Preface

This issue of the Journal of Inclusion Phenomena and Macrocyclic Chemistry is dedicated to Professor Karsten Gloe on the occasion of his 70th Birthday. Karsten was born in 1947 in Neustadt/Harz, a small village in the Harz mountains of Germany. He was graduated in chemistry from TU Dresden in 1969 and received his Dr.rer.nat. in organophosphorus chemistry from this university in 1972. In addition, he obtained a postgraduate degree in radiochemistry at TU Dresden in 1981. In 1988 he received the Dr.sc.nat. from the former GDR Academy of Sciences in Berlin based on his work on structure–property relationships of macrocycles and related open-chain compounds in metal extraction. In 1992 Karsten joined the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of TU Dresden becoming the Chair of Coordination Chemistry.

His scientific career has spanned more than 40 years in chemical sciences at the Institute of Solid State Physics and Materials Research of the former GDR Academy of Sciences in Dresden (1972–1991) and at the Technical University Dresden (1992–2013), specializing in both fundamental and applied aspects of solvent extraction, coordination and supramolecular chemistry. The first scientific period (together with Prof. Peter Mühl) was characterized especially by application-oriented metal extraction studies which were used for the preparation of high-purity materials and the recovery of valuable or toxic components from secondary raw materials and effluents. During that time he had a close cooperation with research groups in the former GDR (Prof. Jörg Beger, TU Freiberg; Prof. Eberhard Hoyer and Prof. Lothar Beyer, University of Leipzig; Prof. Erhard Uhlemann, University of Potsdam; Prof. Egon Uhlig, University of Jena) and in the former Soviet Union (Prof. Yu.A. Zolotov, USSR Academy of Science, Moscow; Prof. L.M. Gindin; Prof. A.I. Kholkin, USSR Academy of Science, Novosibirsk). In the second working period after Germany’s unification, fundamental problems of coordination and supramolecular chemistry of cations and anions were at the forefront of the studies ranging from synthesis to complexation studies and molecular modeling. Karsten started very fruitful collaboration with Fritz Vögtle’s group at the University of Bonn, Edwin Weber’s group at TU Freiberg, Franz-Peter Schmidtchen’s group at TU Munich, Len Lindoy’s group at James Cook University (Townsville) and the University of Sydney, Martin Schröder’s group at the University of Nottingham and Peter Tasker’s group at the University of Edinburgh that resulted in the publication of a series of joint papers on cation and anion binding by tailor-made supramolecular receptors and their extraction behavior. A very close cooperation in the field of metal extraction was also established with Japanese colleagues from Saga University (Prof. Katsutoshi Inoue, Prof. Keisuke Ohto) and from the University of Kitakyushu (Prof. Kazuharu Yoshizuka).

Karsten’s career has had a major impact on the introduction of supramolecular chemical principles in solvent extraction and the development of selective receptors for cations and anions. He has, to date, published several patents and some 250 scientific papers and reviews. He has acted as a member of the board of German solvent extraction association between 1994 and 2014. Since 2002 he is serving on the editorial board of the journal “Solvent Extraction and Ion Exchange” (Taylor & Francis, Philadelphia/USA). His work in the area of supramolecular chemistry was internationally recognized by permission being given to the Dresden team to organize the 30th International Symposium on Macrocyclic Chemistry in 2005 in Dresden. On occasion of this symposium he edited the book “Macrocyclic Chemistry. Current Trends and Future Perspectives” (published by Springer, Dordrecht/NL).