Robert Göstl receives ADUC Award

Mechanochemistry - a battle of forces at the molecular level

Dr. Robert Göstl is an independent research group leader at the DWI - Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials and pursues his habilitation at RWTH Aachen University. He has now been awarded the ADUC Award by the Work Association of German University Professors of Chemistry (ADUC) of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) for his research in polymer mechanochemistry.

The Work Association of German University Professors of Chemistry (ADUC) awards up to three prizes each year to outstanding young scientists who aspire to an academic career. The laureates do not yet hold a permanent professorship and are awarded for establishing their own field of research. Among the three prize winners this year is a scientist from the DWI - Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials who pursues his habilitation at RWTH Aachen University: Dr Robert Göstl.

Fabricate, disrupt, learn from it - the research field of mechanochemistry

Robert Göstl is leading an independent research group at the DWI. Together with his team, he works at the interface of organic synthesis chemistry, polymer chemistry, photophysics and material sciences"With our research, we pursue the goal of understanding the interactions of mechanical stress with (bio)materials and making them usable in order to be able to develop improved or new materials," explains Robert Göstl.

By specifically synthesising small molecules that function as predetermined breaking points in the polymer architecture, he follows processes of material changes when, for example, pressure is applied to the material - and this across scales from the macroscopic level to the individual molecule. On the one hand, he wants to use optical force probes to analyse artificial polymer systems and, with the help of "molecular fractography", to elucidate how they react to different forms of mechanical stress.

The team of Robert Göstl's research group comes from different scientific disciplines and bundles its unique competences to jointly achieve the cross-disciplinary goals. At its core, the group has its expertise in organic synthesis chemistry and polymer chemistry. This ensures the design and presentation of functional materials. Furthermore, the substantial analysis and (further) development of the research questions is enabled in a multidisciplinary context by experts from colloid and material sciences.

Conference cancelled due to Corona pandemic

Robert Göstl was supposed to receive the award at the Chemistry Lecturers' Conference (Chemiedozententagung) 2021, which was planned for 15-17 March in Rostock. However, due to the prevailing restrictions as a result of the Corona pandemic, the meeting will be converted into a web conference.

About Robert Göstl

Robert Göstl studied chemistry in Berlin. He completed his PhD there in 2014 under aupervision of Stefan Hecht and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Rint Sijbesma's group at Eindhoven University of Technology from 2015. Since 2017, he has been pursuing his independent research and is supported by the Volkswagen Foundation as part of a Freigeist Fellowship.