Institute for Theoretical Chemistry
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The History of our Institute
The "Institut für Theoretische Chemie" was founded in 1968 as
a research and teaching unit succeeding the previous "Lehrkanzel
für Theoretische Organische Chemie". The head of the institute
until 1972 was Professor Dr. Oskar E. Polansky. The major research
activities were: (i) computation and spectroscopic investigation of
structures, reactivities and functions of organic molecules with
p-electron systems, and (ii) synthesis of organic molecules with
interesting properties according to (i). In 1973 Professor Dr.
Peter Schuster was appointed as professor for theoretical
chemistry. At the same time the institute was united with a newly
formed research unit of photo- and radiation chemistry, and
Professor Dipl.Ing. Dr. Nikola Getoff was appointed as the head of
this research group. From 1973 to 1991 the institute was headed
alternately by Peter Schuster and Nikola Getoff. Main research
topics of the new "Institut für Theoretische Chemie und
Strahlenchemie" were: (i) computation of molecular properties and
functions, (ii) investigations of intermolecular forces, in
particular hydrogen bonds, (iii) chemical kinetics of complex
formation and proton transfer in aqueous solutions, (iv) dynamics
of molecular evolution, and (v) photo- and radiation chemistry
including exploration of reaction mechanisms. Later on, in 1980
Professor Dr. Hans Lischka and in 1991 Professor Dr. Othmar
Steinhauser were promoted and became members of the faculty as
"außerordentliche Professoren". Their research areas are
"Quantum chemistry and chemical reactivity" and "Molecular dynamics
and modeling of biomolecules". In the nineteeneighties the research
group of Peter Schuster was reoriented towards theoretical methods
to study the properties and functions of biomolecules, in
particular ribonucleic acids. The new focus is expressed also in
the name of this research unit: "Theoretical biochemistry and
bioinformatics". In the years 1992 - 1996 Hans Lischka was the head
of the institute followed again by Peter Schuster. Recently, the
institute has been extended by two professorships for "Nuclear
magnetic resonance spectroscopy of biopolymers" and
"Crystallography of biopolymers" for the first one Prof. Robert
Konrat was appointed. Accordingly, the name of the institute has
been changed in 2000 and reads now: "Institute for Theoretical
Chemistry and Structural Biology". Currently, the research
activities of the institute range from mathematical analysis of the
Schrödinger equation and related problems, accurate
calculations on structures and activities of small molecules,
molecular dynamics of proteins and development of theoretical
methods for drug design to investigations of molecular evolution
and bioinformatics of RNA. |