Andreas Pfaltz, University of Basel, Switzerland, has given the annual Heilbronner Hückel Lecture of the Swiss Chemical Society and the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, GDCh). The lecture was part of the Wissenschaftsforum in Bremen, Germany. Pfaltz is the first Swiss scientist to be honored by presenting this lecture.

Pfaltz studied at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and completed his doctorate there in 1978 under A. Eschenmoser. In 1978/79, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University, New York, USA, with G. Stork. In 1980, he returned to the ETH and became a lecturer there (1987–1990). This was followed by appointments at the University of Basel (1990–1995) and the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, Germany, as its director (1995–1998). In 1999, he returned to the University of Basel to his current position as professor of chemistry.

His research focuses on the development of catalytic methods for organic synthesis, with special emphasis on asymmetric catalysis. Pfaltz is a member of the editorial board of Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis.

See also:

• Wolfram Koch on the GDCh’s Top Event
  Wolfram Koch, Executive Director, GDCh, talks about the Wissenschaftsforum Chemie 2011 in Bremen, Germany
  
• Ferdi Schüth Receives the Wöhler Prize
• François Diederich Recieves Baeyer Medal
• H.-J. Freund Receives Karl-Ziegler-Award
• Peter Bruce Wins Arfvedson Schlenk Prize
• GDCh-Wissenschaftsforum Chemie 2011: Chemie schafft Zukunft