Biography

Horst Kunz, born 1940 in Frankenhausen (Saxony), studied chemistry at the Humboldt-Universität Berlin and at the Universität Mainz. He completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of Leopold Horner on syntheses of cyclic organophosphorus compounds in 1969. His Habilitation completed in 1977 dealt with ester analogues of acetylcholine and their application in protecting group chemistry. He was appointed to Associate Professor for Organic Chemistry in 1979 and to Full Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry in 1988 at the Universität Mainz. His research centers on stereoselective reactions and the synthesis and development of methods in alkaloid, peptide, carbohydrate and glycopeptide chemistry as well as in combinatorial synthesis. He received the Max Bergmann Medal in 1992 and the Emil-Fischer-Medal in 2000. In 1998, he was elected corresponding member of "Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig" (Saxony Academy of Science). In 2001, he delivered the Adolf Windaus Lecture and received the Adolf Windaus Medal of the Georg August-Universität Göttingen.