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Homepage/Divisions/Senior Expert Chemists/Online lectures
Senior Expert Chemists

Online lectures

Roland Bitsch
Bernhard Blümich
Gisela Boeck
Franz Bracher
Thomas Brock
Eberhard Ehlers
Hendrik Emons
Klaus-Dieter Franz
Bernhard Fritz
Stefan Gürtzgen
Eva-Marie Hey-Hawkins
Gerhard Heywang
Ursula Hoeppener-Kramar
Florian Krieger
Werner Hoffmann
Klaus-Dieter Jany
Günther Kempe
Renate Kießling
Gerhard Kreysa
Ludwig Kuhlmann
Dieter Kunz
Otto Machhammer
Klemens Minn
Hartwig Müller
Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum
Wladimir Reschetilowski
Helmut Ritter
Michael Röper
Klaus Roth
Petra Schultheiß-Reimann
Ekkehard Schwab
Kurt Wagemann
Andrea Wanninger
Andreas Wolf
Frauke Zbikowski

Online lectures

Online lectures

The Division of Senior Expert Chemists strengthens understanding of chemistry across generations.

The Division of Senior Expert Chemists is active. It organises and offers accessible Online lectures for everyone. The programme is diverse and covers all areas of chemistry in science and industry, as well as current topics that concern society and politics. The lectures take place monthly at 3 pm.

Online lectures 2026

DatelectureTitleModeration

13.01.2026

Gisela Boeck

The first female chemistry doctoral students at the University of Zurich

E. Wille

10.02.2026

Kurt Wagemann

Biogenic and synthetic fuels – what role will they play in the mobility of the future?

F. Schütz

17.03.2026

Florian Krieger

Application of AI in preclinical research

P. Schultheiß-Reimann

14.04.2026

Evamarie Hey Hawkins

Phosphorus – an element of the devil?

H.-G. Schmalz

12.05.2026

Hendrik Emons

Reference materials in the analytical laboratory – luxury or necessity

K.P. Jäckel

16.06.2026

Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum

Economics, technology and regulation for a closed plastics cycle

P. Schultheiß-Reimann

14.07.2026

Andrea Wanninger

Emulsion technology – cosmetic products and/or medicinal products

B. Pohl

08.09.2026

Ekkehard Schwab

113 years of the Haber–Bosch process – collaboration between science and industry

H.-G. Schmalz

13.10.2026

Eberhard Ehlers

What actually is glass?

W. Gerhartz

10.11.2026

Benedikt Steinbach

New approaches and technologies for an old ammonia molecule

P. Schultheiß-Reimann

08.12.2026

Thomas A. Vilgis

Christmas biscuits – materials for enjoyment between rubber and glass phases.

W. Gerhartz

2025

  • 14.01.2025 Stefan Gürtzgen: Renewable energies – technological foundations and significance for sustainable living on our planet
  • 18.02.2025 Klemens Minn: Our path to the new herbicide indaziflam – industrial development of a plant protection product
  • 18.03.2025 Bernhard Blümich: Compact NMR on site: non-destructive materials testing, cultural heritage and chemical analysis
  • 15.04.2025 Frauke Zbikowski:Communicating with non-specialists in the natural sciences
  • 13.05.2025 Werner Hofmann: Where does medical progress come from?
  • 17.06.2025 Kurt Wagemann: Hydrogen – what role will it play in achieving Germany’s climate targets?
  • 15.07.2025 Dieter H. E. Kunz: Opportunities and limitations of plastics recycling
  • 16.09.2025 Ursula Hoeppener-Kramar: From the Big Bang to radiation protection
  • 07.10.2025 Franz Bracher: From nature to bedside. The significance of natural products in the development of cytostatics
  • 11.11.2025 Klaus Roth: How can you finally win the Nobel Prize?
  • 02.12.2025 Ekkehard Schwab: Energy – the elixir of life

2024

  • 16.01.2024, Klaus-Dieter Jany: From stem cell to structured piece of meat
  • 20.02.2024 Helmut Ritter: Functional polymers in research and practice: what would we be without them?
  • 19.03.2024 Andreas Wolf: Chemistry of silicone sealants – more complex than you think
  • 09.04.2024 Günther Kempe: Food scandals – residue analysis
    28.05.2024 Wladimir Reschetilowski: Multifunctionality in heterogeneous catalysis
  • 18.06.2024 Hendrik Emons: Analytical chemistry for the design and monitoring of European legislation
  • 23.07.2024 Eberhard Ehlers: Drugs and addiction – a problem for all societies
  • 17.09.2024 Ekkehard Schwab: Magnetic tape – what became of it?
    08.10.2024 Gerhard Kreysa: Strategies for decarbonising the atmosphere
  • 12.11.2024 Renate Kießling: The Chemical Society of the GDR and its actors
  • 03.12.2024 Bernhard Fritz: Contact with food – legislation, physics, chemistry

