Marko Hapke received his scientific education at the University of Oldenburg, where he completed his PhD working on supramolecular metal complex chemistry and cross-coupling reactions under supervision of Prof. Arne Lützen and Prof. Peter Köll in 2002. After postdoctoral studies in the area of C-H functionalization chemistry with Prof. John F. Hartwig at Yale University, he joined the group of Prof. Uwe Rosenthal at Leibniz Institute for Catalysis e.V. (LIKAT) at the University of Rostock in 2006 as senior scientist, working on selective ethylene oligomerization. He later became junior research group leader and the focus of his independent working group’s research centered on the development of novel cobalt catalysts for cycloaddition reactions and the understanding of factors determining reactivity and selectivity. After finishing his habilitation in 2015, he became professor at the newly founded Institute for Catalysis at the Johannes Kepler University Linz and remains associated group leader at the LIKAT. His main interest focuses on the development and application of base metal catalysts, transition metal-catalyzed cycloaddition reactions, C-H functionalization chemistry, transition metal olefin complexes and the recycling of polymers.
Martin Kotora received a MsC degree in 1986 from Charles University in Prague under the supervision of Dr. Vladimir Sváta and a PhD degree in 1991 from the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals, the Czech Academy of Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Milan Hájek. Then he carried out postdoctoral work with Tamotsu Takahashi (1993-1995) at the Institute for Molecular Science (Okazaki, Japan) as a JSPS fellow and later with Ei-ichi Negishi at Purdue University (Indiana, USA). In 1996 he joined the faculty at the Catalysis Research Center, Hokkaido University (Sapporo, Japan) in the rank of associate professor. In autumn 2000 he joined the faculty of Charles Universityin Prague as an assistant professor of chemistry and subsequently was promoted to the ranks of associate professor (2003) and full professor (2006). In 2014 he received Rudolf Lukeš Prize for Achievements in Organic Chemistry from the Czech Chemical Society. His group's research interests center around transition metal complex catalyzed or mediated reactions (e.g. cyclotrimerization and the C-C bond activation), organocatalysis, Dewar benzenes, and their application synthesis of natural and biologically active compounds.
