News
2025
July 2025
Jul 31st: Another successful PhD defense was done today and we congratulate Dr. Martin Gawron! We wish you all the best for your future!
Jul 31st: Another great publication on polyphosphorus transition metal complexes just got published by Karolina Trabitsch with the title “Germanim-Functionalized Tri- and Tetraphosphido Cobalt Complexes”. Congratulations to her and all co-authors! DOI: 10.1021/acs.organomet.5c00214
Jul 22nd: For the annual Wolf Group trip, this year we went canoeing on the Naab from Burglengenfeld to Kallmünz with lots of laughs (despite some raining) and a nice dinner in the evening in the Spitalgarten in Regensburg.
Jul 21st: Michael published his first paper on the “One-Pot Synthesis of Primary Phosphines from White Phosphorus”. Another great collaboration with Daniel J. Scott. Congratulations to all authors! DOI: 10.1039/D5CC03444B
Jul 16th: Our football team “VfL Wolfsflur” finished the annual ChemCup with a tremendous 2nd place! Congrats on this strong performance!
Jul 10th: The institute of inorganic chemistry had its annual party today with an interesting talk on the advances of machine-learning in modelling and understanding amorphous materials by Prof. Deringer-Völker, an interesting poster session where all inorganic working groups in Regensburg presented their most recent research and a nice barbeque in the beer garden of the chemistry department in the evening!
Jul 6th-10th: Sophia and Marco participated in the 26th EuCOMC located in the beautiful city of Bern in Switzerland. They not only listened to interesting talks on organometallic chemistry but also met up with our former postdoc Tom. Cheers to both for presenting their contributions in the Wolf group with beautiful posters!
June 2025
Jun 29th: Jannes published his first paper on the “Deazaflavin-catalyzed arylation of white phosphorus with aryl bromides and chlorides” in collaboration with Prof. Cibulka from the UCT Prague. We congratulate all authors on this publication! DOI: 10.1002/adsc.70005
Jun 4th: Today another successful PhD defense was done and we congratulate Dr. Karolina Trabitsch! We wish you much success for your future!
Jun 2nd: We welcome Florian Sixt on his start of his PhD and wish him much success!
May 2025
May 20th: Today the group had their annual visit of the famous Regensburger Dult with good music, a good mood and good beer!
May 5th: Alex published his first paper about the “photochemical arylation reactions mediated by a terpyridine cobalt complex” in collaboration with Prof. Tapavicza and Prof. Nürnberger. Congratulation on all contributing authors! DOI: 10.1002/ejoc.202500398
April 2025
Apr 17th: Another very interesting paper on the hydroelementation and functionalization of white Phosphorus was published by Jose, covering the lighter tetrel-homologs germanium and silicon. Congratulations to all authors! DOI: 10.1039/D5QI00869G
Apr 9th-11th: Alex and David visited the CRC 325 graduate only day in Würzburg, where they participated in teambuilding with the graduates of the CRC 325 with additional hiking in the hills around Würzburg.
March 2025
Mar 31st: Today a very interesting review by all participants of the CRC 325 was published, covering the most recent insights in the field of photochemistry of the past two years! DOI: 10.1002/nadc.20254148488
Mar 13th & 14th: Alex, Jannes and David visited the 8th CRC 325 seminar day in University of Regensburg.
Mar 10th: Maria, Benny and Luis were attending the 5th IDK PEC Meeting at the Schloss Hirschberg in Beilngries, were they enjoyed interesting talks and had flourishing discussions.
Mar 4th: The group celebrated carnival with the annual Weißwurschtfrühstück and some great costumes!
February 2025
Feb 28th: Today, we say goodbye to Karo. We are grateful for her great guidance, always being helpful and her organizational talent! We wish you all the best!
Feb 19th: Benny, Luis, Riccardo and Michael took part in this years European Workshop on Pnictogen Chemistry (EWPC-21), which for the first time is broadening the chemistry over the whole group 15 elements, taking place in Innsbruck. Congrats to Benny for giving a great talk on his research. Also cheers to Luis, Riccardo and Michael for presenting their contributions in the Wolf group with beautiful posters!
Feb 11th: Our post-doc Yang Liu just published his work on the “Synthesis and Reactivity of an Iron-Tin Complex with Adjacent Stannylidyne and Ferriostannylene Units”. Congratulations to him and all collaborators. DOI: doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c18423.
Feb 7th: Another successful PhD defense done! We congratulate Dr. Julia Märsch and wish her much success in the future!
Feb 4th: We welcome Lina Hupel, who is starting her master’s thesis today!
January 2025
Jan 22nd: We are pleased to host Evamarie Hey-Hawkins, former PhD advisor of Robert Wolf, in our GDCh colloquium. Excellent talk on metal-based anticancer drugs for selective tumor-targeting!
Jan 17th: Another great paper out of the collaboration with the Weigand group just got published by Karolina Trabitsch, with the title “Phosphorus ring expansion at cobalt: targeted synthesis of P4, P5, and P7 ligands”. Congratulation to Karo and all co-authors! DOI: doi.org/10.1039/D4QI02683G.
Jan 7th: New year, new faces: We welcome Nina Reisinger, Amelie Niefanger, Lisa Schneider and Andreas Lang who are starting their master’s thesis today and wish them much success!
Jan 3rd: Early into the year, our former post-doc Dr. Rafael Rodriguez-Lugo published his work on the “O-arylation of carboxylic acids catalyzed by xanthine-based nickel complexes” in Chem. Sci. Congratulations to him, our former member Joan, Jannes and all other co-authors! DOI: doi.org/10.1039/D4SC04257C.
2024
December 2024
Dec 20th: After many years of hard work, insightful discussions and great contributions on P4 functionalization, we say goodbye to Jose. We wish you all the best!
