Chemie IOCB News
Jonas Spang received “GBM-Master Award” at the "Graduates' Day" of Bielefeld University
On December 6, 2024, the traditional annual "Graduates' Day" of Bielefeld University took place. Within the graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Chemistry, Jonas Spang was awarded the "GBM-Master Award" for the best master thesis in biochemistry at Bielefeld University in this year. This prize is awarded by the "Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie" (GBM), being the largest bioscientific society in Germany, to graduates who have submitted an outstanding Master's thesis. Jonas Spang received the "GBM-Master Award" for his research achievements in combining a chemocatalytic high pressure reaction with a transamination within a one-pot process. In this process, Rh-catalyzed hydroformylation and enzymatic transamination steps run in a tandem-mode at 20 bar of syngas pressure. The compatibility of these two reactions is demonstrated by the high conversion obtained for the resulting amines. This research work was done within joint research collaboration projects with Professor Dr. Jan von Langermann (Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg) and Priv.-Doz. Dr. Andreas Vorholt (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Mülheim an der Ruhr). Jonas Spang completed his master thesis on this research work in this July, and his results have recently been published in "Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry" (so far as Advance Article; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4OB01513D). After completing his master thesis on chemoenzymatic one-pot synthesis in our group at Bielefeld University, Jonas Spang started his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Graz to conduct further biocatalysis studies under supervision of Professor Dr. Wolfgang Kroutil. From the research group IOCB at Bielefeld University, we congratulate Jonas Spang very much for this "GBM-Master Award", and we wish him all the best for his further biocatalysis research and Ph.D. thesis at the University of Graz!