Inorganic and Bioinorganic Solvent Exchange Mechanisms

Lothar Helm was born in Gernsbach (Germany) in 1952. He studied physics at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) and obtained his diploma degree in 1977. He remained in Karlsruhe for his Ph.D. research with Prof. H. G. Hertz and received his degree in physical chemistry in 1980. In 1980 he joined the laboratories of Prof. André Merbach at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. From 1983 to 2001 he was maître d'enseignement et de recherche at the Faculty of Science of the University of Lausanne. In 2001 he moved, together with the whole chemistry department, from the University of Lausanne to the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). His main research interest is in the study of reaction mechanisms in coordination chemistry using multinuclear and high-pressure NMR and computer simulation techniques.

Originating from Pully (Switzerland), André E. Merbach was born in 1940. He studied at the Polytechnical School of the University of Lausanne and obtained a degree in chemical engineering in 1962. In 1964, he was awarded his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Lausanne. He then had a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied the ionization of strong electrolytes by NMR. Upon his return, in 1965, to the Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Lausanne, he accepted a teaching and research position in coordination chemistry. In 1973, the Swiss Chemical Society awarded him the Werner Prize and Medal for his work studying the structure, the stability, and the dynamics of metal halogen adducts by NMR and he was nominated Professor in Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry. He was a member of the Research Council of the NSF (1985−1996) and has chaired the European Technical Committee (COST) for chemical research (1998−2000). He organized the XXIXth International Conference in Coordination Chemistry (ICCC) in Lausanne in 1992. He was awarded an honorary doctorate (Honoris Causa) from the University of Lajos Kossuth in Debrecen (Hungary) in 1993 for his work on elucidating reaction mechanisms in coordination chemistry utilizing high-pressure NMR and from the University of Geneva in 2003. He was called at the presidency of the Swiss Chemical Society (2001−2004). Since 2001 he has been Professor of inorganic chemistry at EPFL.