At its General Assembly on October 28 and 29, 2025, the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) elected former GDCh Executive Director Wolfram Koch as President for the years 2027 to 2029. He will already serve as President-Elect for one year starting in 2026. He succeeds Professor Angela Agostiano, University of Bari, Italy.
A major topic for Wolfram Koch during his presidency is to strengthening the organization’s impact, fostering collaboration, and empowering the European chemistry community.
In addition to his contributions to EuChemS and GDCh, Professor Wolfram Koch currently serves as the Treasurer of IUPAC.
Career
Wolfram Koch was born in Darmstadt, Germany, and studied chemistry at Technische Hochschule Darmstadt (now Technische Universität Darmstadt) and Technische Universität (TU) Berlin, Germany. He received his Ph.D. from TU Berlin in 1986 under the supervision of Helmut Schwarz. From 1987–1988, he was an IBM Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Computational Chemistry, IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA, USA. In 1988, he became a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Supercomputing and Applied Mathematics at IBM Germany’s Scientific Center in Heidelberg.
In 1992, Wolfram Koch returned to TU Berlin as Professor of Theoretical Organic Chemistry. Here, at 32, he was the youngest professor. From 1998 to 2000, he served as Department Head at the GDCh in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. From 2000 to 2002, he was GDCh Director of “Science and Research”.
Since 2002, Wolfram Koch served as Executive Director of the GDCh until his retirement in July 2024.
Honors and Recognitions
Among other honors, Wolfram Koch has received the Schering-Award for best dissertation in chemistry in 1987, the Gold Medal of the Slovak Chemical Society in 2002, and the Goldene Ehrennadel (badge of honor) of the VAA (association of managers in the chemical industry) in 2019. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), an Honorary Fellow of Chemistry Europe, and an Honorary Member of the Israel Chemical Society (ICS), the Czech Chemical Society (ČSCH), and the Slovenian Chemical Society (SKD).
Wolfram Koch is the author of approximately 190 publications in scientific journals and of a textbook on density functional theory.
During his time as Executive Director of the GDCh, he has shown great commitment to scientific publishing and the promotion of chemistry through his work and numerous honorary activities.
Selected Publications by Wolfram Koch
- Florian Ausfelder, Christian Beilmann, Martin Bertau, Sigmar Bräuninger, Angelika Heinzel, Renate Hoer, Wolfram Koch, Falko Mahlendorf, Anja Metzelthin, Marcell Peuckert, Ludolf Plass, Konstantin Räuchle, Martin Reuter, Georg Schaub, Sebastian Schiebahn, Ekkehard Schwab, Ferdi Schüth, Detlef Stolten, Gisa Teßmer, Kurt Wagemann, Karl-Friedrich Ziegahn, Energy Storage as Part of a Secure Energy Supply, ChemBioEng Rev. 2017, 4, 144–210. https://doi.org/10.1002/cben.201700004
- Wolfram Koch, Ethics and chemistry: the role of learned societies, as exemplified by the German chemical societies, Toxicol. Environ. Chem. 2015, 98, 1060–1066. https://doi.org/10.1080/02772248.2015.1094474
- Wolfram Koch, Max C. Holthausen, A Chemist’s Guide to Density Functional Theory, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany 2001.ISBN: 978-3-527-30372-4
- Anja Pfletschinger, Wolfram Koch, Hans-Günther Schmalz, Density Functional Investigation of Reactive Intermediates Derived from Alkyne–Co2(CO)6 Complexes, Chem. Eur. J. 2001. https://doi.org/10.1002/1521-3765(20011217)7:24<5325::AID-CHEM5325>3.0.CO;2-S
- Jeremy N. Harvey, Massimiliano Aschi, Helmut Schwarz, Wolfram Koch, The singlet and triplet states of phenyl cation. A hybrid approach for locating minimum energy crossing points between non-interacting potential energy surfaces, Theor. Chem. Acc. 1998, 99, 95–99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s002140050309
- Roland H. Hertwig, Wolfram Koch, On the parameterization of the local correlation functional. What is Becke-3-LYP?, Chem. Phys. Lett. 1997, 268, 345–351. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0009-2614(97)00207-8
- Wolfram Koch, Gernot Frenking, Juergen Gauss, Dieter Cremer, Jack R. Collins, Helium chemistry: theoretical predictions and experimental challenge, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1987, 109, 5917–5934. https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00254a005
- Wolfram Koch, Francis Maquin, Helmut Schwarz, Daniel Stahl, Experimental and ab initio molecular orbital studies on CH3O2+. dications, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1985, 107(8), 2256–2260. https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00294a008
Also of Interest
Wolfram Koch, who led the GDCh for over 20 years and strengthened its partnership with Wiley-VCH and other chemical societies, reflects on this memorable time
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