CECD Welcomes Dr. Thomas Klapötke as Visiting Professor
College Park, MD, February 1, 2009
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CECD is pleased to announce that Professor Thomas M. Klapötke, Chair of Inorganic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, the largest chemistry department in Germany, at the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, Germany, has joined CECD as Visiting Professor. Professor Klapötke will be visiting Maryland several times this year to collaborate with faculty at the University of Maryland and researchers at NSWCIH, the Army Research Laboratory, and the ETC to address advanced topics in energetics and to help establish the State of Maryland as an international Center of Excellence in Energetics. While here, he will also be giving several lectures. |
Professor Klapötke's Bio
Professor Klapötke is recognized internationally as a world-class leader in the area of synthesis of novel energetic materials. During his career, he has synthesized ca. 1000 new molecules and over 100 new energetic materials. With the synthesis of novel high-nitrogen compounds his forward-looking approach opened up a new technological horizon and resulted in ground-breaking successes in the areas of sustainable propellant charges and high explosives. Areas of his specialization are broad and include energetic materials, explosives, fluorine chemistry, high-energy-density materials (HEDM), structural characterization (X-ray), azide chemistry, strong oxidizers, nitro chemistry and pyrotechnics. Professor Klapötke is also recognized for his up-to-the-minute and advanced research in nitrogen-based energetics. Focusing on energetic materials at the forefront of chemistry, his goal is to discover modern green energetic materials via sustainable procedures. Professor Klapötke is the only scientist in Europe dedicated to inorganic energetic material research at university level and the research group he leads is the only German university group researching energetic materials.
Professor Klapötke's academic career has been as follows:
Promotion (Dr. rer.nat.; eqv.: Ph.D.), TU Berlin (1986)
Habilitation (eqv.: D.Sc.), TU Berlin (1990)
Privat-Dozent (Assistant Professor) TU Berlin (1990-95)
Professor of Chemistry (Full Professor and Chair), Glasgow University, Scotland, U.K. (1995-97)
Professor of Inorg. Chemistry (C4), Ordinarius (Chair) at the Univ. of Munich (LMU) (1997-current)
He also served as the Head of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at LMU from 1998-1999 and 2005-2006. Since 1998, he has served as the representative of the Bavarian Elite Academy for the faculties of chemistry/pharmacy, physics and biology. He was also named as a Senator of Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, from 1998-2000 and 2002-2004 to serve as a member in the scientific board of the university.
Professor Klapötke has authored over 450 papers in international refereed journals, 20 book chapters, four text books, one monograph and one edited book. He also holds four patents, and has given over 220 invited lectures and 84 poster presentations. For many years he has served on numerous editorial boards, including the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry (EurJIC), Zeitschrift für Anorganische und Allgemeine Chemie (ZAAC), Journal of Fluorine Chemistry (J. Fluorine Chem.), Central European Journal of Energetic Materials (CEJEM), Int. Journal of Vibrational Spectroscopy (IJVS), Propellants, Explosives and Pyrotechnics (PEP), and the Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society. In 2008, he was named the Executive Editor of Zeitschrift f. Anorganische und Allgemeine Chemie (ZAAC).
He has organized several international conferences, including the 6th Int. Symp. on Inorganic Ring Systems (IRIS VI), Berlin (1991), the NATO Workshop on Structure and Bonding, Sicily (2001), the 6th Intl. Conf. Inorganic Chemistry, AGICHEM, Munich (2002) and the 7th – 12th Intl. Conf. “New Trends in Research of Energetic Materials” (NTREM), Pardubice, Czech Republic (2004 - 2009). He is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, C.Sci., C.Chem. F.R.S.C.; the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker; the American Chemical Society (ACS); the Fluorine Division of the ACS, and the International Pyrotechnics Society.
During his scientific career, he has received numerous honors and awards, including the Schering Prize (1987), a Feodor-Lynen Scholarship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (1987), the Winnacker award by the Hoechst AG (1994), the Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz Prize by the German government (BMBW, 1994); a Heisenberg Scholarship by the DFG (1995); and the Steinhofer Prize which was jointly awarded by the German Chemical Society and the BASF company (1996). He was named a Wilsmore Fellow by University of Melbourne, Australia (1997-1999), as Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow (2003-2006), and was a Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow (1998-2003).
With respect to international undergraduate student education, Professor Klapötke has established ERASMUS exchange programs with the University of Glasgow (U.K.), the University of Pardubice (Czech Republic) and the Polytechnical University of Milano (Italy). Moreover, in 2008 he also introduced an officially funded undergraduate exchange program with Canada (DAAD RISE program).
