Wolfgang Kaim (born 13 May 1951 in

Bad Vilbel Bad Vilbel () is a spa town in Hesse (Hessen), Germany, famous for its many mineral water Spring (hydrology), springs. Bad Vilbel is the largest town in the Wetteraukreis district and part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Authority, Frankfurt R ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

) is a German

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

who held the

chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

coordination chemistry A coordination complex consists of a central atom or ion, which is usually metallic and is called the ''coordination centre'', and a surrounding array of bound molecules or ions, that are in turn known as ''ligands'' or complexing agents. Many ...

at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany wit ...

. He is co-author of the internationally recognized book, ''Bioinorganic Chemistry'' which was awarded with the Literature Award of the German Chemical Industry.

Career

Kaim studied chemistry and physics at the University of Frankfurt and the

University of Konstanz The University of Konstanz (german: Universität Konstanz) is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its main campus was opened on the Gießberg in 1972 after being founded in 1966. The university is Germany's ...

. His diploma thesis in physical organic chemistry was supervised by E. Daltrozzo (1974). He started working on main group radicals in Hans Bock’s group at the University of Frankfurt, where he earned his PhD in 1978. After a post-doctoral year with

F. A. Cotton Frank Albert Cotton FRS (April 9, 1930 – February 20, 2007) was an American chemist. He was the W.T. Doherty-Welch Foundation Chair and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M University. He authored over 1600 scientific articles. C ...

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, supported by a postdoctoral Liebig Fellowship, he completed his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

for

inorganic chemistry Inorganic chemistry deals with synthesis and behavior of inorganic and organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subjects of organic chemistry. The distinction between the two disci ...

in 1982 ("Coordination Chemistry of Reduced Heterocycles"). Kaim continued his independent research career at the University of Frankfurt with a Winnacker Fellowship followed by a Heisenberg Fellowship. In 1987 he moved to the

to take up a chaired position for coordination chemistry until 2019. Kaim is an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...

at the Northern Illinois University (USA), and has been visiting professor at the Sun Yat-sen University in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

(China), guest professor at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago (Chile), the University of Concepción (Chile) and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (India). He has been the advisor of more than 70 PhD students. In 2014 he was awarded the Alfred Stock Memorial Prize by the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh). In the same year he received the L. F. Leloir Award from Argentina.

Research

Kaim’s interdisciplinary research covers the areas of radical stabilization by metal coordination (‘ non-innocent ligands’), coenzyme models, the extension of

mixed-valence Inner sphere electron transfer (IS ET) or bonded electron transfer is a redox chemical reaction that proceeds via a covalent linkage—a strong electronic interaction—between the oxidant and the reductant reactants. In inner sphere electron trans ...

chemistry, electron transfer effects on M-C and M-H bonds, the crystallization of new organic radicals and the electron transfer properties of boron compounds, as well as spectroelectrochemistry in the IR, UV/VIS/near-infrared regions as spectroscopic probes for electron transfer sites and the consequences of electron transfer or charge transfer on structure and bonding, EPR spectroscopy as a less common but highly useful methodology and CV (cyclic voltammetry). He is the co-author of more than 700 publications in peer-reviewed journals.60th Anniversary Publication
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Major reviews

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaim, Wolfgang 20th-century German chemists 1951 births Living people