Research Group Prof. Vondung
We are a young research group interested in fundamental actinide and lanthanide coordination chemistry, especially of uranium. Our work encompasses the synthesis of air- and moisture-sensitive coordination and organometallic compounds and their crystallographic and spectroscopic investigation, as well as investigation of their reactivity. Furthermore, we are interested in computational chemistry and employ quantum chemical methods to help us understand unusual bonding situations and reactivities.
News
2025
2024
October: More conferences and awards
The group's conference marathon was finished in October: Jan presented the results of his Master thesis with a poster at the Terrae Rarae meeting in Stuttgart and had the chance to get some exciting insights into current topics in f-element chemistry. Christian, Rupesh and León travelled to Abu Dhabi to represent Europe in the world final of the Innovation4Nuclear competition. Their proposal on uranyl catalysis was received well and they won the competition! Big congratulations!
September: Conferences and awards
A successful month: Lisa gave a talk on the group's work at the MICRA conference in Leicester and Rupesh, León and Matilde presented their results with posters at the GDCh Inorganic Chemistry Conference in Munich. Christian gave a talk at the Norddeutsches Doktorandenkolloquium in Rostock and Rupesh and León presented their posters there. Christian's and Lisa's talks were both awarded with talk awards!
July: Matilde starts her DAAD-RISE internship
Matilde joins the group for the summer supported by the DAAD-RISE program. She will focus on novel routes to uranium halides. Welcome, good luck and enjoy your time in Hamburg!
June: Christian starts his Master thesis
We welcome Christian in the group for his Master thesis. He will be deep-diving into f-element crown ether complexes in a collaboration with the Abetz group.
May: The lab is finally up and running and David starts his research internship
After many delays the lab renovations are mostly done and the long awaited moving in day finally arrived. Perfect timing for David, who started his research internship in the group and had the honour of setting up the first reaction in the new labs!
March: Conference travels
The last week of February/first week of March the group was travelling a lot: Christian presented his current project with a poster at the 18th Coordination Chemistry Meeting in Innsbruck and obtained interesting insights in the current research in the area. León and Rupesh extended their knowledge on the chemistry of the f-elements at the f-elements spring school in Leipzig, where Lisa also gave a talk on the activation of small molecules with uranium.
February: León starts his PhD
After successfully finishing his Master's Thesis, we are happy that León is joining the team again as a PhD student. Welcome back!
January: Katalin starts her research internship
Katalin joined us from the Philipps-Universität Marburg for a research internship and will hopefully discover some nice Uranyl complexes in contrast to the grey Hamburg winter!
2023
October: Jan returns
Welcome back to Jan, who has joined the group again for his Master thesis at our Göttingen outpost. We are excited to see the chemistry coming from his endeavours into lanthanides!
September: Rupesh starts his PhD
We welcome Rupesh, who arrived to Hamburg to start his PhD in the group. We are happy to have you here and are looking forward to some nice chemistry!
May: León joins the group
León joined us for his Master thesis at the University of Hamburg. Exciting times and chemistry ahead!
May: Official start in Hamburg
As of May, the group now officially is part of the Institute of Inorganic and Applied Chemistry at the University of Hamburg. We will still be partially delocalised between Göttingen and Hamburg while the lab infrastructure is updated, but we are excited of what is to come!