Prof. Dr. Peter Wasserscheid

Board of Directors

Prof. Dr. Peter Wasserscheid is Head  of the Chair of Chemical Reaction Engineering at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg since 2003. As of 2014, he is also Director at the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nuremberg for Renewable Energy (HI ERN), which is a branch of Forschungszentrum Jülich. Prof. Wasserscheid is award winner of the Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-Price 2006.

Functions & Public Offices

  • Representative of the coordinator of the Cluster of Excellence “Engineering of Advanced Materials“
  • Reviewer for numerous scientific journals (e.g. Nature, Angewandte Chemie, JACS etc.) and for numerous research funding institutions (national and international)
  • Liasion lecturer of the Bavarian Elite Academy (since 2003)
  • Speaker of the DECHEMA Working Group “Alternative Solvent Systems for Technical Applications / Advanced Fluids” (since 2005)
  • Member of the coordination circle of the elite course of studies “Advanced Materials and Processes” at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (since 2005)
  • Member of the Board of ConNeCat (Competence Network Catalysis) (since 2006)
  • Initiator and coordinator of the DFG priority program “Ionic Liquids” (2006 – 2013)
  • DFG Review Board (2008-2016)

  • Founding Director of the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nuremberg for “Renewable Energies” (HI ERN) and Director of the Institute for Energy and Climate Research 11 (IEK-11) at the Forschungszentrum Jülich (2014)
  • Founding partner of Hydrogenious Technologies GmbH, Nuremberg (2013)
  • Call to the EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland for the position as a Full Professor of Chemical Reaction Engineering – offer declined (2009)
  • Managing Director of the Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (since 2005)
  • Deputy Managing Director of the Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (since 2003)
  • C4-Professor at the Chair of Chemical Reaction Engineering at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (since 2003)
  • Scientific Supervisor at Solvent Innovation GmbH, Cologne (since 2001)
  • Member of the Management Board of Solvent Innovation GmbH, Cologne (1999 – 2001)
  • Habilitation at the RWTH Aachen University about “Ionic liquids – a new solvent concept for catalysis” (1998 – 2003)
  • Post-Doc at BP Chemicals Sunbury/Great Britain (1998)
  • Doctorate at the RWTH Aachen University with the topic “On the use of ionic liquids – using the example of the dimerization of 1-butene” (1995 – 1998)
  • Study of Chemistry at RWTH Aachen University (1991 – 1995)

  • Reaction Engineering
  • Sustainable and resource-saving chemistry
  • Complex catalyst systems and continuous catalytic processes
  • Ionic liquids
  • Catalyst systems with supported liquid and salt films (Supported Ionic Liquid Phase (SILP) catalysis
  • Solid catalyst with Ionic Liquid Layer (SCILL) catalysis and liquid-liquid multiphase catalysis with ionic liquids
  • Chemical energy storage
  • Hydrogenation and dehydrogenation catalysis of Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) systems
  • Process development for biomass conversion to formic acid
  • Selective C-C linkage reactions with chromium complex catalysts