© Prof. Dr. Gerhard Erker

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Erker     

Corrensstrasse 40
48149 Münster
phone: +49 251 83-33221
fax: +49 251 83-36503
email: erker[at]uni-muenster.de

  • born 1946

Scientific Career

  • Studied chemistry 1966 - 1970 (Universities Köln and Bochum)
  • Dr. rer. nat. 1973 (Univ. Bochum, W. R. Roth)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow 1974 - 75 (Princeton University, M. Jones, Jr.)
  • Habilitation 1981 (Univ. Bochum, Organic Chemistry)
  • Heisenberg-Fellow 1984 - 1985 (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim a. d. Ruhr)
  • Professor 1985 - 1990 (C3, Univ. Würzburg, Organic Chemistry)
  • Professor 1990 - 2015 (C4/W3, WWU Münster, Organic Chemistry)
  • Senior Professor 2015 - Feb. 2022 (WWU Münster, Organic Chemistry)
  • Professor i. R. Feb. 2022 -

Scientific Awards, Appointments and Professional Recognition

  • Promotionspreis (Dissertation Prize) 1972
  • Winnacker-Scholar 1983
  • Chemistry Award of the Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen 1984
  • Heisenberg-Fellowship 1984 - 85 (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim a. d.Ruhr)
  • Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Award for Young University Professors 1986 (first awardee)
  • Calls to the Univ. Karlsruhe (1989) and Univ. Munich (1994)
  • Max-Planck-Research-Award 1993
  • Otto-Bayer-Award 1995
  • Elected DFG-referee (Organic Chemistry) 1995 - 2002
  • Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker: Member of the executive board 1996 - 2003
  • President of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker 2000 - 2001
  • Member of the Senate of the WWU Münster 2000 - 2002
  • "Goldener Brendel", WWU students' best chemistry teaching award 2001
  • Werdelmann-Lecture, University Essen 2002
  • Member of the Senate of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 2002 - 2008
  • Member of the Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste 2003 - present
  • Member of the Academia Europaea 2003 - present
  • Member of the Konvent für Technikwissenschaften der Union der deutschen Akademien acatech 2003 - present
  • Concurrent Professor, Fudan University, Shanghai 2004 - present
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Invitation Fellowship Award, Japan 2005
  • Lee Lecture, University of Chicago, USA 2005
  • Spokesperson of the first German/Japanese International Research Training Group (DFG/JSPS IRTG 1143) "Complex Functional Systems in Chemistry: Design, Development and Applications" (Münster/Nagoya) 2005 - 2014
  • John van Geuns Lecture, University Amsterdam, Netherlands 2006
  • Paul Sabatier Lecture, LCC Toulouse, France 2007
  • Member of the Hochschulrat of the WWU Münster 3/2008 - 3/2013
  • Oppolzer Lecture, Université de Genève, Switzerland 2009
  • Adolf-von-Baeyer-Denkmünze of the GDCh 2009
  • Adjunct Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara 2010 - 2022
  • Boulder Scientific Distinguished Lecturer, Colorade State University, Fort Collins, Col., USA 2010
  • Werner Heisenberg-Medaille der Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung 2011
  • Member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina 2011 - present
  • Eugen und Ilse Seibold-Prize 2011
  • ERC Advanced Grant 2011
  • Elhuyar-Goldschmidt Award of the Real Sociedad Espanola de Quimica 2013
  • Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 2014
  • Member of the Senate of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina 2015 - 12/2023
  • Honorary Member Chemical Society of Japan 2017 - present
  • Frost Lecture, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada 2018
  • John Osborn Lecture, Université de Strasbourg, France 2018
  • Honorary Professorship, Tongji University, Shanghai, China 2018
  • Spokesperson Klasse 1 Leopoldina 2020 - 02/2024
  • Member of the European Academy of Sciences, 2020-
  • Ehrennadel of the NRW-Akademie der Wissenschaften und Künste, 2022

Guest/Visiting Professorships

  • Université de Strasbourg, France; University of Toulouse, France; University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada; Fukuoka University, Japan; Emory University, Atlanta, USA; University of California, Santa Barbara, USA; Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France; Nagoya University, Japan.

Scientific Output

  • > 770 scientific publications (peer reviewed) 1973 - present
  • ca. 203 conference contributions (plenary and invited lectures) 1979 - present
  • ca. 366 lectures for scientific colloquia 1981 - present
  • Mentor of 141 doctoral students (141 completed dissertations, >130 Diploma and M.Sc. theses), ca. 70 postdocs
    and 2 Habilitations 1978 - present