Gerhard Wegner joined the Max Planck Society in 1983 as one of the founders of the present Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. He holds a doctoral degree in chemistry from the University of Mainz (1965). In 1966-69 he worked as a research staff chemist at Yale University, Conn., USA. Returning to the University of Mainz, he joined the group of Prof. E. W. Fischer in the Institute of Physical Chemistry. His habilitation in physical chemistry (1970) concentrated on solid-state polymerization of diacetylenes and showed how macroscopic single crystals of polyconjugated macromolecules can be made. From 1974 to 1984 he had the chair in Macromolecular Chemistry at the University of Freiburg (Germany). He was a visiting professor at Poona, India (1974), Amherst, Mass., USA (1979), Tucson, AZ, USA (1986), Milan, Italy (1987), Leuven/Louvain, Belgium (1988), Midland, Mich., and Storrs, Conn., USA (1990), Helsinki, Finland (1991), Pisa, Italy (1992), Université de Montreal, Canada (1992), Cornell University (Baker Lecture-ship) (1994), University of Akron, Ohio, USA (1995). He received the Otto Bayer Award in 1984, the Philip-Morris-Technologie-Preis in 1989, the Hermann Staudinger Medal of the German Chemical Society in 1990, the Rolf Sammet Lectureship (1997), the ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry (1998), the Award of the Society of Polymer Science Japan (1998), the Xerox-Lectureship, Halifax Canada (1998), the Butler-Lectureship, Gainesville, Florida (1999). He received Honorary Doctorates from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, USA (2000), the University of Erlangen, Germany (2004) and the Technical University of Lodz, Poland (2005). He is also Honorary Professor at Nakai University, Tiajin, China and Honorary Member of the Topchiev Institute of the RAS, Moscow, Russia. He served as the chairman of the Chemistry-Physics-Technology section of the Max Planck Society from 1991 to 1994 and was Vice President of the Max Planck Society from 1996 to 2002. Professor Wegner is also the founder and chairman of the current International Max-Planck-Research School for Polymer Science (IMPRS-PMS) and serves as its chairman as well as for the Early Stage Training (EST) - Marie-Curie-Action.


Ongoing studies are concerned with:

• chain-stiffness as structural principle in the design of novel macromolecular materials
• solid polyelectrolytes and ion conductors
• polymers as semiconductors and optical materials
• optical properties of polymers;
• synthesis and evaluation of polymer surfactants
• mineralization processes controlled by polymer
• characterization of polymer structures by quantitative methods (X-ray scattering, electron microscopy, light scattering)