The Max Planck Society maintains over 80 institutes and facilities. They all pursue basic research (a loaded term) in the natural and social sciences. This is something special that attracted Chris to Max Planck Institutes. As opposed to research groups at American universities, which need to focus on the applications of research in order to get funding, these MPI's are already financed by the government and can examine the smallest particulars, making fundamental, textbook-worthy discoveries. Chris' group is in the middle of a controversy because they claim that something exists (singlet diradicals) - at the molecular level - that others say is not there. (And I will have to let Chris write his own post to flesh that one out.)
Pictures make everything better. The attractive (ha) white building is Chris' MPI for Bioinorganic Chemistry in Mülheim. About 150 scientists and support staff work here. (Around the corner is another institute, the much larger MPI für Kohlenforschung. A huge research complex plopped into a quiet residential area. We don't understand.) The support staff is its own issue; it is supposedly nice for Chris to just drop off a sample to the NMR tech guy instead of running it himself. However, it is something that he could have done in 10 minutes himself at UW, and here he sometimes has to wait until the next day to get his results back! It took a while to get into the slower rhythm here. He has compensated by always having simultaneous projects going on, so he's never waiting on one result.
In the Bioinorganic institute, there are 2 directors. Here is a picture of Chris' soon-to-be-retiring director, Prof. Dr. Karl Wieghardt. (Yes, to be formal, you would address him as Herr Professor Doctor Wieghardt.) About 12 scientists work under him, and he freely collaborates with many people around the world. Just last month, he invited 3 professors over from the US who had never worked together before, and they all discussed their research and traded favors ("oh, yes, I have equipment that can do that for you") and ideas.
Ok, now for the details I promised, directly from the Institute's English-language brochure that I picked up just for you:The Institute is dedicated to basic research in selected fields of bioinorganic and biophysical chemistry. Currently in focus are topics like the coordination chemistry of the essential trace elements, the structure and function of metallo-proteins (non-heme iron and manganese proteins), artificial photosynthesis, the photolytic water oxidation, hydrogen production by biological systems, synthesis of protein structure motifs, structure determination by spectroscopic techniques, as well as the computer-assisted calculation of structures and spectroscopic parameters.
If you remember what Chris used to talk about while studying in Madison, it was something like carbenes, catalysis, palladium, and aerobic oxidation. He then took the "high risk-high reward" path and jumped to a new field for his post-doc. I can testify that he was scared. Now, he confidently talks about electronic coupling and spin-states, singlet diradicals, redox-noninnocent ligands, running calculations, magnetism, and spectroscopy. He's become a leader in the group, even though just last year he was a beginner. Chemistry ideas just spill out of him, which excites me because that will be his currency as a research professor, a job that more and more seems to be made for him. He is currently reading chemistry books as bedtime reading, dreaming up research proposals which he'll send out this fall. He'll send out an application to whoever is hiring, maybe about 30 schools, and then we'll see what we're left with. Exciting times ahead for our chemist!
Furthermore, I posted this without consulting Chris, a during-Daisy's-nap-time-activity. (Chris, I hope this shows that I've been listening during those dinnertime conversations!) Please look under "comments" to find any corrections he may have!
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