The Adolf von Baeyer Medal was awarded to François Diederich, ETH Zurich, Switzerland. The prize was presented by the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, GDCh) at the Wissenschaftsforum in Bremen, Germany, in recognition of Diederich’s outstanding contribution to chemistry. 

Diederich completed his PhD in 1979 at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, under H. A. Staab. He carried out postdoctoral research at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA, (1979–1981) with O. L. Chapman and at the Max Planck Institute for Medicinal Research, Heidelberg (1981–1985). After completing his habilitation in 1985, he returned to UCLA, and in 1992 he joined the ETH Zurich.

Diederich serves on the advisory board of Chemistry—A European Journal and has been the chairman of the editorial board of Angewandte Chemie since 2004. His research interests include molecular recognition and structure-based drug design, carbon-rich molecular architectures and optoelectronic materials, supramolecular chemistry on surfaces, and medicinal chemistry.

See also:

• Wolfram Koch on the GDCh’s Top Event
  Wolfram Koch, Executive Director, GDCh, talks about the Wissenschaftsforum Chemie 2011 in Bremen, Germany
  
• Andreas Pfaltz Gives Heilbronner Hückel Lecture
• Ferdi Schüth Receives the Wöhler Prize
• H.-J. Freund Receives Karl-Ziegler-Award
• Peter Bruce Wins Arfvedson Schlenk Prize
• GDCh-Wissenschaftsforum Chemie 2011: Chemie schafft Zukunft