Total Synthesis of Natural Products: A Themed Issue Dedicated to Professor Dr. Dieter Schinzer for His 65th Birthday

Dear Colleagues,

Professor Dr. Dieter Schinzer, born 7 July, 1953 in Gudensberg, Germany, obtained his undergraduate education at the University of Marburg (1974–1977), whereafter he carried out his graduate studies at the University of Bonn under the supervision of Professor Manfred T. Reetz. In 1980, having obtained his PhD, he spent two years as a Feodor-Lynen post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley in the research group of professor Clayton Heathcock. Upon returning to Germany, he obtained a Liebig fellowship and, at the Leibniz University of Hannover, finished his habilitation in 1986 with Professor Ekkehardt Winterfeldt. After another three years at Hannover as a Heisenberg fellow, Dr. Schinzer spent a year at the University of Göttingen (as the Schöllkopf Chair) followed by a period as a Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin, USA. In 1990 he was appointed Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Technical University of Braunschweig before receiving a full professorship for the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg Institute of Chemistry in 1997, his current position. Here he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering from 2002 to 2005.

Despite his wide research interests in organometallic chemistry (especially silicon, tin and manganese), synthetic methodology and medicinal chemistry, Dr. Schinzer is first and foremost a devoted natural product chemist. In 1997, his research group was among the first to achieve the total synthesis of epothilones. His interest in medicinal chemistry led him to be a founder and CSO of MOLISA (Molecular Links Sachsen-Anhalt GmbH) in 2002. He was then instrumental in developing several European COST research consortia under the general umbrella of Bioactive Natural Product synthesis. He also served as the Chairman of the COST Domain Committee for Chemistry and Molecular Sciences from 2006 to 2009.

Molecules is pleased to announce a Special Issue honoring Dr. Dieter Schinzer, on the occasion of his 65th birthday, for his outstanding achievements in natural product chemistry. This Special Issue is dedicated to all aspects of natural product chemistry, in particular total synthesis, but, following the interests of Dr. Schinzer, contributions related to isolation and structure elucidation, as well as drug design based on natural product leads, their computer aided methods and structure-activity relationships (SAR), are welcome.

It is a pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript to this Special Issue. Regular articles, communications, and reviews are all welcome.

Prof. Dr. Ari Koskinen
Guest Editor

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