Dr. Katharina Schröder (nee Bica) was born in Vienna, Austria in 1980. In 1998 she started her studies of Technical Chemistry at Vienna University of Technology and received her Master degree in Organic Synthesis and Technology in 2003.
After completing her PhD degree (Title: Chiral and metal containing ionic liquids in organic synthesis) in Technical Chemistry from Vienna University of Technology in 2006, she accepted a position as research fellow at QUILL (The Queen’s University Ionic Liquid Laboratory) in Belfast, UK working with Prof. Kenneth R. Seddon and Prof. Robin D. Rogers, in the field of green chemistry and ionic liquids. During her two-year stay at The Queen’s University, she was working in close contact with QUILL’s industrial advisory board and gained experience in industrial requirements and practice-oriented synthetic chemistry. In 2009, she joined the Centre for Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry at the Technical University of Denmark for a short research stay with Prof. Rasmus Fehrmann.
After returning to TU Wien in 2010, she established her independent research career focused on green and sustainable chemistry. In 2015, she finalized her Habilitation and was awarded the Venia docendi in “Organic Chemistry”. Since 2016, she is holding a tenured position and was appointed Associate Professor in 2018. At the moment, she is leading or is involved in several national and EU-funded projects, dealing with development of sustainable processes in synthesis, catalysis and separations. Most importantly, she was the recipient of an ERC Consolidator Grant 2019.
Katharina Schröders research interests are based on sustainable organic chemistry, with a special focus on (i) novel catalytic processes for asymmetric synthesis, (ii) on carbon capture and valorization techniques (CCU), particularly on photocatalytic CO2 activation and (iii) on the recovery of valuable ingredients from industrial waste streams using advanced fluid technologies.
Researcher profile
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2515-9873
Research gate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Katharina_Bica
Honors & Awards
- ERC Consolidator Grant 2019 (CARBOFLOW: Streamlined CO2 conversion in ionic liquids – a platform strategy for modern carbonylation chemistry)
- Best teaching award 2017 (“Organic Chemistry”, together with M.D. Mihovilovic, F. Rudroff and M. Schnürch)
- FILL Symposium Lecture Award 2014, Tokyo, Japan
- INITS-Award 2012 (3rd place category “General technologies”)
- Poster awards at Green Solvents for Synthesis; Boppard, Germany, 10/2012; Green Solvents for Processes; Friedrichshafen, Germany, 10/2006; 2nd International Congress on Ionic Liquids; Yokohama, Japan, 08/2007
- Prize of the Industrial Advisory Board; QUILL Meeting, Belfast, UK, 03/2009
- ASAG – award for scientific research abroad; 05/2007
- Award for outstanding diploma thesis of the city of Vienna; 04/2005
Science Management
- Chair and Organizer of the 26th EUCHEM Conference on Molten Salts and Ionic Liquids; Vienna, Austria, 2016.
- COST Action CM1206: Work Group Leader “Applications of Ionic Liquids" since 05/2013
- COST Action CM1206: Member of the Management Committee since 05/2013
- Faculty Board Member (“Fakultätsrat”), Faculty of Technical Chemistry, TU Wien
- Member of the committee of study affairs of Technical Chemistry (“Studienkommission Technische Chemie”), TU Wien
Supervision
- Number of PhD students: 10 (4 finalised)
- Number of post-doctoral fellows: 4
- Number of MSc students: 9
- Student awards: Hannspeter Winter Preis for A. K. Ressmann 2017
- Student and travelling grants for A. K. Ressmann, M. Vasiloiu and K. Strassl