Short CV
Mathias O. Senge, was born in Silbach, Germany, studied chemistry and biochemistry in Freiburg, Amherst, Marburg, and Lincoln and graduated as Diplom-Chemiker from the Philipps Universität Marburg in 1986. After a Ph.D. thesis in plant biochemistry with Prof. Horst Senger in Marburg (1989) and a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Kevin M. Smith at UC Davis, he received his habilitation in Organic Chemistry in 1996 at the Freie Universität Berlin. Next, he was a Heisenberg fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin and UC Davis. In 2002 he was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Universität Potsdam and since 2005 holds the Chair of Organic Chemistry at Trinity College Dublin. He was the recipient of fellowships from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; from 2005-2009 he was a Science Foundation Ireland Research Professor. He held visiting professorships at U Greifswald, U Potsdam, KIT, and TUM and has published over 370 publications in the area of organic chemistry, porphyrins and photosciences. His main interests are synthetic organic chemistry, hydrocarbon scaffolds, the (bio)chemistry of tetrapyrroles, photochemistry, -biology and -medicine, structural chemistry, molecular engineering of photonics materials, and history of science.
Selected Awards
- 2020, Hans Fischer Senior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Technische Universität München
- 2020, Laboratory Team of the Year award for ‘Senge Group’ from the Irish Laboratory Awards
- 2018, August-Wilhelm Scheer Visiting Professor, Technische Universität München
- 2018, KIT International Collaborator Award, Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie, Karlsruhe
- 2006, Award of M.A. (jure officii) – Trinity College Dublin
- 2006, Election to Professorial Fellow – Trinity College Dublin
- 2005-2009, SFI Fellows – Research Professorship Award
- 1997-2002, Heisenberg-Fellowship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- 1989, Studienabschluß Stipendium des Vereins der chemischen Industrie
- 1987-1989, Full time Ph.D. scholarship of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes
- 1983-1984, Contact Scholarship of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- 1981-1986, Full time undergraduate scholarship of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes
Research Interests
Organic chemistry: synthetic organic chemistry; development of new synthetic methods; synthesis of hydrocarbon scaffold molecules, triptycenes, cubanes; organometallic chemistry; photochemistry.
Bio(in)organic and biological chemistry: heterocyclic and natural product chemistry; porphyrin and tetrapyrrole chemistry; regulation of enzymatic reactions on a molecular level.
Medicinal chemistry: photomedicine, esp. photodynamic therapy; imaging techniques, high content analysis.
Photobiology: photosynthesis; structure and function relationship in biologically active molecules.
Crystallography: structure determination and conformational analysis of natural products and coordination compounds; crystal engineering.
Material science: photonics materials, molecular circuitry, 2D nanostructures.
History and philosophy: of photochemistry and photomedicine.
Selected Publications
- Norvaiša, K.; Flanagan, K. J.; Gibbons, D.; Senge, M. O. (2019): Conformational Re‐engineering of Porphyrins as Receptors with Switchable N−H⋅⋅⋅X‐Type Binding Modes. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 58, 16553–16557. doi: 10.1002/anie.201907929
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Kielmann, M.; Senge, M. O. (2019): Molecular Engineering of Free-Base Porphyrins as Ligands—The N@H···X Binding Motif in Tetrapyrroles. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 58, 418–441. doi:10.1002/anie.201806281
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Bernhard, S. S. R.; Locke, G. M.; Plunkett, S.; Meindl, A.; Flanagan, K. J.; Senge, M. O. (2018): Cubane Cross-Coupling and Cubane-Porphyrin Arrays. Chemistry – A European Journal 24, 1026–1030.
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Roucan, M.; Kielmann, M.; Connon, S. J.; Bernhard, S. S. R.; Senge, M. O. (2018): Conformational control of nonplanar free base porphyrins: towards bifunctional catalysts of tunable basicity. Chemical Communications 54, 26–29. doi: 10.1039/C7CC08099A
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Filatov, M. A.; Karuthedath, S.; Polestshuk, P. M.; Savoie, H.; Flanagan, K. J.; Sy, C.; Sitte, E.; Telitchko, M.; Laquai, F.; Boyle R. W.; Senge, M. O. (2017): Generation of Triplet Excited States via Photoinduced Electron Transfer in meso-anthra-BODIPY: Fluorogenic Response toward Singlet Oxygen in Solution and in Vitro. Journal of the American Chemical Society 139, 6282–6285. doi: 10.1021/jacs.7b00551
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Senge, M. O.; MacGowan, S. A.; O’Brien, J. M. (2015): Conformational control of cofactors in nature – The influence of protein-induced macrocycle distortion on the biological function of tetrapyrroles. Chemical Communications 51, 17031–17063. doi: 10.1039/C5CC06254C
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Senge, M. O. (2011): Extroverted Confusion – Linus Pauling, Melvin Calvin and Porphyrin Isomers. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 50, 4272–4277.
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Senge, M. O. (2011): Stirring the porphyrin alphabet soup – functionalization reactions for porphyrins. Chemical Communications 47, 1943–1960.
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Senge, M. O. (2005): Nucleophilic Substitution as a Tool for the Synthesis of Unsymmetrical Porphyrins. Accounts of Chemical Research 38, 733–743. doi: 10.1002/chin.200552249
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Senge, M. O. (2006): Exercises in molecular gymnastics – Bending, stretching and twisting porphyrins. Chemical Communications, 243–256.
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Kalisch, W. W.; Senge, M. O. (1998): Facile meso Functionalization of Porphyrins by Nucleophilic Substitution with Organolithium Reagents. Angewandte Chemie, International Edition in English 37, 1107–1109.
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Senge, M. O.; Forsyth, T. P.; Nguyen, L. T.; Smith, K. M. (1994): Sterically Strained Porphyrins. Influence of Core Protonation Versus Peripheral Substitution on the Conformation of Tetra-meso-, Octa-b-, and Dodecasubstituted Porphyrin Dications. Angewandte Chemie, International Edition in English 33, 2485–2487.
Full publication list (link to Trinity College Dublin)
Publications as TUM-IAS Fellow
