Armin de Meijere studied chemistry at the universities of Freiburg and Gvttingen and obtained his doctorate at the latter. Following postdoctoral training under Kenneth B. Wiberg at Yale University in New Haven, USA, he returned to Gvttingen in 1971 to gain his lectureship qualification. He became Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Hamburg in 1977, and took up the same chair at the University of Gvttingen in 1989, where he is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry. Armin de Meijere has been visiting professor at universities in the USA, Israel, Italy, France, as we...