Bernhard Brutschy, Professor Emeritus, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, passed away on October 14, 2014.

His research interests included microsolvated clusters, analytical chemistry of biomolecules and biomolecular complexes, development of new laser tools and molecular targets, and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy at the single molecule level.

Bernhard Brutschy was born on January 24, 1946 in Waldshut, Germany. He studied physics and mathematics at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and received his PhD in physics there in 1977 under the supervision of H. Haberland. After a year of postdoctoral research at the Hahn-Meitner-Institute in Berlin, Germany, with A. Henglein and A. Ding, he joined H. Baumgärtel at the Free University of Berlin. He finished his habilitation in physical chemistry in 1988, and was appointed full professor for physical chemistry at the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry of the Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany, in 1992. He served as director of the institute from 1995 to 2001, and remained in Frankfurt until his retirement in 2011.

Brutschy organized the annual meeting of the Bunsen-Society for Physical Chemistry (Deutsche Bunden-Gesellschaft, DBG) in Frankfurt in 2005, was a member of  the editorial board of PhysChemComm in 2002 and 2003, and a member of the ownership board of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics since 2005. Among other honors, he has received a lectureship of the FCI (Fonds der Chemischen Industrie, German Chemical Industry Fund) in 2004, the Bonhoeffer-Eucken-Scheibe memorial lecture of the DBG in 2008, and the honorary medal of the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Science in 2011.

Selected Publications:

• Biohybrid structures consisting of biotinylated glycodendrimers and proteins: influence of the biotin ligand’s number and chemical nature on the biotin–avidin conjugation,
  Franka Ennen, Susanne Boye, Albena Lederer, Mihaela Cernescu, Hartmut Komber, Bernhard Brutschy, Brigitte Voit, Dietmar Appelhans,
  Polym. Chem. 2014, 5, 1323-1339.
  DOI: 10.1039/c3py01152f
• A New Liquid Droplet Laser Desorption Source Combined with Supersonic Jet Expansion: Application to Phenol and its Water Clusters,
  Chayan Kanti Nandi, Hans-Dieter Barth, Bernhard Brutschy,
  Z. Phys. Chem. 2014, 228, 449–457.
  DOI: 10.1515/zpch-2013-0460
• The Structure of Microsolvated Benzene Derivatives and the Role of Aromatic Substituents,
  Bernhard Brutschy,
  Chem. Rev. 2000, 100, 3891–3920.
  DOI: 10.1021/cr990055n
• Anti-hydrogen bond between chloroform and fluorobenzene,
  Pavel Hobza, Vladimı́r Špirko, Zdeněk Havlas, Konstantin Buchhold, Bernd Reimann, Hans-Dieter Barth, Bernhard Brutschy,
  Chem. Phys. Lett. 1999, 299, 180–186.
  DOI: 10.1016/S0009-2614(98)01264-0
• Ion-molecule reactions within molecular clusters,
  Bernhard Brutschy,
  Chem. Rev. 1992, 92, 1567–1587.
  DOI: 10.1021/cr00015a005