Dec 18th: As every year, all the Wolf group members gathered to celebrate a great and successful year at out Christmas Party.
Dec 11th: Benny gave an excellent (and arguably the funniest) talk in the annual XMas OC colloquium in Regensburg this year. Congratulations to him!
Dec 3rd: We also welcome back Maria, who had her research stay also in the Roesler group in the University of Calgary, changing on-the-fly with Franzi!
Dec 3rd: Luis has returned from his six-month research stay at the group of our collaborator and former post-doc Dr. Daniel Scott in the University of Bath. A warm welcome back Luis!
Dec 2nd: Sebastian Schwinghammer is starting his master’s thesis. We wish him much success!
November 2024
Nov 11th: A nice contribution on the “Low-Waste Phosphorus Functionalization Enabled by Simple Disulfides” was published by our former post-doc Dr. Thomas Horsley Downie, Ajdin Velić and Luis Antonio Coelho in ChemSusChem. Congratulation to all of you! DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202401895.
October 2024
Oct 28th: The annual retreat of the CRC325 took place at the Kloster Weltenburg with interesting talks and poster presentations and nice get-togethers. Congratulations to Jannes (talk), David and Alex (Poster) for presenting their research there!
September 2024
Sep 24th: We welcome back Franzi, who returned from a four month research stay at the Roesler group in the University of Calgary, where she was working on the synthesis of new N-heterocyclic carbenes (and hiking a lot).
Sep 9th: These next days, the OrChem is held in Regensburg with many interesting talks and poster presentations. Alex, David, Jannes and Martin are participating here and presenting their work in the group.
August 2024
Aug 26th: This year Sophia, Karo, Alex, Benny, David and Riccardo were taking part in the traditional inorganic colloquium in Hirschegg in the Kleinwalsertal. A get-together of many inorganic working group full of science and great hikes.
Aug 22nd: Today we were pleased to hear, that the new NMR machine of the faculty, a 500 MHz device (Avance Neo 500 by Bruker) was installed and is ready to be used for measurement of great spectra. We thank the University of Regensburg and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for their generous financial support!
Aug 6th: Another great contribution on the photocatalytic functionalization of white phosphorus has been published by Martin and Jannes in Chem. Comm. Congratulations to both!
Aug 1st: Today another successful PhD defense was done! Many congratulations to Dr. Jose Ricardo Cammarata. We wish you much success for your future!
July 2024
Jul 25th: This year’s annual AK Wolf group trip had a great hike along the Schwarzer Laber and ended at the brewery inn of Eichhofen with good food, good beer and overall a good time.
Jul 14th: In mid of July, the Wolf Group was represented the first time at the 29th PhotoIUPAC held in Valencia by Martin, David and Alex. All three were presenting posters on their research. Congrats to Alex for winning a poster prize!
Jul 8th: Today the institution party of the inorganic department took place, with great inorganic colloquia by our guest Professors Andrew Weller (University of York) and Jose Goicoechea (Indiana University), a interesting poster session, where students of our own department could present their research and a fun and chill evening in our biergarten with barbeque, beer and lots of laughter.
Jul 2nd: Our football team “VFL Wolfsflur” finished with a magnificent 4th place in the annual ChemCup. Go Wolfs!
Jul 1st: Jose’s study on the mechanism of white phosphorus hydrostannylation has been published in Angewandte Chemie. Great collaborative work with Daniel Duvinage, Jens Beckmamn (Uni Bremen), Franz F. Westermair, Ruth Gschwind (UR) and senior corresponding author Dr. Daniel Scott.
Jul 1st: Our study on the synthesis of diazaphospholes from diazoalkenes has been published in Angewandte Chemie. Congratulations to first author Sebastian and our collaboration partners from the Max Hansmann group at TU Dortmund!
Jul 1st: Maria’s paper on the reduction of di-tert-butyldiphosphatetrahedrane has been selected as a HOT paper by Dalton Transactions. Congratulations Maria and co-authors! Check the collection out here: https://tinyurl.com/4za75uby
June 2024
Jun 24th: We were pleased to host Carolin Limburg (@BASF_Catalysts) in our GDCh colloquium. Great talk on homogeneous catalysis and reaction development in industry!
Jun 17th: Another successful PhD defense done! We congratulate Dr. Sebastian Hauer and thank him for his intriguing work and never ending support. All the best for your future Sebi!
Jun 3rd: The group grows! We welcome Florian Sixt who joins us for his master thesis, working on Heterobimetallic Hydrofunctionalization Catalysis. We wish you great results and an even better time and fun working with us!
May 2024
May 31st: Happy to share our contribution about the ‘Funtionalization of Tetraphosphido Ligands by Heterocumulenes’ in the Journal Inorganic Chemistry. Congratulations to Sebastian Hauer and all co-authors! DOI: doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.4c00808
May 15th: We say goodbye to our postdoc Dr. Thomas Horsley Downie who will be joining Robert Mulvey at Strathclyde University in Glasgow. We are deeply grateful for his helpful suggestions, guidance and great contributions to P4 activation. Thanks a lot Tom and all the best!
