Dr. Lars Longwitz selected as a Klaus Tschira Boost Fund Fellow

1 April 2026

Photo: Lars Longwitz

Lars Longwitz from the Institute of Organic Chemistry has been selected as a Klaus Tschira Boost Fund Fellow! He has been supporting the department as a substitute professor since April 2026 and will now extend his research activities with a boost from the Klaus Tschira Stiftung! With a funding rate of below 5%, the KT Boost Fund helps young researchers to establish and grow their own research line.

The project “KROPO” focusses on organic synthesis of chiral molecules. The enzymes in your body, the sugars that make up cellulose in the tree and many (bigger) molecules in nature are all "chiral". Chirality is a property that does not influence the physical properties of a molecule (like melting point or color), but its properties when interacting with other chiral molecules (like receptors in your body). Lars wants to find new sustainable ways to make chiral compounds, specifically phosphorus containing organic molecules called phosphanes by using waste from industry as materials. These phosphanes are very useful to make chiral drugs (most drugs are chiral, too). Lars will use organocatalysts to gain direct access to valuable chiral phosphanes. The main goal is to develop a selective method and probe parameters influencing the sustainability of this method (like minimizing waste and using safer solvents).

Klaus Tschira Boost Fund is a joint program by Guidance, Skills & Opportunities for Researchers (GSO) and Klaus Tschira Stiftung offering flexible funding and career development to promote researchers in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geosciences, Mathematics, Neurosciences and Physics.