2023

  • 10.01.2023 Klaus-Dieter Franz: Let there be light – LEDs, LCDs and OLEDs
  • 14.02.2023 Gerhard Heywang: Chemistry between 6.30 and 7.30 a.m.
  • 21.03.2023 Ekkehard Schwab: Raw-material transformation in the chemical industry
  • 18.04.2023 Klaus Roth: Dieter Oesterhelt (1940–2022) and his bacteriorhodopsin
  • 16.05.2023 Michael Röper: Homogeneous catalysis in the chemical industry
  • 20.06.2023 Petra Schultheiß-Reimann: Lithium: the white gold of the Andes
  • 18.07.2023 Dieter Kunz: Pyrolysis of scrap tyres to recover carbon black
  • 19.09.2023 Ludwig Kuhlmann: Variability of analytical methods – the crux of individual values
  • 10.10.2023 Gisela Boeck: Ferdinand Runge (1794–1867) – and the formative drive of substances
  • 07.11.2023 Wladimir Reschetilowski: Microstructured reactors for process optimisation
  • 28.11.2023 Roland Bitsch: Water – source of life

2022

  • 18.01.2022 Ludwig Kuhlmann: Radionuclides – helpers of humankind
  • 15.02.2022 Ekkehard Schwab: Industrial heterogeneous catalysis
  • 08.03.2022 Otto Machhammer: Germany’s energy transition – how should it proceed?
  • 05.04.2022 Gerhard Heywang: Egg, egg, egg – interesting facts about eggs
  • 24.05.2022 Roland Bitsch: Critical vitamins and vulnerable population groups in Germany
  • 21.06.2022 Eberhard Ehlers: Diabetes, the widespread disease, and its treatment
  • 12.07.2022 Klaus-Dieter Franz: Chemistry for energy storage technologies
  • 13.09.2022 Michael Röper: Chemical utilisation of carbon dioxide – what is possible and what makes sense?
  • 11.10.2022 Gerhard Heywang: The tongue – a jack of all trades
  • 08.11.2022 Gisela Boeck: Latvian, Russian or German? Organic chemist, physical chemist or historian? The life and work of Paul Walden (1863–1957)
  • 29.11.2022 Eberhard Ehlers: Nature as a source of new pharmaceutical active substances

2021

  • 19.01.2021 Eberhard Ehlers: Women in the natural sciences
  • 02.03.2021 Klaus-Dieter Jany: Genetic engineering in everyday life – not only in vaccination
  • 30.03.2021 Thomas Brock: Modern, environmentally compatible types of paint – manufacture, properties and fields of application
  • 27.04.2021 Dieter Kunz: Plastic waste – knowledge and speculation
  • 18.05.2021 Ekkehard Schwab: Energy, the elixir of life – where it comes from and where it goes
  • 22.06.2021 Gerhard Kreysa; Strategies, visions and illusions for saving the climate
  • 06.07.2021 Gisela Boeck: "You will have received my little atomic hoax" – Julius Lothar Meyer (1830–1895) – his life and work
  • 02.09.2021 Klaus-Dieter Jany: “CRISPR/Cas and Co” – the new methods for modifying genetic information – quo vadis? – is the EU losing touch in science and business?
  • 28.09.2021 Klaus-Dieter Franz: Music for the eye – colour, lustre and function of modern colour pigments
  • 19.10.2021 Hartwig Müller: Small molecules, major effects – trace gases in the atmosphere
  • 23.11.2021 Helmut Ritter: Sweet cyclodextrins – sophisticated host–guest chemistry and practical applications

What would the world be without chemistry
it would be dreary and bare.
There'd be no senior citizens who
could explain once again
what atoms and molecules are
and how they react,
and what in nature, so swiftly,
can happen in all its forms.
We know that in chemistry
it does not always stink and bang,
for most of the time, somehow,
decomposition and formation proceed quietly and gently.

Great is the number of SEC experts
who, undaunted and without complaint,
in universities, schools and kindergartens
offer their knowledge for sale,
explaining, in short, what holds
the world together at its very core.

And among colleagues too

especially in times of coronavirus
the opportunity is most welcome
to share their knowledge at short notice.
From genetic engineering to the climate crisis,
from trace gases to the choice of paint,
our expertise extends far and wide,
entirely virtual and digital.
With CRISPR/Cas, biochemistry
comes up in conversation, and finally
the elixir of energy:
cyclodextrins, pigment dyes.

Once upon a time, chemists
were mostly male, but from now on
one sees more or less clearly:
the eternal feminine draws us upwards.
It is known, and not entirely unimportant:
those who understand only chemistry
do not quite understand this subject correctly
and can easily go astray.

Roland Bitsch

Next SEC online lecture: 08/09/2026, 3 p.m.

Ekkehard Schwab:
113 years of the Haber-Bosch process – collaboration between science and industry