May 8th: Another great contribution on the chemistry of di-tert-butyldiphosphatetrahedrane with access to 1,2,3-triphospholide ligands has been published by Maria Uttendorfer in Dalton Transactions. Congratulations! DOI: doi.org/10.1039/D4DT01067A
May 1st: Very excited to see the ‘Cobalt-Mediated Photochemical C-H Arylation of Pyrroles’ published in Angewandte Chemie! Big congrats to Julia Märsch and all co-authors and thanks for the fruitful cooperation with the Nürnberger (University of Regensburg) and de Vivie-Riedle (TUM) groups! Very grateful for decorating the front cover with our contribution! DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202405780
March 2024
Mar 8th: A great collaboration on the “Structure and photochemistry of di-tert-butyldiphosphatetrahedrane” has been published in Chemical Science. Congrats to former group member Gabriele Hierlmeier and all co-authors! DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SC00936C
Mar 4th: In March almost half of the group – Karo, Maria, Sophia, Riccardo, Benny, Jose and Michael – took part in this years European Workshop on Phosphorus Chemistry (EWPC-20), which was held in Würzburg. It was great to have met many old group members – Gabi, Daniel and Peter – and to chat all things chemistry. Congrats to Karo for winning the prize for her talk on the ‘Formation of Polyphosphido Cobalt Complexes through P–P condensation’! Cheers to Maria, Sophia, Riccardo, Benny, Jose and Michael for presenting the great variety in research AK Wolf has to offer with their beautiful posters! Until next year.
February 2024
Feb 26th: In the end of February the Wolf Group was represented at the KCT in Innsbruck by Marco, who gave a great talk on ‘Heterobimetallic Activation of White Phosphorus by Co-Zn Complexes: Access to P4-Sandwich Compounds’ and by Franzi and Alex, who were presenting excellent Posters on their research! Cheers to all of them!
Feb 15th: Our review on low-valent transition metalate chemistry has just been published as an asap article in Chemical Reviews! Congratulations to first and co-corresponsing author Vanessa and Tom for their huge effort!
Feb 1st: Jannes Rückel is also back for the start of his PhD studies. Welcome Jannes, much success!
January 2024
Jan 15th: Martin is back from a three-month research stay in the group of Prof. Yasuhiro Ohki at Kyoto University in Japan, supported by the graduate programme ”Ion Pair Effects in Molecular Reactivity”. Welcome back!
Jan 2nd: A warm welcome to Sophia Vogler, who is back with us for the start of her PhD studies.
2023
December 2023
Dec 8th: Congratulations to Felix Seeberger who passed his PhD exam today! Well done Dr. Felix!
Dec 6th: Another excellent XMas OC kolloquium in Regensburg. Congratulations to Tom for his entertaining talk entitled Batman and Robin in ‘The Riddle of the Oligophosphines’.
Dec 6th: Two in a row: Two of our manuscripts were accepted by Angewandte Chemie today: The manuscripts are entitled “Cobalt-Mediated [3+1] Fragmentation of White Phosphorus: Access to Acylcyanophosphanides” and “Counterion Effect in Cobaltate-Catalyzed Alkene Hydrogenation“. Congratulations to authors by Martin, Sebi, Franzi, Tom, Gábor, and all authors involved – great teamwork! We are especially grateful for the insightful collaboration with Daniel Schmidhuber and Julia Rehbein on the cobalt-catalyzed alkene hydrogenations.
October 2023
Oct 22nd: Our collaboration with the Weigand group continues to be successful. The paper “Visible-Light-Triggered Photoswitching of Diphosphene Complexes” with DFT contributions by Christoph Ziegler has been published in Angewandte Chemie. Congratulations Christoph and all co-authors. Thanks also to Ralf Tonner and Felix Kreuter from Leipzig University for the pleasant collaboration.
Oct 6th: Robert, Joan, David and Alex attended the 1st Conference on Light Induced Transformation hosted by crc325 here in Regensburg. Great talks from all over photocatalysis in organic and inorganic chemistry. David and Alex presented their research in the poster session.
September 2023
Sep 20th: Joint publication: The results of a collaboration with Benedikt N. Baumann, Helge Lang and Marko Hapke (Johannes Kepler University, Linz) on the use of metalate catalyst for cyclization reactions were published in the Journal of Molecular Catalysis. Congratulations to Felix Seeberger, Philipp Büschelberger and all co-authors!
Sep 15th: Robert gives an invited talk at the 31st Colloquium on Organometallic Chemistry and Catalysis in Bayreuth. Splendid line-up of speaker. Thanks to Rhett Kempe and co-workers for the invitation and the excellent organisation!
Sep 7th: Thomas and Marco attended the 25th European Conference on Organometallic Chemistry (EuCOMC XXV) in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid, Spain). They presented their research on white phosphorus functionalization in form of a talk (Tom) and a poster (Marco) and listened to many interesting talks on a broad spectrum of organometallic chemistry.
Sep 6th: The GDCh-Wissenschaftsforum Chemie 2023, “WiFo” took place this year in the beautiful city of Leipzig. Robert gave a talk at the Karl-Ziegler-Symposium, presenting our latest work on 3d transition-metal catalyzed photoredox reactions and the photocatalytic functionalization of white phosphorus. Jose, David and Alex presented posters. Congratulations to Jose for winning one of the poster prizes.
Sep 1st: Check out the group’s latest manuscript on Regioselective Rhodium-Catalyzed 1,2-Hydroboration of Pyridines and Quinolines Enabled by the Tris(8-quinolinyl)phosphite Ligand. Congratulations to Miguel, Vanessa and Rafa.
August 2023
Aug 25th: Special collection: Robert edited a special collection on p-block chemistry (co-editors Jan J. Weigand and Rory Waterman). The collection was inspired by the retirement or pending retirement of Hansjörg Grützmacher, Dietrich Gudat, Evamarie Hey-Hawkins, Manfred Scheer, Rainer Streubel, and Werner Uhl. Please also see the editorial by Rory Waterman, Jan J. Weigand and Robert.
Aug 18th: Rafa and Vanessa are leaving the group to continue their academic careers as researchers at the Istituto di Chimica dei Composti Organometallici (ICCOM) in Florence, Italy. We wish them the best of luck and success in their new adventures. We will miss you all, including our boys Leonardo and Miguel.
