François Diederich facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
François Diederich
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Diederich in 2016
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| Born | 9 July 1952 Ettelbruck, Luxembourg
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| Died | 23 September 2020 (aged 68) |
| Alma mater | Heidelberg University |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | ETH Zurich University of California, Los Angeles |
| Doctoral students | Nancy Goroff |
François Diederich (born 9 July 1952 in Ettelbruck, Luxembourg – died 23 September 2020) was a famous chemist from Luxembourg. He was an expert in organic chemistry, which is the study of carbon-based compounds.
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Education and Early Research
François Diederich studied at the University of Heidelberg. He earned his first degree there in 1977. Then, in 1979, he completed his PhD. For his PhD, he achieved the first-ever creation of a special molecule called Kekulene.
Career and Scientific Discoveries
After finishing his PhD, Diederich continued his research. He worked at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research. In 1989, he became a full professor at UCLA.
In 1992, he moved to ETH Zurich in Switzerland. There, he became a professor of Organic Chemistry. He retired from this role on July 31, 2017. Even after retiring, he continued to do research at ETH Zurich. On March 16, 2019, the German Chemical Society gave him their highest honor, making him an Honorary Member.
François Diederich passed away on September 23, 2020, after battling cancer.
His research covered many exciting areas in chemistry:
- Understanding Molecules: He studied how molecules recognize and interact with each other. This is important in both chemistry and biology.
- New Medicines: He worked on medicinal chemistry. This involves designing new drugs that can target specific parts of the body. For example, he looked for ways to stop diseases like malaria and African sleeping sickness.
- Tiny Systems: He explored how to build very small systems, called nanosystems, using molecules. These could be useful for future technologies.
- Advanced Materials: He created new materials using special carbon-rich molecules. These materials could be used in optoelectronics, which combines light and electronics. He also studied chirality, which is about molecules that are mirror images of each other, like your left and right hands.
Awards and Honors
François Diederich received many important awards for his work. Here are some of them:
- Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society (1979)
- Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award (1987)
- ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (1992)
- Otto Bayer Award (1993)
- Janssen Prize for Creativity in Organic Synthesis (2000)
- Havinga Medal (2000)
- Myron L. Bender & Muriel S. Bender Distinguished Summer Lecturer at Northwestern University (2004)
- Humboldt Prize (2005)
- Burckhardt Helferich Prize (2005)
- August Wilhelm von Hofmann-Denkmünze of the German Chemical Society (2006)
- ACS Ronald Breslow Award for Achievements in Biomimetic Chemistry (2007)
- Adolf-von-Baeyer-Denkmünze of the German Chemical Society (2011)
- Honorary Doctoral Degree, Technion, Haifa (2012)
- Ernst Hellmut Vits-Preis (2014)
- Prix Paul Metz by the Institut Grand Ducal, Luxembourg (2014)
- EFMC Nauta Award for Pharmacochemistry and for outstanding results of scientific research in the field of Medicinal Chemistry (2016)
- Honorary Membership of the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, GDCh) (2019)
Memberships in Scientific Groups
He was also a member of several important scientific groups and academies:
- Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina
- Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Foreign Honorary Member)
- Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales (Spain, foreign member)
- US National Academy of Sciences (Foreign Associate)
