Professor Peter R. Schreiner, Liebig-Chair at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany, has been elected President of the German Chemical Society (GDCh, Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker) for 2020 and 2021. He succeeds Dr. Matthias Urmann, Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, Frankfurt. Professor Stephanie Dehnen, University of Marburg, and Dr. Carla Seidel, BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, have been elected Vice Presidents for 2020 and 2021.

Peter Schreiner is committed to encouraging young chemists to become members of the GDCh and participate in the society’s various activities at both the local sections and the national level. This will also include the continuing modernization of all digital communication channels of the society.

Peter R. Schreiner studied chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, where he received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1994. Simultaneously, he obtained a Ph.D. in computational chemistry from the University of Georgia, Athens, USA, in 1995. He completed his habilitation at the University of Göttingen, Germany, in 1999. Peter Schreiner then joined the University of Georgia as Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry. Since 2002, he is Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Giessen.

His research interests include organic reaction dynamics and reactive intermediates, quantum mechanical tunneling, London dispersion interactions, nanodiamonds, and organocatalysis.

Among other honors, Peter R. Schreiner has received the Dirac Medal in 2003, the Universitatis Lodzienzis Amico-Medal of the University of Lodz, Poland, in 2015, the Science Award from the German Technion Society in 2014, and the Adolf von Baeyer Memorial Medal from the GDCh in 2017. Peter R. Schreiner is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of WIREs Computational Molecular Science and Editor of the Journal of Computational Chemistry.

---

Selected Publications

• André K. Eckhardt, Alexandre Bergantini, Santosh K. Sing, Peter R. Schreiner, Ralf I. Kaiser, Formation of Glyoxylic Acid (HCOCOOH) in Interstellar Ices – A Key Entry Point for Prebiotic Chemistry, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 5663–5667. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201901059
• Oana Moncea, Juan Casanova-Chafer, Didier Poinsot, Lukas Ochmann, Clève D. Mboyi, Eduard Llobet, Imen Makni, Molka El Atrous, Stéphane Brandès, Yoann Rousselin, Bruno Domenichini, Nicolas Nuns, Andrey A. Fokin, Peter R. Schreiner, Jean-Cyrille Hierso, Diamondoid Nanostructures as sp³-Carbon-Based NO₂ Sensors. Functionalized Nanodiamonds, part 79, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 9933–9938. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201903089
• Dennis Gerbig, Sarina Desch, Peter R. Schreiner, Making Glycine Methyl Ester Chiral, Chem. Eur. J. 2018, 24, 11904–11907. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201802119
• Peter R. Schreiner, Thoughts on chemistry and scientific truth in post-factual times, Angew. Chem Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 8336–8337. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201802088
• André K. Eckhardt, Peter R. Schreiner, Spectroscopic Evidence for Aminomethylene (H–C̈–NH₂) – The Simplest Amino Carbene, Angew. Chem Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 5248–5252. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201800679
• Stefan Grimme, Peter R. Schreiner, Computational Chemistry: The fate of current methods and future challenges, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 4170–4176. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201709943
• Dennis Gerbig, Peter R. Schreiner, Formation of a Tunneling Product in the Photo-Rearrangement of o-Nitrobenzaldehyde, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 9445–9448. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201705140