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Homepage/Divisions/Senior Expert Chemists/School Education Careers/Presentation topics
School Education Careers

Presentation topics

Presentation topics

Suitable lecture topics for teacher training, JungesChemieForum, local sections, etc.

For ease of reference, the topics of the lectures on offer are classified into the following subject areas:

- Management
- Natural sciences
- Energy
- History
- General chemistry
- Dyes
- Plastics, polymers
- Biochemistry, biotechnology, genetic engineering
- Pharmacy and medicine
- food chemistry
- Water
- Industrial chemistry, materials
- Environment

Organisational matters. Travel expenses will be covered by the inviting organisation. No fees are payable. Please contact the speakers directly to arrange a date.

List of topics (see below). To open, click the triangle. For details of the lecture title, abstract, information about the target audience and the duration of the lecture, please look under the name of the respective speaker. The links on the names in the list of topics lead to the SEC Online lectures page of the respective speaker.

  • The long road from idea to product (Heywang)
  • When does an investment pay off? Dealing with risk (Kunz)
  • The employment situation of chemists in Europe (Salzer)

  • Scientific careers (Stevens)
  • ­Scientific experiments in nursery school (Stevens)
  • ­What gets us vibrating? Acoustics and standing waves (physics) (Heywang)
  • ­A little light is burning (Heywang)
  • Can chemistry be kosher? (Roth)
  • ­Stockholm or Harvard? (Roth)
  • Serendipity or the role of chance in discoveries (Ehlers)
  • Women and the natural sciences (Ehlers)
  • The tongue – a jack of all trades (Heywang)
  • Something is dripping – (almost) everything about drops (Heywang)

  • Production-integrated environmental protection (Heywang)
  • Energy, our elixir of life – where does it come from and where does it go? (Schwab)
  • Efficient electrical heating with carbon (Kunz)
  • The chemical utilisation of carbon dioxide – what is possible and what makes sense (Röper)
  • Lithium: the white gold of the Andes (Schultheiß-Reimann)
  • Renewable energies – technological foundations and significance for sustainable living on our planet (Gürtzgen)

  • ­Heroes of science – Bernoulli, Carothers, Hoffmann and Bayer (Heywang)
  • ­Dimitri I. Mendeleev – a multitalent? (Boeck)
  • 150 years of the periodic table of the elements (Ehlers)
  • Women and the natural sciences (Ehlers)
  • The Walden inversion and the person behind it (Boeck)
  • On the first women chemists (Boeck)
  • Lothar Meyer and the periodic table (Boeck)
  • The fate of Jewish chemists during the National Socialist era (Boeck)
  • Ferdinand Friedlieb Runge and a precursor of chromatography – the Runge pictures (Boeck)
  • The discovery of nitroglycerine and what came of it (Ehlers)
  • The development of chemistry into an independent branch of science (Salzer)

  • Fascination Chemistry: “Vivaldi goes Chemistry” (Full and Ruf)
  • The Chemical Magic of a Stradivari (Roth)
  • H2O – Drawn Off and Originally Corked (Roth)
  • Can Chemistry Be Kosher? (Roth)
  • ­Molecules That Move the World – Part 1: Small Molecules, Great Effects (Ehlers)
  • Molecules That Move the World – Part 2: Molecules as Building Blocks of Life (Ehlers)
  • Molecules That Move the World – Part 3: Drug Molecules That Made History (Ehlers)
  • ­Right and Left – Also a Chemical Problem (Boeck)
  • ­150 Years of the Periodic Table of the Elements (Ehlers)
  • Changes in the Use of Raw Materials for the Chemical Industry (Schwab)
  • Industrial Catalysis – A Decisive Success Factor for the Chemical Industry (Schwab)
  • The Tongue, a Jack of All Trades (Heywang)
  • Value Chains in Industrial Organic Chemistry (Röper)
  • Homogeneous Catalysis in the Chemical Industry (Röper)
  • The Chemical Utilisation of Carbon Dioxide – What Is Possible and What Makes Sense (Röper)
  • Lithium: The White Gold of the Andes (Schultheiß-Reimann)

  • Tattoo – Chemistry that gets under your skin (Roth)
  • Crime scene Berlin: Prussian blue – its discoverers and betrayers (Roth)

  • Fibre-reinforced composites – efficient materials modelled on nature (Kunz)
  • Plastic waste: knowledge and speculation (Kunz)
  • The world of large molecules! – Plastics: curse or blessing? (Ehlers)