July 2023
Jul 28th: David and Alex attended the 5th seminar day of the crc325, giving talks about their current research progress and having productive discussions about preassembly driven photocatalysis. A special talk was given by Dr. Elisabeth Speckemeier from Sanofi about “Automated & High-Throughput Parallel Synthesis in Industry”.
Jul 25th: Our collaboration with the Weigand group in Dresden is bearing further fruit: The synthesis and further transformations of an unusual hexaphosphido cobalt complex is reported in Chemistry – A European Journal. Congrats to Karo, Christian and all co-authors.
Jul 19th: Luis, Maria and Benny attended the first ever graduates only meeting of the IDK Photo Electro Catalysis at the Obere Firstalm in the beautiful Bavarian Alps. We enjoyed interesting presentations on each participant’s research and fruitful discussions.
Jul 11th: The Wolf Gang finished a great 7th place at this year’s ChemCup.
Jul 10th: For the annual AK Wolf group trip this year we visited the Höllbachtal near Brennberg. Great walking, lots of laughs and good food at the end.
June 2023
Jun 22nd: Congratulations to our former lab colleague Ajdin Velic (now in the Meyer group in Göttingen) on this year’s Alfons Paulus Prize for an excellent MSc degree in chemistry.
April 2023
Apr 20th: A heart-warming farewell to Marion, who completed her PhD earlier this year. We wish her all the best in her future endeavours!
March 2023
Mar 30th: Martin, Jose, Sebastian and Karo travelled to the warm and sunny city of San Sebastian for the EWPC! There they met many friendly faces from other working groups. Sebastian gave a brilliant talk on the cobalt-mediated fragmentation of white phosphorus and the others presented posters.
Mar 24th: Jose and Gabor attended the International Conference on Phosphorus, Boron and Silicon in Berlin (PBSi 2023). Jose presented his latest results on the hydroelementation of elemental phosphorus.
Mar 13th: Martin, Tom, Karo, Marco, Jannes and Lukas attended the Spring Meeting of the GDCh Working Group Phosphorus Chemistry in Dresden from 12th to 13th March. Martin gave an excellent presentation on his latest work on the photocatalytic activation of white phosphorus.
Mar 7th: The International Doctorate School of Excellence in Photo-Electro Catalysis (IDK-PEC) has been officially inaugurated at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Regensburg. Very interesting talks by 15 of the academic and industrial partners, including our former group member Dr. Daniel Scott. Maria and Luis are part of this programme and presented posters about their projects.
January 2023
Jan 26th: Congratulations to Marion Till who passed her PhD exam today! Well done Dr. Till!
Jan 16th: Benjamin and Riccardo hand in their M.Sc. theses. Well done and congratulations!
Jan 9th: New year, new faces in the Wolf Group. We welcome Sophia Volger, Jannes Rückel and Lukas Schober for their final year M.Sc. projects. In addition, Dr Yang Liu from the University of Göttingen joins the group. We wish them all good luck and success!
2022
December 2022
Dec 22nd: We say goodbye to Julia Märsch. Thanks for all your hard work Julia, all the best for the future!
Dec 15th: All the Wolf members gathered at Walba to celebrate this year’s successes at our Christmas party.
Dec 14th: Congratulations to Michael Mende for submitting his M.Sc. thesis!
Dec 14th: Excellent XMas OC kolloquium in Regensburg. Sebastian gave a great talk entitled “The Lord of the Azaphospholes: The Rings of Hauer”.
Dec 5th: We are moving to the 3rd floor! Today we start moving our equipment and chemicals. The Gloveboxes are also coming with us :D.
Dec 1st: A warm welcome to Marco Fritz and David Preitschaft, who are back with us for the start of their PhD studies. Luis Antonio Coelho also joins our group today. He will be part of the International Doctoral Kollege (IDK) “Photo-electro-catalysis”. We wish them a lot of fun and success with their projects.
November 2022
Nov 7th: Robert gave a talk at the RSC Dalton Division Southern Regional Meeting, a day full of nice chemistry at Burlington House in London.
Nov 1st: Alexander Erhard starts his Ph.D. studies. Welcome back Alex, much success!
Oktober 2022
Oct 31th: Check out our latest contribution on Transition-Metal-Stabilized Heavy Tetraphospholide Anions recently published in JACS! Congratulations to John Kelly and all co-authors for their contributions!
Oct 13th: The group enjoyed a trip to the Kuchlbauer brewery in Abensberg. Great experience and excellent beer.
Oct 14th: Maria’s article was a selected by ZAAC as cover feature.
September 2022
Sep 28th: Wolf group alumna Dr. Gabriele Hierlmeier is awarded the Wöhler PhD prize of the Wöhler Societry for Molecular Inorganic Chemistry. The award ceremony is held at the Wöhlertagung in Marburg with Robert delivering the laudation. Congratulations Gabi, we are so proud of you!
Karo and Sebi join the celebrations and present posters. Karo is awarded one of the poster prizes for her poster on a completely inorganic sandwich complex. Congratulations to Karo!
Sep 19th: Robert was appointed as a W3 professor at Regensburg University today. He will assume his new position on October 1st. Congratulations!
Sep 19th: Karo and Jose have returned from a three-month research stay at Oxford University. Welcome back!
Sep 17th: Prof. Jose Goicoechea ends his extended stay in Regensburg. Jose: It was great having you here and we look forward to your return next year.
Sep 16th: The 18th European Workshop in Phosphorus Chemistry (EWPC-18) finally took place in Rostock, Germany. Maria presented a poster and Jose talked about the hydrostannylation of elemental phosphorus.
Sep 9th: Martin gave a talk and Franzi presented a poster at the Koordinationschemie-Treffen (KCT) in Jena.
Sep 2th: Finally, after a long delay, the ICCC could take place in Rimini. Julia presented a poster and Robert gave a talk about metal-mediated methods for the functionalization of white phosphorus.
August 2022
Aug 31th: José’s article on the direct functionalization of bench-stable red P is now available on ChemEurJ. Another result from our ongoing work with the Scott group.
Aug 26th: Martin, Tom, Felix, Marco and Franzi attended the traditional colloquium of inorganic chemistry research groups in Hirschegg in the Kleinwalsertal. A gathering full of discussions and some hiking.
Juli 2022
Jul 27th: Finally, conferences in person again! Marion, Maria, and Sebastian are in Graz to attend the 16th International Symposium on Inorganic Ring Systems (IRIS16) and present their posters. A very successful event for the Wolf group: Sebastian wins the poster prize and Maria is honoured with a special mention for her poster, congratulations!
Jul 26th: Our ChemCup team the “Wolfrudlingers” got a more than respectable 10th place this year.
Jul 22th: Martin, Felix and Franzi attended the 29th International Conference on Organometallic Chemistry (ICOMC) in Prague. They all presented a poster.
Jul 15th: Franziska Gilch has won a prestigious Kekulé fellowship by the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie. Congratulations Franzi!
Jul 14th: Fresh from the oven! Marion’s paper on photocatalytic stannylation of white phosphorus was published by Chemical Communications. This was a collaborative paper with Dr. Daniel Scott.
Jul 4th: Joan Sander joins the group for her M.Sc. thesis – welcome Joan.
Jul 1st: Maria and former group member Ajdin Velić were among the selected young scientists to attend the 71st Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting dedicated to Chemistry.
June 2022
Jun 1st: Eduardo García from the Echavarren group is joining us as a visiting PhD student for 3 months. Welcome Eduardo and much success!
May 2022
May 25th: Maria’s paper on a nickel(0) complex featuring three intact diphosphatetrahedrane molecules was accepted by Zeitschrift für Anorganische und Allgemeine Chemie. The paper will be part of a special issue dedicated to Prof. Cameron Jones on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Congratulations to authors Maria and Gabi and happy birthday, Prof. Jones!
March 2022
Mar 1st: Benjamin Falge and Michael Mende are starting their master’s thesis. A warm welcome!
February 2022
Feb 1st: Franziska Gilch starts her Ph.D. studies. Welcome back Franzi, we wish you much success and fun!
January 2022
Jan 28th: Marion’s article is on the front cover of ChemComm.
Jan 25th: Check out our latest contribution on photochemical arylation of white phosphorus recently published in Chemical Communications! Congratulations to Marion Till and all co-authors for their contributions!
Jan 17th: We welcome the two new members of the Wolf gorup Thomas Horsley and Marco Fritz. Thomas is our new postdoc coming from the University of Bath. Marco joins the group for his M.Sc. thesis – We wish them much success and fun!
Jan 14th: Congratulations to Ajdin Velić for submitting his M.Sc. thesis!
Jan 10th: Maria return to start her PhD research with us. Welcome back, we wish you a lot of fun and success with your projects!
2021
December 2021
Dec 15th: Great organic chemistry XMas symposium at Regensburg. Martin presented a fantastic episode of “Lucky Robert and the Coltons”.
November 2021
Nov 22nd: Alexander Erhard and David Preitschaft are starting with their master‘s thesis in our lab today. Welcome!
October 2021
Oct 29th: Christoph Ziegler defends his PhD thesis summa cum laude! Congratulations, Christoph!
Oct 15th: We also have to say goodbye to Gabriele Hierlmeier, another long-standing Wolf group member. Among many personal and scientific qualities, Gabi will be remembered for her determination and perseverance, which led to the discovery of di-tert-butyldiphosphatetrahedrane. Gabi is now heading off to Princeton to do become a postdoc with Paul Chirik. So long, Gabi! Have lots of fun and success in the US!
Oct 1st: Dr. Daniel Scott is leaving the group to start his independent career supported by EPSRC fellowship. We are all deeply indebted to Daniel for his creative ideas, great suggestions and guidance. Thanks a lot Dan and all the very best for the future!
September 2021
Sep 25th: Congratulations to Maria Uttendorfer for submitting her M.Sc. thesis!
Sept 2nd: A collaborative paper with the Gschwind and Zeitler groups has been accepted by Angewandte Chemie! The paper reports mechanistic insights into the photocatalytic arylation of P4 and the development of a photocatalytic method for the arylation of PH3 based on the results. Congratulatoins to lead authors Robin and Verena and all other authors involved – fantastic team effort!
August 2021
Aug 30th: We congratulate Franziska Gilch for submitting her M.Sc. thesis. We wish her an enjoyable external module with Stephen Thomas in Edinburgh!
July 2021
Jul 30th: We say goodbye to postdoc John Kelly. Thanks for everything John! Especially for great contributions to low-oxidation state organometallic chemistry and P4 activation (more manuscripts to come some)!
Jul 17th: We feel proud to announce our 10-year anniversary at the University of Regensburg! To celebrate this milestone, we gathered by the Danube, with many of our alumni and our current group members. Huge thanks to all for being there on this special occasion.
Jul 8th: Martin Gawron has won a prestigious Kekulé fellowship by the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie. Congratulations Martin!
Jul 7th: Peter’s paper on the synthesis and reactivity of carbaborane-diphosphanido complexes has been accepted for publication in Chemical Science! The paper results from a collaboration with Evamarie Hey-Hawkins (Leipzig University) on the coordination chemistry of carborane diphosphatenes. Congratulations to all authors involved!
June 2021
Jun 29th: Evamarie Hey-Hawkins is awarded the Karl-Ziegler-Preis by the German Chemical Society (GDCh). Congratulations!
Jun 10th: Congratulations to Gabriele Hierlmeier who passed her PhD exam today! Well done Dr. Gabs!
Jun 7th: John gave an exciting talk about heterobimetallic activation of white phosphorus at the JuWöV Sessions (Junge Wöhler Vereinigung für Anorganische Chemie).
Jun 1st: Martin Gawron starts his Ph.D. studies – We wish him much success and fun!
May 2021
May 15th: Extensive review with Dr. Maria Caporali and co-workers on the coordination chemistry of elemental phosphorus published in Coordination Chemistry Reviews; open access. Congratulations to Vanessa Landaeta and John Kelly and all co-author to their titanic effort in preparing this review.
April 2021
April 19th: Ajdin Velić joins the group for his M.Sc. thesis – Welcome Ajdin.
April 5th: Our manuscript on an efficient method for converting P4 into valuable organophosphorus compounds was published by Nature Chemistry. Congratulations to co-corresponding author Daniel Scott and co-authors Jose and Maxi!
April 1st: We welcome Zahra Farasat from Shiraz University. Zahra joint the group as part of her Ph.D. studies.
March 2021
March 29th to 31st: Karo, Jose, Sebastian and Gabi participate in the 1st Online Workshop on Phosphorus Chemistry. Congratulations to the organisers Axel Schulz, Christian Hering-Junghans, Christian Müller and Jonas Bresien for organising such a marvellous event. Gabi gives an excellent talk on the chemistry of diphosphatetrahedranes.
Despite all the online excitement, we look forward to seeing everyone in person next year!
March 8th: Isonitrile complexes revisited: Our paper on new bidentate isonitrile complexes was accepted for publication by Organometallics. Congratulations to first author Marion and all other authors – especially our collaborators Oliver Reiser and Eugen Lutsker.
March 4th: Gabi’s article is on the front cover of ChemComm.
February 2021
Feb 26th: We say goodbye to our colleague Christoph Ziegler, who is beginning a new chapter of his professional career in the regional glass industry. Thanks for all your contributions Christoph and all the best for the future!
Feb 22nd: A diphosphatetrahedrane paper: A reactivity study of 1,2-tert-butyldiphosphatetrahedrane toward NHCs appers in ChemComm. The manuscript was selected as a ChemCommHOT article.
Feb 9th: Gabi’s paper on the reactivity of diphosphatetrahedrane toward nickel complexes was published by Angewandte Chemie!.
January 2021
Our work on diposphatetrahedrane and P4 activation by nickel complexes is highlighted in this year’s “Trenbericht Anorganische Chemie” (Nachr. Chem. 2021, 69, 52–68).
Jan 30th: A romantic act in difficult times. Congratulations to Rafa and Vanessa for getting married in church this Saturday! God bless you! (And thanks so much for the delicious home-made wedding cake!)
Jan 6th: Franziska Gilch and Maria Uttendorfer are starting the M.Sc. thesis. A warm welcome!
2020
December 2020
Dec 18th: Another depature bound to make us melancholic. Julia Leitl leaves to group to begin new adventures in postdoctoral life. Just like Thomas, Julia has been with us for many years. Thank you Julia for your many great contributions to our chemistry and equally importantly, to the group spirit. We will miss you as a scientist and ‘group mother’!
Dec 16th-18th: The aftermath of the annual lab cleaning, lets see how long it lasts.
Dec 9th: Gabi’s manuscript on the synthesis of phosphaalkenes and phosphirens from di-tert-butyldiphosphatetrahedrane has been accepted for publication by ChemComm. Congratulations Gabi!
Dec 1st: Thomas Maier leaves the group after six years with us. As many group members, Thomas started with his B.Sc. thesis and then carried on as an M.Sc. and PhD student. He has recieved a Walter Benjamin fellowship and is heading off to England to work with Andrew Weller on homogeneous catalysis. We wish him all the very best for your future career.
November 2020
Nov 11th: Robin, Maxi and Martin hand in their M.Sc. theses. Well-done and congratulations!
Nov 5th: Miguel Chacón passes his cotuelle PhD between the Universidad Simon Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela, and the University of Regensburg. Congratulations Miguel and all the best for the future!
October 2020
Oct 31st: Christian Hoidn leaves the group to take-up a new job in industry. Congratulations Christian and all the very best for the future!
Oct 26th: Karo Trabitsch submits her M.Sc. thesis. Congratulations!
Oct 7th: Our paper on catalytically active α-diimine iron complexes has been accepted for publication in Inorganic Chemistry. Another great collaboration with Klaas van Leest and Bas de Bruin (Amsterdam) and Serhiy Demeshko and Franc Meyer (Göttingen).
Oct 5th: Hooray! A new Agilent Xtal Synergy diffractometer has been installed in the X-ray department. Watch out for new structures to come!
Dr. Michael Bodensteiner with Wolf group “X-ray supervisors“ Karo and Christoph
September 2020
Sep 26th: Congratulations to Julia Leitl who passed her PhD exam today! Well done Dr. Leitl! Thanks also to Christian Müller (FU Berlin) for travelling all the way to be second examiner.
Sep 3rd: An unsual Ni2Si2P8 cluster formed by complexation and thermolysis was accepted for publication by ChemComm! Congratulations to all co-authors – it’s another nice example of our on-going fruitful collaboration with the Weigand group at TUDresden.
July 2020
July 21st: Our review on transition-mediated P4 functionalization authored by Christian and Daniel has been accepted for publication today and will appears soon in Chemistry – A European Journal. Congratulations to both co-authors!
July 20th: The group enjoyed a trip to the beautiful Kloster Weltenburg, just a stone’s throw away from Kelheim. No better way to spend the day as our Glovebox rooms get some much needed air conditioning installed.
July 13: Gabi, Julia and John all participated in the Global Inorganic Discussion Weekdays (GIDW) Symposia. Julia went ahead and won herself a poster prize, congrats! (On the same day she submitted her thesis no less)
June 2020
June 25th: A 1‐Phospha‐7‐bora‐norbornadiene is on the front cover of Chem. Eur. J. 35/2020 – wonderful collaboration with Chris Slootweg (University of Amsterdam), Christian Müller (FU Berlin) and Ruth Gschwind is on the front cover of Chemistry – A European Journal. Have a look at the cover profile here.
June 19th: Peter is leaving the group after a successful year with us (scientifically and personally!) to assume a DFG-funded postdoc position with Hansjörg Grützmacher at ETH Zürich. All the best for the future, Peter!
June 17th: Julia’s paper entitled “Phosphorus-Analogues of [Ni(bpy)2]: Synthesis and Application in Carbon-Halogen Bond Activation” was accepted for publication at Inorganic Chemistry. This paper results from our fruitful colloboration with the Müller group. Congratulations to all co-authors.
June 5th: Gabi’s paper on P4 activation by nickel(0) NHC complexes was published by Angewandte Chemie. Thanks to Klaas van Leest and Bas de Bruin for the nice EPR work!
June 4th: Gabi presents the chemistry of diphosphatetrahedrane at the 3rd P Chemistry Webinar. Well done Gabs!
June 2nd: Percia and Uli’s manuscript on the visible-light-driven synthesis of asymmetrical phosphines and phosphonium salts was accepted by Chemistry – A European Journal. Congratulations to all authors, including our collaboration partners Kirsten Zeitler and Tillmann Fischer from the University of Leipzig.
May 2020
May 28th: Thomas Maier successfully defends his PhD thesis! Congratulations, Dr. Maier!
May 16th: Front cover and cover profile our collaborative paper on heterogeneous olefin hydrogenation enabled by a highly‐reduced nickelate catalyst precursor published in Chemistry A European Journal
April 2020
April 7th: Jose submits his M.Sc. thesis. Congratulations! He will continue as a PhD student in the group. We wish him much success and fun!
March 2020
March 31st: Percia is leaving the group after two years. Farewell and all the best for the future!
Everyone is here! We welcome Martin Gawron, Maximillian Schimf, Robin Rothfelder and Karolina Trabitsch for their final year M.Sc. projects. Good luck and much success to them all!
March 1st: 3rd: Congratulations to Gabi for winning a prize for best talk at the German Coordination Chemistry Meeting (Koordinationschemie-Treffen 2020). Marion and Thomas successfully present posters.
February 2020
Everything you always (or never) wanted to know about Robert: author profile at Angewandte Chemie.
Three for three in February: Manuscript’s first-authored by Julia, Christoph and Thomas have appeared online at at Chemistry – A European Journal (2x) and Zeitschrift für Anorganische und Allgemeine Chemie. Congratulations to all co-authors and collaborators!
Feb 28 – The group is well-represented at the 17th European Workshop in Phosphorus Chemistry (EWPC-17) . Christoph, Felix, Peter and Sebastian present posters. Julia gives an excellent presentation on the coordination chemistry of phosphinines.
January 2020
How time flies… Chris Slootweg’s terms as a AvH fellow is coming to an end. Thank you for coming over regularly for the last two years, and we look forward to seeing you again soon, Chris!
2019
December 2019
Dec 18th: Great organic chemistry XMas symposium at Regensburg. Gabi contributes a fantastic talk on her unexpected personal discovery of catalysis! Afterwards, we celebrate this year’s successes and events at our Christmas party, including the traditional Glühwein.
Dec 4th: Congratulations to Dr. Christian M. Hoidn!
Dec 2nd: Sebastian Hauer starts his PhD studies – welcome back!
November 2019
Nov 22nd: Celebrating recent synthetic success.
Nov 18th: Di-tert-butyldiphosphatetrahedrane is on the front cover of Angewandte Chemie.
Please also have a look at our report on a photocatalytic method for the organofunctionalization of white phosphorus to prodcue arylphosphonium salts and arylphosphines, published online at Nature Catalysis today. Congratulations to all co-authors!
Nov 6th: Anup’s paper on the coordination properties of pentaphosphorus cations has been published by Angewandte Chemie. The paper is the result of our collaboration with the Weigand group at TU Dresden.
Nov 7th: Please also have a look at our manuscript on the [3+2] fragmentation of pentaphosphido cobalt complexes which has just been published by Angewandte Chemie. Congratulations to first author Christian Hoidn and all co-authors.
October 2019
Oct 25th: Gabi’s manuscript on the synthesis and characterization of Di-tert-butyldiphosphatetrahedrane is now online at Angewandte Chemie. This synthesis of this elusive phosphaalkyne dimer closes a significant gap in phosphaalkyne oligomerization chemistry. Congratulations to co-authors Gabi, Peter and Michale for their wonderful experimental and theoretical work.
Oct 11th: Congratulations to Dr. Philipp Büschelberger, who passed his PhD exam yesterday. (nice hat, Philipp!)
Oct 1st: Rafael E. Rodriguez-Lugo joins the group from the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC). Rafa will be with us for 1.5 years as an AvH-sponsored Georg-Forster fellow working on homogeneous catalysis with phosphide metalate complexes. Lets hope Bavarian beer makes up for the lack of Venezuelan rum.
September 2019
Sep 15th-18th: Robert gives an invited lecture at the Symposium “Happy 350th Anniversary Phosphorus” at the Wissenschaftsforum Aachen.
