarten studied
biochemistry and chemistry at the Uni-
versity of Strasbourg (France) and re-
ceived his doctoral degree under the
supervision of Jean-Pierre Sauvage and
Christiane Dietrich-Buchecker in Stras-
bourg (1994). He worked as a postdoc-
toral fellow with FranÅois Diederich at
the ETH-Zrich (Switzerland) (1994–
1996). He obtained a CNRS researcher
position in 1996. He is currently Direc-
teur de Recherche at the CNRS (DR1) and head of the Laboratoire
de Chimie des Matriaux Molculaires (University of Strasbourg
and CNRS; France). His research focuses on the chemistry of ful-
lerenes for applications in materials science and biology. Other
research interests are in the area of dendrimers, luminescent
transition metal complexes, porphyrins, and p-conjugated sys-
tems. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and
has been awarded the bronze medal of the CNRS in 2001, the
SFC-ACROS prize from the Organic Chemistry Division of the
French Chemical Society in 2004, the Grammaticakis–Neuman
Prize from the French Academy of Science in 2007 and the Cata-
lan-Sabatier Prize from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry in
2013.
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Jonathan Nitschke was born in 1973
in Syracuse, New York (USA). He re-
ceived his B.Sc. from Williams College
(USA) in 1995 and his doctorate from
the University of California, Berkeley
(USA) in 2001 under the supervision of
T. Don Tilley. He then undertook post-
doctoral studies with Jean-Marie Lehn
in Strasbourg (France) under the auspi-
ces of a US NSF fellowship, and in
2003 he started his independent re-
search career as a Matre-assistant in the Organic Chemistry De-
partment of the University of Geneva (Switzerland). In 2007 he
was appointed University Lecturer at Cambridge (UK), where he
now holds the position of Reader (Associate Professor, approxi-
mately). He is the recipient of the Cram Lehn Pedersen Prize in
Supramolecular Chemistry (2012), the Corday–Morgan Prize of
the Royal Society of Chemistry (2011), the Dalton Transactions
European/African Lectureship (2011), the Werner Prize of the
Swiss Chemical Society (2007), and the European Young Chemist
Award at the first EuCheMS Congress (2006). His research pro-
gram investigates the self-assembly of complex, functional struc-
tures from simple molecular precursors, and metal ions.
Michael G. Organ received his Ph.D. in
1992 at the University of Guelph
(Canada) under the tutelage of Profes-
sor Gordon L. Lange. He then was an
NSERC Postdoctoral Scholar (1994) in
the laboratory of Professor Barry M.
Trost at Stanford (USA). His independ-
ent career started at Indiana Universi-
ty-Purdue University at Indianapolis
(USA) in 1994 after which he moved in
1997 to York University in Toronto
(Canada), where he has risen through the ranks to full professor.
His group pioneered the concept of microwave-assisted, continu-
ous flow organic synthesis as well as several unique technologies
that underpin these efforts, including a new microwave applica-
tor design, metal-film coated flow reactors to promote organic
transformations, and continuous, real-time, in-line analysis. His
group’s effort in catalysis has led to the creation of a broadening
series of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-based organometallic
complexes that have shown unsurpassed reactivity and selectivity
in a wide number of cross-coupling applications. This family of
catalysts (coined PEPPSI for pyridine-enhanced precatalyst prepa-
ration, stabilization, and initiation) has been commercialized and
is used widely.
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 5 – 15 www.chemeurj.org
Editorial
Rinaldo Poli obtained his Ph.D. degree
in 1985 from Scuola Normale Superiore
(Pisa, Italy) under Fausto Calderazzo,
with one year also spent at Imperial
College London (UK) with Geoffrey Wil-
kinson. After a two-year postdoctoral
fellowship with F. A. Cotton at Texas
A&M University (USA), he joined the
faculty of the University of Maryland at
College Park (USA), where he stayed
until 1996. Then he moved to France,
first to Dijon until 2003, and since then to his current position in
Toulouse where he teaches at ENSIACET and leads a research
group at the Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination of CNRS. His
research interests are in transition-metal chemistry, spanning
from structure–bonding–reactivity relationships, especially for
open-shell organometallic compounds, to the application of
metal complexes to catalysis and to controlled radical polymeri-
zation. His most recent distinctions are awards from the French
Chemical Society (Coordination Chemistry division) and Italian
Chemical Society (Organometallic Chemistry interdivisional
group) and the election as a senior member of the “Institut Uni-
versitaire de France”.
Martin Pumera joined the faculty at
Nanyang Technological University (Sin-
gapore) in 2010. He received his Ph.D.
at Charles University (Czech Republic),
in 2001. After two postdoctoral stays
(in the USA and Spain), he joined the
National Institute for Materials Science
(Japan) in 2006 for a tenure-track ar-
rangement and stayed there until
spring 2008 when he accepted a ten-
ured position at the National Institute
for Materials Science (Japan). In 2009, he received a ERC-StG
award from European Union. Pumera has broad interests in
nanomaterials and microsystems, in the specific areas of electro-
chemistry and synthetic chemistry of carbon nanomaterials,
nanomotors, nanotoxicity, and energy storage devices.