  • ­Contributions of biotechnology to the treatment of the widespread disease diabetes mellitus (Ehlers)
  • ­Nature as a model – isolating new medicines from natural sources (Ehlers)
  • ­Isolation and purification of pharmaceutical active substances from culture broths (Ehlers)
  • ­Chromatography – a key technology for the purification of biopharmaceuticals (Ehlers)
  • ­The importance of biotechnology for the industrial production of new substances (Ehlers)
  • Genetic engineering – what is it? How does it work? (Jany)
  • Genetic engineering in everyday life (Jany)
  • Genetically modified food – opportunities and risks (Jany)
  • Green genetic engineering – forming opinions through dialogue (Jany)
  • Ecotoxicology – conventional and genetically modified plants (Jany)
  • From Mendel to modern plant breeding (Jany)
  • Of sailors, guinea pigs and citrus fruits (Roth)

  • Alternative forms of therapy! - Fashion? Bestseller? Quackery? Placebo effect? What lies behind it? (Ehlers)
  • Iodine contrast media for computed tomography (CT) (Schmitt-Willich)
  • Gadolinium contrast media for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Schmitt-Willich)
  • Chemistry’s contributions to diagnostic imaging: contrast media in CT, MR tomography and PET (Schmitt-Willich)
  • Drugs and addiction – a problem for all societies (Ehlers)
  • Diabetes and obesity (adiposity) (Ehlers)

  • Sparkling wine – scientifically sparkling too! (Heywang)
  • ­Egg, egg, egg! (Heywang); also available as an online lecture
  • The chemistry of espresso (Roth)
  • The chemical secret of the Christmas scent (Roth)
  • H2O – drawn off and originally corked (Roth)
  • Can chemistry be kosher? (Roth)
  • Sweeteners, the sweet side of chemistry (Roth)
  • The chemistry of sauces – from Paul Bocuse to the packet (Roth)
  • From the first beer to the hangover (Roth)
  • Chocolate – a chemical sensory intoxication (Roth)
  • Absinthe – The kiss of the green fairy (Roth)
  • The chemical secret of Berlin currywurst (Roth)
  • Who’s afraid of the big E? (Food additives; Roth)
  • From the Isenheim Altarpiece to the Beatles (Roth)
  • Chilli – ‘’Some like it hot! (Roth)
  • The food of the future – Novel Foods (Jany)
  • Food intolerances – allergies and pseudo-allergies (Jany)
  • Honey and sweetness from nature (Heywang)

  • Water – an everyday miracle (Heywang)
  • Splish-splash – experiments with water (Heywang)
  • Something’s dripping – (almost) everything about droplets (Heywang)

  • Development of chemical processes from the laboratory to production readiness (Stevens)
  • Teaching topic: Chemical production (Stevens)
  • ­The long journey from idea to product (Heywang)
  • ­­Electrically conducting polymers – history and current applications (Heywang)
  • ­From crude oil to polycarbonates (Heywang)
  • ­Perspectives of chemistry on the way to nanoelectronics (Waser)
  • Changes in the use of raw materials for the chemical industry (Schwab)
  • Industrial catalysis – a decisive success factor for the chemical industry (Schwab)
  • Carbon – true gold? (Kunz)
  • Efficient electrical heating with carbon (Kunz)
  • Value chains in industrial organic chemistry (Röper)
  • Homogeneous catalysis in the chemical industry (Röper)
  • Changes in the raw material base for the chemical industry (Röper)
  • Changes in raw materials in the (petro)chemical industry (Schwab)
  • 113 years of the Haber–Bosch process – cooperation between science and industry (Schwab)

  • Integrated Environmental Protection in Production (Heywang)
  • Energy, our elixir of life – where does it come from and where does it go? (Schwab)
  • Changes in the Use of Raw Materials for the Chemical Industry (Schwab)
  • How Can the IR Absorption of CO2 Be Calculated Using “Home-made” Tools? (Kunz)
  • Plastic Waste: Knowledge and Speculation (Kunz)
  • Energy Efficiency through Material Selection (Kunz)
  • Strategies, Visions and Illusions for Saving the Climate (Kreysa)
  • Small Molecules, Great Impact – Trace Gases in the Atmosphere (Müller)
  • Renewable Energies – Technological Foundations and Significance for Sustainable Living on Our Planet (Gürtzgen​​​​​​​)

School partnership

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