Prof. Dr. Jun Okuda

Univ.-Prof. Dr. rer.nat. Jun Okuda

Professor Jun Okuda, born in Osaka/Japan in 1957, received his Dr. rer. nat. degree at the RWTH Aachen University in 1984 with G. E. Herberich and was a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT with R. R. Schrock. After his habilitation at the Technical University Munich under W. A: Herrmann in 1991 he held academic positions at the State University of New York at Albany (as Assistant Professor), the University of Marburg (Professor of Organometallic Chemistry), and of University of Mainz (Full Professor of Inorganic Chemistry), before assuming the Chair of Organometallic Chemistry at the RWTH Aachen University in 2003.

He received the Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz Award 1991 by the German Federal Minister of Science and Education and was Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Iberdrola Visiting Professor in Spain, visiting scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, at the National University of Taipei, distinguished guest professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Applied Chemistry, Changchun, and guest professor at Keio University, Osaka University, and University of Strasbourg. He has chaired the "XVth Workshop on Rare Earth Elements" in Mainz in 2002 He was Co-Chairman for the "14. International Symposium on Homogeneous Catalysis" in Munich in 2004” as well as a number of national meetings. From 2003 to 2010 he was board member (chairman from 2007-2010) of the Wöhler Inorganic Chemistry Division of the German Chemical Society.

From 1996 to 2003 he served as selection committee member of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation and from 2003 to 2008 he was an elected member of the committee “Molecular Chemistry” of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Since 2010 he is spokesperson for the DFG/JSPS funded International Research Training Group “Selectivity in Chemo- and Biocatalysis” with Osaka University, Japan. In 2013, he was elected a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. In 2014 he became Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

His research interests include organometallics as polymerization catalysts, artificial metalloenzymes, and energy storage systems. He has published more than 275 papers and holds 9 patents.

Curriculum Vitae