Short biography
After chemistry studies at the University of Freiburg and the Technical University of Berlin, Christoph A. Schalley received his PhD with Prof. Helmut Schwarz at the Technical University Berlin, being trained in mass spectrometry and gas-phase chemistry. In particular, he worked on metal-catalyzed oxygen transfer reactions of peroxides and the generation of elusive reaction intermediates by neutralization-reionization mass spectrometry with water oxide being one of the highlights. His PhD thesis was followed by a postdoctorate supported by a fellowship from the Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina with Professor Julius Rebek, Jr. at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, where he studied supramolecular capsules under environment-free conditions in the high vacuum of a mass spectrometer. Returning to Germany for his habilitation with Prof. Fritz Vögtle, Christoph Schalley started his independent career in the field of rotaxane chemistry. Meanwhile, his research covers not only rotaxanes and supramolecular gas-phase chemistry, but also the thermodynamic analysis of multivalent and cooperative binding, stimuli-responsive materials such as switchable gels and the generation of surfaces covered with mono- and multilayers of switchable rotaxanes. Besides research, Christoph Schalley loves to teach and has been awarded with the Excellence-in-Teaching Award of the FU Berlin chemistry students twice in 2008 and 2014.
Research interests
Prof. Schalley’s group works in supramolecular chemistry with current projects in the gas-phase chemistry of non-covalent complexes, surface chemistry, low-molecular weight gelators, and analysis of the thermochemistry and kinetics of multivalent binding in multiply threaded (pseudo)rotaxanes.