Wolfgang Kaim

Wolfgang Kaim (born 13 May 1951 in Bad Vilbel, Germany) is a German chemist who is the chair of coordination chemistry at the University of Stuttgart. He is co-author of the internationally recognized book, Bioinorganic Chemistry which was awarded with the Literature Award of the German Chemical Industry.

Kaim studied chemistry, physics and mathematics at the University of Frankfurt and the University of Konstanz. His diplom thesis in physical organic chemistry was supervised by E. Daltrozzo (1974). He started working on main group radicals in Hans Bock’s group at the University of Frankfurt, where he earned his PhD in 1978. After a post-doctoral year with F. A. Cotton at Texas A&M University, supported by a postdoctoral Liebig Fellowship, he completed his habilitation for inorganic chemistry in 1982 ("Coordination Chemistry of Reduced Heterocycles"). Kaim continued his independent research career at the University of Frankfurt with a Winnacker Fellowship followed by a Heisenberg Fellowship. In 1987 he moved to the University of Stuttgart to take up a chaired position for coordination chemistry where he continues till today.

Kaim is an adjunct professor at the Northern Illinois University in DeKalb (US/IL, 2003), and has been visiting professor at the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou (China, 2005), and guest professor at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago (Chile, 2006), University of Concepción (Chile, 2007) and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (India, 2008).

He has been the advisor of more than 55 PhD students.

In 2014 he was awarded Alfred Stock Memorial Prize by Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker.

Kaim’s interdisciplinary research covers the areas of radical stabilization by metal coordination (‘non-innocent ligands’), coenzyme models, the extension of mixed-valence chemistry, electron transfer effects on M-C and M-H bonds, the crystallization of new organic radicals and the electron transfer properties of boron compounds, as well as spectroelectrochemistry in the IR, UV/VIS/near-infrared regions as spectroscopic probes for electron transfer sites and the consequences of electron transfer or charge transfer on structure and bonding, EPR spectroscopy as a less common but highly useful methodology and CV (cyclic voltammetry).

He is the co-author of more than 600 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

• “Non-innocent ligands in bioinorganic chemistry – an overview”, W. Kaim and B. Schwederski, Coord. Chem. Rev. 254 (2010) 1580-1588.
• “Electronic structure alternatives in nitrosylruthenium complexes”, G.K. Lahiri and W. Kaim, Dalton Trans. 39 (2010) 4471-4478.
• “Boron Atoms as Spin Carriers in Two- and Three-Dimensional Systems”, W. Kaim,N.S. Hosmane,S. Záliš, J.A. Maguiere and W.N. Lipscomb, Angew. Chem. 121 (2009) 5184-5193; Angew. Chem. Int Ed. 48 (2009) 5082-5091.
• “A Five-Center Redox System: Molecular Coupling of Two Non-Innocent Imino-o-benzoquinonato-Ruthenium Functions through a p Acceptor Bridge”, A.K. Das, B. Sarkar, J. Fiedler, S. Záliš, I. Hartenbach, S. Strobel, G.K. Lahiri and W. Kaim, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131 (2009) 8895-98902.
• “Unconventional Mixed-Valent Complexes of Ruthenium and Osmium”W. Kaim and G.K. Lahiri, Angew. Chem. 119 (2007) 1808-1828; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 46 (2007) 1778-1796.
• "Odd Electron on Nitrogen: A Metal-Stabilized Aminyl Radical" (Perspective) W. Kaim, Science 307 (2005) 216-217.
• "Long-Range Electronic Coupling in Various Oxidation States of a C4-Linked Tris(b-diketonato)ruthenium Dimer" Y. Hoshino, S. Higuchi, J. Fiedler, C.-Y. Su, A. Knödler, B. Schwederski, B. Sarkar, H. Hartmann and W. Kaim, Angew. Chem. 115 (2003) 698; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 42 (2003) 674.
• "Multi-Frequency EPR Study and Density-Functional g-Tensor Calculations of Persistent Organorhenium Radical Complexes" S. Frantz, H. Hartmann, N. Doslik, M. Wanner, W. Kaim, H.-J. Kümmerer, G. Denninger, A.-L. Barra, C. Duboc-Toia, J. Fiedler, I. Ciofini, C. Urban and M. Kaupp, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 124 (2002) 10563.