Karl Kirchner was born in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, in 1960. He attended the Technische Universität Wien (TUW) from 1979 until 1987, where he received his Diploma and Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Roland Schmid.

After a two-year postdoctoral stay at Washington State University with Prof. John P. Hunt and an additional postdoctoral year with Nobel laureate Prof. Henry Taube at Stanford University he returned to Austria and joined the research group of Prof. Roland Schmid. He became associate Professor in 1994 at TUW and in 1998 associate Professor in the field of Organometallic Chemistry. Since 2020 he is Professor of "Base Metal Catalysis" at the Institute of Applied Synthetic Chemistry (TUW). From 2020 to 2024 he was Head of the Institute. He is author of more than 300 research publications in peer-reviewed journals and 9 book chapters (h-index 56).

The expertise of the group of Karl Kirchner is centered around the themes ligand design, synthesis of transition metal complexes, applications of transition metal complexes to homogeneous catalysis. The main research goal is to develop well-defined non-precious transition metal complexes, with emphasis on chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, and molybdenum, for catalytic transformations that are related to synthesis, energy, and sustainability. Towards this goal, we currently focus on metal-catalyzed hydrogenations of alkenes, alkynes, ketones, aldehydes, nitriles and carbon dioxide, C-C and C-N bond forming reactions which involve acceptorless dehydrogenations of alcohols, cross coupling reactions, hydroborations of alkenes and alkynes, hydrosilylation of alkenes and alkynes, and activation of small molecules such as H₂, O₂, and CO₂. In addition, we are interested in the mechanisms of organic and organometallic reactions mediated by transition metal complexes which are investigated by means of NMR and IR spectroscopy, ESI MS, X-ray crystallography, and DFT calculations.

Researcher Profile

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0872-6159

(http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0872-6159)

Web of Science

(https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/P-1268-2018)

SCOPUS ID: 57200501377

(https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57200501377)

Google Scholar Profile

(https://scholar.google.at/citations?user=65R6E5sAAAAJ&hl=de&oi=ao)

ACADEMIC RECORD

301 Publications in peer-reviewed journals, 9 book chapters (h-index 56, citations: >10000; number of citations/paper: 38), 8 Book Chapters

172 Lectures (144 keynote, plenary, and invited lectures at international conferences and universities)

MAJOR COLLABORATORS

Prof. Maria J. Calhorda, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, DFT calculations (https://ciencias.ulisboa.pt/en/perfil/mjcalhorda)

Prof. Luis F. Veiros, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, DFT calculations (http://web.ist.utl.pt/veiros/english/)

Dr. Ernst Pittenauer, TUW, Mechanistic ESI MS studies

Prof. Nadia. C. Mösch-Zanetti, University of Graz, Austria, DFT calculations (https://chemie.uni-graz.at/de/bioanorganik-und-koordinationschemie/)

Dr. Luca Gonsalvi, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Florence, Italy, CO₂ as building block for fine chemicals (http://www.iccom.cnr.it/gonsalvi/)