Walter Thiel (chemist)

Walter Thiel (born March 7, 1949 in Treysa ; † August 23, 2019 ) was a German theoretical chemist .

Walter Thiel

Life

Walter Thiel studied from 1966 to 1971 chemistry at the University of Marburg , where he was in 1973 doctorate , Armin Schweig was his thesis advisor . After a postdoctoral stay (1973–1975) at the University of Texas at Austin with Michael JS Dewar , he completed his habilitation in 1981 at the University of Marburg . Thiel became Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Wuppertal in 1983 and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Zurich in 1992 . In 1987 he was visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley . Since 1999 he has been director at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr (retired since 2018) and since 2001 honorary professor at the University of Düsseldorf .

Walter Thiel had been a full member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts since 2008 .

Scholarships and Awards

• 1975 Liebig grant from the Chemical Industry Fund
• 1982 Heisenberg grant from the German Research Foundation
• 1988 Award of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation
• 2002 Schrödinger Medal of the World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists (WATOC)
• 2007 member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• 2007 member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science
• 2012 Liebig commemorative coin

Research priorities

Walter Thiel's research interests included many topics in theoretical chemistry , particularly quantum chemistry , and computational chemistry , with an emphasis on large molecules, spectroscopy, and catalysis . His working group deals with the development of theoretical methods, mainly for the description of large molecules, and uses theoretical calculations to contribute to the solution of specific chemical problems, mostly in close cooperation with experimental partners.

Selected contributions to method development:

• Semi-empirical quantum chemical methods: Further development of the MNDO method (orthogonalization-corrected OM x methods, MNDO / d for transition metals ), calculation of NMR chemical shifts, semi-empirical multi-reference CI (MRCI) methods. These (and other) developments are implemented in the MNDO program.
• Combined quantum mechanical / molecular mechanical (QM / MM) processes (coupling processes, boundary atoms, structure optimization processes). These developments are incorporated into the QM / MM package ChemShell.

Selected areas of application:

• Highly accurate calculations with correlated quantum chemical methods on smaller molecules; theoretical rovibration spectroscopy.
• Transition metal chemistry , homogeneous catalysis (mostly with density functional theory ).
• Mechanisms of enzymatic reactions (using QM / MM methods).

Web links

• Walter Thiel at the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• Website of the Thiel working group at the MPI for Coal Research
• Entry in the Bochum university bibliography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Walter Thiel (1949 - 2019). In: ChemistryViews Magazine. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, accessed on August 28, 2019 . 
2. ^ Member entry of Walter Thiel (with picture and CV) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on July 20, 2016.
3. ↑ CSE - ChemShell