Research Statement
Axel was born into the 1974 World Cup euphoria in Berlin. He spent a joyful boyhood in the backyards of Berlin-Friedrichshain and managed to finish highschool there. Axel abandoned the capital city pace and took up Chemistry studies at the University of Erlangen. His Master thesis and a subsequent research stay with John A. Gladysz allowed him to work at the University of Utah where he also advanced his mountaineering skills. Back in Germany, Axel joined Matthias Beller�s group at the Leibniz-Institute of Catalysis in Rostock from where he obtained a Ph.D. in 2002. After a short industrial stay at Degussa AG in Frankfurt, he was a postdoctoral fellow with Kingsley J. Cavell at Cardiff University and Barry M. Trost at Stanford University. In 2005, he started his independent career at the University of Cologne. Since 2011, Axel is Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Regensburg. His research spans various aspects of catalytic methodology development. Current areas of investigations include iron-catalyzed cross-coupling and reduction reactions, photo-redox catalysis, and the implementation of of new reactor technologies.