Olof Ramstrçm is Professor of Chemis-
try at the Department of Chemistry,
KTH - Royal Institute of Technology,
Stockholm (Sweden). He was awarded
his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Lund
Institute of Technology/Lund University
(Sweden), and after a research period
in Strasbourg (France), he joined KTH
at the turn of the year 2002. His re-
search activities are of multidisciplinary
nature and focused at the interfaces
between chemistry, materials science, and biology. The central
theme is molecular recognition in general, and the study of com-
plex receptor–ligand interactions and chemical networks in par-
ticular, in which interaction partners are tailor-made for optimal
performance. Current research activities involve the development
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of new concepts, methods and applications with focus on: 1) dy-
namic and supramolecular chemistry; 2) selective organic synthe-
sis; and 3) chemical nanotechnology for biomedical applications.
Professor Ramstrçm is active both nationally and internationally
and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Jo¼o Rocha is a Full Professor of Inor-
ganic and Materials Chemistry at the
University of Aveiro (Portugal), since
1999, a Member of the Lisbon Academy
of Sciences, and Director of CICECO-
Aveiro Institute of Materials (400
people). He heads the Commission on
Inorganic and Mineral Structures of the
International Union of Crystallography.
In 2004, he received the Portuguese Sci-
ence Foundation prize for Scientific Ex-
cellence. He received his Ph.D. in 1991 from the Department of
Chemistry, University of Cambridge (UK), working on solid-state
NMR of clay materials, under the supervision of J. Klinowski, and
stayed for one year as postdoctoral fellow in the same group
working on solid-state NMR of zeolite-type materials. His present
research interests encompass light-emitting lanthanide-bearing mi-
croporous and mesoporous materials, and metal–organic frame-
works for sensing applications; nanosystems for multimodal (mag-
netic resonance, optical and thermometry) imaging and small-
molecule drug delivery; solid-state NMR and X-ray diffraction.
Michael Ruck studied chemistry at the
University of Karlsruhe (Germany). In
1989, after his diploma thesis with
Hartmut Brnighausen, he joined the
group of Arndt Simon at the Max
Planck Institute for Solid-State Research
and received his Ph.D. from the Univer-
sity of Stuttgart (Germany) in 1991. He
returned to Karlsruhe, where he com-
pleted his habilitation on ternary bis-
muth subhalogenides in 1997. Since
2000 he holds the Chair for Inorganic Chemistry at the Techni-
sche Universitt Dresden. In 2010 he was appointed Fellow of the
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden.
His current research interests concern confined metals, (sub)na-
noscale conductors, metastable phases, new element modifica-
tions, and resource-efficient syntheses of inorganic materials.
Nikos Tagmatarchis is the Director of
Research at the Theoretical and Physi-
cal Chemistry Institute, National Hellen-
ic Research Foundation, in Athens
(Greece). He studied chemistry and re-
ceived his Ph.D. from the Chemistry De-
partment, University of Crete in 1997
(Greece). His research interests focus on
the chemistry of carbon-based nano-
structured materials, such as fullerenes,
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 5 – 15 www.chemeurj.org
Editorial
nanotubes, graphene, and diamondoids, targeting applications
in the fields of solar and photoelectrochemical cells, water split-
ting, and hydrogen production, catalysis as well as purification of
wastewater from toxic pollutants and organic dyes. His accom-
plishments in the area are reflected on a plethora of publications,
multiple citations as well as numerous invited presentations at
international conferences. He has been recipient of the European
Young Investigator Award (2004), Visiting Professor at the Chi-
nese Academy of Sciences (2011), and Invited Fellow by the
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in Japan (2012).
Younan Xia is the Brock Family Chair
and GRA Eminent Scholar in Nanome-
dicine at the Georgia Institute of Tech-
nology (USA). He holds joint appoint-
ments in the Department of Biomedical
Engineering, School of Chemistry and
Biochemistry, and School of Chemical
and Biomolecular Engineering. Xia re-
ceived his B.Sc. from the University of
Science and Technology of China
(USTC; China) in 1987, his M.Sc. from
the University of Pennsylvania (USA) in 1993, and his Ph.D. in
physical chemistry in 1996 from Harvard University (USA) under
the supervision of Professor George M. Whitesides. He started as
an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washing-
ton (Seattle; USA) in 1997, and was promoted to Associate pro-
fessor and Professor in 2002 and 2004, respectively. He joined the
Department of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University
in St. Louis (USA) in 2007 as the James M. McKelvey Professor for
Advanced Materials and moved to Georgia Tech (USA) in 2012.
His current research interests include nanomaterials, biomaterials,
nanomedicine, regenerative medicine, imaging, electrospinning,
and colloidal science.
Xi Zhang is a professor of chemistry at
Tsinghua University, Beijing (China). He
received his B.Sc. in analytical chemis-
try (1986), and M.Sc. (1989) and Ph.D.
degrees (1992) in Polymer Chemistry
and Physics at Jilin University (China)
under the supervision of Prof. Jiacong
Shen. During his Ph.D., he spent more
than one year at the Institute of Or-
ganic Chemistry, University of Mainz
(Germany), as a joint-training Ph.D.
student under the supervision of Prof. Helmut Ringsdorf. He
joined the Department of Chemistry at Jilin University as a lectur-
er in 1992 and was then promoted to be a professor in 1994. He
moved to Tsinghua University in late 2003. He serves the Chair of
the Department of Chemistry (2008–), and the Dean of School of
Science (2013–), at Tsinghua University. Currently, he is vice presi-
dent of the Chinese Chemical Society.
15  2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim