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Peter R. Schreiner

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Adjunct Professor
Liebig Chair, Justus Liebig University Giessen

Peter R. Schreiner (b. 1965) is professor of organic chemistry and Liebig-Chair at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany. He studied chemistry in his native city at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, where he received his Dr. rer. nat. (1994) in Organic Chemistry. Simultaneously, he obtained a PhD (1995) in Computational Chemistry from the University of Georgia, USA. He completed his habilitation (assistant professorship) at the University of Göttingen (1999), before becoming associate professor at the University of Georgia (Athens, USA), and head of the institute in Giessen in 2002. He has been a visiting professor at the CNRS in Bordeaux, the Technion in Haifa, the Australian National University in Canberra, and the University of Florida in Gainesville. His research interests include organic reaction dynamics and reactive intermediates, quantum mechanical tunneling as well as London dispersion interactions as probed in the realm of nanodiamonds and organocatalysis.

Education:
  • Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany), Dr. rer. nat. 1994
  • University of Georgia, Ph.D. 1995
  • Habilitation (venia legendi), 1999
Research Interests:

We are interested in organocatalytic reactions and methods (thioureas, oligopeptides), nanodiamonds (diamondoids) as building blocks and materials (e.g., organic electronics), matrix isolation of reactive intermediates (e.g., carbenes) and computational chemistry . Our group consists of scientists from the People's Republic of China, Germany, Iran, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and the United States of America. Besides interesting conversations about science and more, this leads to a tangle of voices and smells in our kitchen...

Selected Publications:
  1. Competitive nitrogen versus carbon tunnelling. C. M. Nunes, A. K. Eckhardt, I. Reva, R. Fausto, P. R. Schreiner J. Am. Chem. Soc.2019, 141, 14340.
  2. Gas-phase sugar formation using hydroxymethylene as the reactive formaldehyde isomer. A. K. Eckhardt, M. M. Linden, R. C. Wende, B. Bernhardt, P. R. Schreiner Nat. Chem. 2018, 10, 1141.
  3. Sizing the Role of London Dispersion in the Dissociation of all-meta tert-Butyl Hexaphenylethane. S. Rösel, C. Balestrieri, P. R. Schreiner Chem. Sci. 2017, 8, 405.
  4. Trifluoromethylhydroxycarbene: Conformer-specific hydrogen-atom tunneling. A. Mardyukov, H. Quanz, P. R. Schreiner Nature Chem. 2017, 9, 71–77.
  5. Gas phase preparation of carbonic acid and its monomethyl ester. H. P. Reisenauer, J. P. Wagner, P. R. Schreiner Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 11766.
  6. Overcoming Extremely Long C–C Alkane Bond Lability through Attractive Dispersion Forces. P. R. Schreiner, L. V. Chernish, P. A. Gunchenko, E. Yu. Tikhonchuk, H. Hausmann, M. Serafin, S. Schlecht, J. E. P. Dahl, R. M. K. Carlson, A. A. Fokin Nature 2011, 477, 308.
  7. Methylhydroxycarbene: Tunneling Control of a Chemical Reaction. P. R. Schreiner, H. P. Reisenauer, D. Ley, D. Gerbig, C.-H. Wu, W. D. Allen Science 2011, 332, 1300.
  8. (Thio)urea organocatalysis – What can be learnt from anion recognition? Z. Zhang and P. R. Schreiner Chem. Soc. Rev. 2009, 38, 1187–1198.
  9. Capture of Hydroxymethylene and its fast Disappearance Through Tunnelling. P. R. Schreiner, H. P. Reisenauer, F. Pickard, A. C. Simmonett, W. D. Allen, E. Mátyus, A. G. Császár Nature 2008, 453, 906.
  10. Monochromatic Electron Photoemission from Diamondoid Monolayers. W. K. Yang, J. D. Fabbri, T. M. Willey, J. R. I. Lee, J. E. Dahl, R. M. K. Carlson, P. R. Schreiner, A. A. Fokin, B. A. Tkachenko, N. A. Fokina, W. Meevasana, N. Mannella, K. Tanaka, X. J. Zhou, T. van Buuren, M. A. Kelly, Z. Hussain, N. A. Melosh, Z.-X. Shen Science 2007, 316, 1460.
Of note:
  • Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society (2021)
  • Academy Award of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science (2020)
  • The Royal Society of Chemistry Physical Organic Chemistry Award (2019/20)
  • Tarrant Distinguished Visiting Professor, U Florida, Gainesville, USA (2019)
  • Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Invitation Fellowship, Japan (2018)
  • Elected member, Academy of Science and Literature | Mainz (as of 2017)
  • Adolf-von-Baeyer Memorial Medal of the GDCh (2017)
  • Corresponding member, North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts (as of 2015)
  • Elected member, Leopoldina – German National Academy of Science (as of 2013)
  • Science Award of the German Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) Society (2013)
  • Dirac Medal (2003), World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists (WATOC)
  • Research Innovation Award (2000), Research Corporation
  • ADUC-Prize for Assistant Professors (1999), German Chemical Society

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