Residence Germany Thesis 1973 Doctoral advisor A. Schweig Fields Theoretical chemistry | Alma mater University of Marburg Role Chemist Nationality German Name Walter Thiel | |
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Born March 7, 1949
Treysa, Hesse, Germany ( 1949-03-07 ) Institutions University of Zurich
Max Planck Institute for Coal Research Education University of Texas at Austin, University of Marburg | ||
Other academic advisors Michael J. S. Dewar | ||
Walter Thiel (born 7 March 1949 in Treysa, Hesse) is a German theoretical chemist. He is the president of the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists (WATOC) from 2011.
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Academic career
Walter Thiel studied chemistry at the University of Marburg (West Germany) from 1966 to 1971, where he subsequently obtained his doctorate with A. Schweig in 1973. After a post-doctoral stint at the University of Texas at Austin with M. J. S. Dewar (1973–1975), he obtained his habilitation from the University of Marburg in 1981. He was appointed Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Wuppertal (West Germany) in 1983 and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) in 1992. In 1987 he was a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Since 1999, he is a director at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr (Germany) and an honorary professor at the neighboring University of Düsseldorf (Germany) since 2001.
Fellowships and awards
Research
Walter Thiel's research interests include the broad areas of theoretical chemistry, in particular quantum chemistry, and computational chemistry, with a focus on large molecules, spectroscopy, and catalysis. His group has been involved in the development of new theoretical methods, in particular for the treatment of large molecules, and applies theoretical calculations to concrete chemical problems, usually in close collaboration with experimentalists.
Selected methodological contributions
Selected application areas