Speaker Profile
Karl Kirchner

Karl Kirchner PhD

Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Wien, Wien, Austria

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Karl Kirchner was born in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, in 1960. He attended the Vienna University of Technology (VUT) from 1979 until 1987, where he received his Diploma and Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Roland Schmid. After a two-year postdoctoral stay at Washington State University with Prof. John P. Hunt and an additional postdoctoral year with Nobel laureate Prof. Henry Taube at Stanford University he returned to Austria and joined the research group of Prof. Roland Schmid. He became associate Professor in 1994 at VUT and since 1998 he is Prof. of Organometallic Chemistry at the Institute of Applied Synthetic Chemistry (VUT). He is currently Head of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry. He is author of over 230 research publications in peer-reviewed journals (h-index 43).

The expertise of the group of Karl Kirchner is centered around the themes ligand design, synthesis of transition metal complexes, applications of transition metal complexes to homogeneous catalysis. The main research goal is to develop well-defined non-precious transition metal complexes, with emphasis on vanadium, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, and molybdenum, for catalytic transformations that are related to synthesis, energy, and sustainability. Towards this goal, we currently focus on metal-catalyzed hydrogenations of ketones, aldehydes, and carbon dioxide, C-C and C-N bond forming reactions which involve acceptorless dehydrogenations of alcohols, cross coupling reactions, hydroborations of alkynes, and activation of small molecules such as H2, N2, O2, and CO2. In addition, we are interested in the mechanisms of organic and organometallic reactions mediated by transition metal complexes which are investigated by means of NMR and IR spectroscopy, ESI MS, X-ray crystallography, and DFT calculations.
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