Description

A University Rector without high school diploma, an accomplished professor without postdoc experience, a ski instructor and top advisor of the Prime Minister – that is Franz Effenberger!
At age 16 in 1946 he arrived as a refugee in Swabia, Germany, by the most fantastic coincidence. The region suited his nature and from there he made the most out of his talents. His career at the University of Stuttgart started with inventing new synthetic methods and applying them to produce important arenes and heterocycles. Based on his deep understanding of reaction mechanisms he made pioneering contributions to bio- and nanotechnology. Application of his chemistry was dear to him.
Out of the Effenberger lab came many leaders in industry and academia. A secret of his success is the cultivation of a team spirit and an encouragement of individual’s creativity.
This was also key to his manyfold contributions to the modernization and reorganization of chemical education worldwide.