Hengstberger Award Prize winner 2025

For a long time, these metals were considered the only viable option for developing efficient catalysts but this dogma is now being challenged: main-group elements (p-block, groups 13–18), which are abundant and often non-toxic, are gaining increasing importance as redox catalysts. To firmly establish these p-block elements as sustainable building blocks for the next generation of catalysts, the central question now is how the redox properties of these elements can be purposefully designed, controlled, and harnessed in sustainable catalytic systems. Although promising research approaches already exist across various disciplines — from the structure-oriented perspective of inorganic chemistry to the transformation-oriented approach of organic chemistry — these efforts are still rarely integrated and discussed in a broader context. Industrial perspectives, as well as contributions from materials science, physics, and engineering, have likewise received little attention so far. The planned symposium therefore brings together international experts from these diverse fields to identify shared challenges and develop interdisciplinary strategies. The program is organized thematically around the main-group elements to highlight trends and synergies. In addition to talks and discussions, the meeting facilitates knowledge transfer and promotes Heidelberg as an international hub for catalysis research. The symposium Breaking Paradigms: Main-Group Elements in Redox Catalysis thus aims to mark a milestone in the ongoing development of main-group redox catalysis.