Professor Emeritus Fritz Vögtle, University of Bonn, Germany, passed away on January 3, 2017.

Vögtle’s research focused on organic and supramolecular chemistry. He created the first dendrimers, polymers with a tree-like branching structure. He also worked on molecules with mechanical bonds, such as catenanes and rotaxanes, as well as on stereochemistry. Vögtle also developed laboratory equipment and held a number of patents.

Fritz Vögtle studied chemistry at the Universities of Freiburg and Heidelberg, both Germany. He finished his Ph.D. and his habilitation in Heidelberg. He joined the University of Würzburg, Germany, as Professor in 1970. Vögtle moved to the University of Bonn, Germany, in 1975 and served there as Professor and Director of the Kekulé Institut for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry until his retirement in 2006.

Among other honors, Vögtle received the Literature Prize of the German Chemical Industry Fund (Fonds der Chemischen Industrie, FCI) in 1990, the Izatt-Bradshaw-Christensen Award for Macrocyclic Chemistry by the International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry (ISMSC) in 1999, a honorary doctorate from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, in 2000, and the Adolf von Baeyer Medal from the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society) in 2003.

Selected Publications

• Dendrimer Chemistry,
  Fritz Vögtle, Gabriele Richardt, Nicole Werner, Anthony J. Rackstraw (Translator),
  Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2009.
  ISBN: 978-3-527-32066-0
• Self‐Assembly of a Light‐Harvesting Antenna Formed by a Dendrimer, a Ru^II Complex, and a Nd^III Ion,
  Carlo Giansante, Paola Ceroni, Vincenzo Balzani, Fritz Vögtle,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 5422–5425.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.200801334
• Reversible Luminescent Gels Containing Metal Complexes,
  G. De Paoli, Z. Džolic, F. Rizzo, L. De Cola, F. Vögtle, W. M. Müller, G. Richardt, M. Žinic,
  Adv. Funct. Mater. 2007, 17, 821–828.
  DOI: 10.1002/adfm.200601042
• Photoswitchable Dendritic Hosts: A Dendrimer with Peripheral Azobenzene Groups,
  Fausto Puntoriero, Paola Ceroni, Vincenzo Balzani, Giacomo Bergamini, Fritz Vögtle,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 10714–10719.
  DOI: 10.1021/ja070636r
• Photo-Driven Expulsion of Molecules from Mesostructured Silica Nanoparticles,
  Sarah Angelos, Eunshil Choi, Fritz Vögtle, Luisa De Cola, Jeffrey I. Zink,
  J. Phys. Chem. C 2007, 111, 6589–6592.
  DOI: 10.1021/jp070721l
• Electronic spectroscopy of metal complexes with dendritic ligands,
  Vincenzo Balzani, Giacomo Bergamini, Paola Ceroni, Fritz Vögtle,
  Coord. Chemi. Rev. 2007, 251, 525–535.
  DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2006.04.007
• Photoisomerization of Azobenzene Derivatives in Nanostructured Silica,
  Paul Sierocki, Huub Maas, Patrick Dragut, Gabriele Richardt, Fritz Vögtle, Luisa De Cola, Fred (A. M.) Brouwer, Jeffrey I. Zink,
  J. Phys. Chem. B 2006, 110, 24390–24398.
  DOI: 10.1021/jp0641334
• Enantiomeric Resolution of Cycloenantiomeric Rotaxane, Topologically Chiral Catenane, and Pretzel-Shaped Molecules: Observation of Pronounced Circular Dichroism,
  Chiyo Yamamoto, Yoshio Okamoto, Thomas Schmidt, Ralf Jäger, Fritz Vögtle,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1997, 119, 10547–10548.
  DOI: 10.1021/ja971764q
• Template synthesis of the first amide-based rotaxanes,
  Fritz Vögtle, Mirko Händel, Stephan Meier, Stephan Ottens-Hildebrandt, Frank Ott, Thomas Schmidt,
  Liebigs Ann. 1995, 1995, 739–743.
  DOI: 10.1002/jlac.1995199505109
• Supramolekulare Chemie: Eine Einführung (in German),
  Fritz Vögtle,
  Vieweg+Teubner Verlag 1989.
  ISBN 978-3-663-11771-1
• “Cascade”- and “Nonskid-Chain-like” Syntheses of Molecular Cavity Topologies,
  Egon Buhleier, Winfried Wehner, Fritz Vögtle,
  Synthesis 1978, 1978, 155–158.
  DOI: 10.1055/s-1978-24702