Editor's Page pubs.acs.org/Organometallics
Award-Winning Organometallic Chemistry: the 2012 Alfred-StockGedächtnispreis of the GDCh1 his issue begins with an award article entitled “Reactions of an Al−P Based Frustrated Lewis Pair with Carbonyl Compounds” by Prof. Dr. Werner Uhl, who is the most recent recipient of the Alfred-Stock-Gedächtnispreis (Alfred Stock Memorial Prize)2 of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh),3 or German Chemical Society. Since 1950, this Prize has been conferred on an approximately biennial basis for outstanding experimental work in inorganic chemistry.2 As would be expected, a good fraction of these awards also recognize achievements in organometallic chemistry. Two years ago, another honoree, Prof. Dr. Matthias Driess, was similarly profiled in these pages.4 Dr. Uhl’s laudatio5 notes his “...groundbreaking investigations of synthesis, structure, and reactivity of molecules with aluminum−aluminum and gallium−gallium bonds...” with his “dianionic closo-dodecaalanes positioning him as particularly fitting successor to Alfred Stock”. Also emphasized are “creative, farsighted, and much cited fundamental research involving aluminum and gallium hydrazides and peroxides, and hydroalumination”. Furthermore, “his keen experimental skills and fundamental analytical expertise have led to numerous results that are recognized as milestones in the chemistry of main group elements”. Dr. Uhl was awarded the Prize by Prof. Dr. Barbara Albert, the current President of the GDCh, on September 27, 2012, at the 16th meeting of the Wö hler Society for Inorganic Chemistry,6 a division of the GDCh. Figure 1 shows Dr. Uhl and Dr. Albert, as well as Dr. Hansgeorg Schnöckel, who read an expanded laudatio. The Prize included an honorarium of 7500€ and a gold medal some 5 cm in diameter (partially visible). One face of the medal shows the profile of Alfred Stock;7 the other features the alchemical symbols for boron,
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mercury, and silicon, three elements that featured prominently in Stock’s research. Dr. Uhl is widely known to readers of Organometallics, having served on the Advisory Board (2001−2003) and published 29 papers in the journal, often on the topics noted above. For the last 9 years, he has called the University of Münster home, where he has twice been recognized for the best lecture courses in the Department of Chemistry (Figure 2). A biographical
Figure 2. Prof. Dr. Werner Uhl, at the board in the classroom.
sketch of Dr. Uhl can be found within his article. Werner, we know there are many additional recognitions that await you, and we look forward to reading more of your innovative and often very surprising chemistry in this journal and elsewhere in the years to come.
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REFERENCES
(1) Previous Editor’s Page in the series: Gladysz, J. A. Organometallics 2013, 32, 2463−. (2) https://www.gdch.de/gdch/preise-und-auszeichnungen/gdchpreise.html (3) https://www.gdch.de/start.html (4) Gladysz, J. A. Organometallics 2011, 30, 1747−1747. (5) “In Anerkennung seiner bahnbrechenden Untersuchungen zur Synthese, Struktur und Reaktivitat von molekularen Verbindungen mit Al-Al- und Ga-Ga-Bindungen. Mit diesen Untersuchungen und besonders mit dem dianionischen closo-Dodecaalan steht Werner Uhl in singularer Weise in der Nachfolge von Alfred Stock. Auch in weiteren vielbeachteten Studien zu Aluminium- und Galliumhydraziden/-peroxiden und zur Hydroaluminierung hat er Kreativitat und Weitblick fur aktuelle Fragestellungen der Grundlagenforschung bewiesen. Werner Uhl hat durch hohe Experimentierkunst und fundierten analytischen Sachverstand zahlreiche Ergebnisse erzielt, die Meilensteine in der Chemie der Hauptgruppenelemente sind.” (6) https://www.gdch.de/index.php?id=122. (7) (a) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Stock. (b) Wiberg, E. Pure Appl. Chem. 1977, 49, 691−701.
Figure 1. Prof. Dr. Werner Uhl (left), Prof. Dr. Barbara Albert (GDCh President, center), and Prof. Dr. Hansgeorg Schnöckel (right) after the presentation of the Alfred-Stock-Gedächtnispreis in Göttingen on September 27, 2012. Photo courtesy of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) Foundation. © 2013 American Chemical Society
John A. Gladysz, Editor in Chief
Published: September 23, 2013 5007
dx.doi.org/10.1021/om400831x | Organometallics 2013, 32, 5007−5007
