Research in our institute is mainly centered around the synthesis and application of functional organic molecules. Hereby we are on the one hand interested in developing novel efficient (often catalytic) synthesis tools to access more complex (chiral) molecules of interest. On the other hand we also have a strong focus on introducing powerful concepts for the activation and further utilization of small inherently less-reactive compounds. We often have a strong emphasis on structure – function studies either when it comes to design of novel catalysts, or also in the context of introducing novel biologically relevant molecules.  A major motivation behind our work is reducing the environmental footprint of chemical synthesis by use of renewable primary products and powerful catalysts as well as biological or biomimetic reactions.

Besides synthetic organic chemistry centered research, we also have a strong interest in NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) methodology and the development of innovative NMR techniques and applications.

Interdisciplinary projects linking to biomedicine, biophysics, natural products chemistry, photochemistry, and physics as well as problem oriented applied science projects in collaboration with industry partners have a strong tradition at the Institute of Organic Chemistry @ JKU.

Further research details can be found on the web pages of our three research groups:

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Norbert Müller 

Assoc. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schöfberger

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Mario Waser