Congratulatons to Felix Seeberger and Sebastian Hauer for succesfully completing their M.Sc. thesis. They will remain in the group and start their PhD work soon!
August 2019
Aug 26th – 30th: A big part of the group travels the the beautiful Kleinwalsertal to present at the Inorganic Colloquium organized by the University of Marburg. A great combination of excellent science and some hiking!
Aug 23rd: Julia’s paper on iron-mediated CO2 cleavage was just accepted by Angewandte Chemie. Congratulation to Julia and all co-authors! Special thanks go to our collaboration partners Michael Marquardt and Christian Müller from FU Berlin.
Aug 5th: Our collaborative paper with the Müller group on the cleavage of carbon dioxide by a low-valent phosphinine Fe complex was accepted by Angewandte Chemie today. Congratulations to first author Julia and all co-authors!
Aug 2nd: On the water: Our group trip takes us on the rivers Vils and Naab in the beautiful Oberpfalz region (near Regensburg). Good fun!
July 2019
July 10th: Thomas’s collaborative paper with the Jacobi von Wangelin group was accepted by ACS Catalysis.
July 4th – Robert is the plenary speaker at the 11th Göttinger Chemie-Forum organized by the local Young Chemists Committee. A great opportunity to spread the Word about our activities in P chemistry and to meet students, longtime friends and new colleagues at Göttingen.
July 3rd: Christian Rödl completes his PhD exam. Congratulations Christian and all the best for the future! The photo shows the successful PhD candidate with the examination committee, from left to right: Prof. Frank-Michael Matysik, Prof. Robert Wolf, Dr. Christian Rödl, Prof. Manfred Scheer and Prof. Alkwin Slenczka.
July 1st: John travels to Prague to present a poster at the 13th International Conference on Heteroatom Chemistry (ICHAC 2019).
June 2019
June 12th: Prof. Donna Blackmond (The Scripps Research Institute, LaJolla) visits our department to deliver the 8th Vilsmeier lecture. Her fantastic lecture on “Models for the Emergence of Biological Homochirality” and her tutorial on reaction progress analysis are very well-received. Thanks for coming all the way from California to teach us about such fascinating chemistry!
June 10th: Jose Cammarata joins the group for his M.Sc. thesis – welcome Jose!
May 2019
May 31st: Anup is finishing up his postdoc in the group. He will assume a new PD position in Saarbrücken soon. We wish him all the best for the future.
May 29th: Group outing the local Dult festival. Who needs to wait for the Oktoberfest?
May 27th: Christina Graf submits her B.Sc. thesis on photocatalytic P4 functionalization. Well done!
May 9th-10th – Great talk by Christian Müller from the Free University of Berlin in the inorganic colloquium this Thursday. Next day, we met with Michael, Julia, Felix, Matt and Peter to discuss the latest results of our DFG-funded phosphinine chemistry project. Good work everyone – please keep it up!
April 2019
April 24th-26th: Part of the group travels to Bristol to participate in the 16th European Workshop on Phosphorus Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry Symposium (IndPhos). Both events display fantastic talks and posters. Congratulations to Paul Pringle and his group for organizing a fantastic symposium! The meeting was particularly successful for our group: Uli Lennert wins the 2nd prize for the best oral presentation, while Christian Hoidn wins a poster prize!
April 12th: Nacht.Schafft.Wissen: Robert lectures on the numerous facets of elemental phosphorus, while Marion, Christoph and Uli assist with the most stunning experiments in P chemistry.
April 2nd: Christian Rödl’s full paper “Flexidentate Coordination Behavior and Chemical Non-Innocence of a Bis(1,3-Diphosphacyclobutadiene) Sandwich Anion” was just accepted by Chemistry – A European Journal. Congratulations!
April 2nd: We welcome a number of B.Sc. and M.Sc. students to our labs this month: Matthias Gruber, Marcel Fischer, Christina Graf, Tim Kögelmeier, Karolina Trabitsch and Jonas Strohmaier – success to every one of you!
March 2019
March 29th: Matthew successfully completes his M.Sc. thesis. Well done Matt!
March 27th: EurJIC’s special issue on “Advances in Fundamental and Applied Phosphorus Chemistry” has been published. We have been delighted to provide the front cover for this issue. A cover profile has also been published on our contribution “Halide‐Substituted Phosphacyclohexadienyl Iron Complexes: Covalent Structures vs. Ion Pairs”.
March 26th: After nine months with us sponsored by the DAAD and iPur Miguel is returning to his home country Venezuela. Farewell Miguel, we wish you all the best!
March 6th: Congratulations to Christian Rödl: His manuscript on “1,3-Diphosphacyclobutene Cobalt Complexes” was accepted by Chemistry – European Journal. Thanks are due to Dr. Kai Schwedtmann and Jan J. Weigand for beautiful 2D and VT 31P NMR experiments!
March 3rd-5th: Julia and Christoph present posters at the 15th Koordinationschemietreffen at LMU Munich
March 1st: Thiemo Höllen and Maria Ultendorfer join the group for a research intership – welcome!
February 2019
Feb 13th: Wonderful group trip to the beautiful Bavarian Forest: Snowshoe hiking up to the Kleiner Arber mountain (1384 m above sea level) followed by sliding down to Bodenmais on sleds.
January 2019
Jan 30th: Our joint paper with the Weigand group (Dresden) was highlighted with a cover of Chemical Science. Have a look here!
Jan 7th: It is not just the US government, but UR also shuts down over the holiday period. After enjoying such incredibly long holidays, we are back in full swing from today, so stay tuned for new adventures in teaching and research.
Jan 2nd: Thomas’s collaborative paper with the AJvW group (Hamburg) was highlighted as a “hot paper” and with a cover of Chemistry – A European journal. Have a look here!
