Francois Diederich, the winner of the 2016 University of Oregon Creativity Award in Chemistry will give two talks this week. The talks will be held today, May 3, 2016, from 3:30 – 4:30pm in 331 Klamath Hall and Friday, May 6, from 2:30 – 3:30pm also in 331 Klamath Hall.

Professor Diederich (b. 1952) received his diploma in 1977 and his doctoral degree (Dr. rer. nat.) in 1979 from the Univ. of Heidelberg. Following postdoctoral studies at the Univ. of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1979 to 1981, he was a research associate at the Max-Planck-Institute for medical research in Heidelberg. After his habilitation in 1985, he joined the faculty of the Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA as an associate professor (1985-1989) and as a full professor (1989-1992). Currently he is at ETH Zürich, where he has been a professor of organic chemistry since April 1992.

His many past honors include, to name a few, the Janssen Prize for Creativity in Organic Synthesis (2000) and the Havinga Medal (2000), the Humboldt Research Prize (2005), the Burkhard-Helferich Prize (2005), the August-Wilhelm-von-Hofmann-Denkmünze (GDCh, 2006), the ACS Ronald Breslow Award for Achievements in Biomimetic Chemistry (2007), and the Adolf-von-Baeyer-Denkmünze (GDCh, 2011).

He is a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina and of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (BBAW), a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences and of the Real Academia Española de Ciencias, and a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences. Work in the Diederich group has produced more than 700 original publications.

The University of Oregon Creativity Award in Chemistry, Music, and Dance was established in 1993 by the generosity of Virgil and Caroline Boekelheide. The purpose of the award is to promote and enhance the scientific and cultural environment of the University.