1. Introduction

Richard Dronskowski (born 11 November 1961, in Brilon) is a German chemist and physicist. He is a full professor at the RWTH Aachen University.

2. Life

Dronskowski studied chemistry and physics at the University of Münster from 1981 to 1986.^[1] He completed his chemistry diploma with Bernt Krebs and Arndt Simon in 1987.^[1] He finished his physics diploma with Ole Krogh Andersen and Johannes Pollmann in 1989.^[1] He received his doctorate under supervision of Arndt Simon at the University of Stuttgart.^[1] From 1991 to 1992, he was a visiting scientist in the group of Roald Hoffmann at Cornell University.^[2] In 1995, he finished his habilitation at the University of Dortmund. Since 1997, he is a full professor at the RWTH Aachen University.^[1]

3. Research

His research focuses on the following topics:^[2]

• solid-state chemistry
• quantum chemistry
• nitrides
• carbodiimides
• guanidinates
• intermetallics
• steel
• phase-change materials
• chemical bonding (e.g., Crystal Orbital Hamilton Populations)
• ab initio thermochemistry
• structural chemistry
• neutron diffraction

4. Awards

• 1990 Otto Hahn Medal (Max Planck Society)^[2]
• 1996 Prize of Angewandte Chemie^[3]
• 1997 Chemistry Lecturer Prize (Fonds der chemischen Industrie)^[2]
• 2014 Distinguished Professorship (RWTH Aachen University)^[4]
• 2015 Innovation Award (RWTH Aachen University)^[5]
• 2017 Egon Wiberg Lecture (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)^[3]

5. Selected Publications

R. Dronskowski, P. E. Blöchl, Crystal Orbital Hamilton Populations (COHP). Energy-Resolved Visualization of Chemical Bonding in Solids Based on Density-Functional Calculations, J. Phys. Chem. 1993, 97, 8617.

G. A. Landrum, R. Dronskowski, The Orbital Origins of Magnetism: From Atoms to Molecules to Ferromagnetic Alloys, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2000, 39, 1560.

X. Liu, M. Krott, P. Müller, C. Hu, H. Lueken, R. Dronskowski, Synthesis, Crystal Structure, and Properties of MnNCN, the First Carbodiimide of a Magnetic Transition Metal, Inorg. Chem. 2005, 44, 3001.

M. Wuttig, D. Lüsebrink, D. Wamwangi, W. Wełnic, M. Gilleßen, R. Dronskowski, The role of vacancies and local distortions in the design of new phase-change materials, Nature Materials 2007, 6, 122.

Richard Dronskowski, Computational chemistry of solid state materials: A guide for materials scientists, chemists, physicists and others. John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

R. P. Stoffel, C. Wessel, M.-W. Lumey, R. Dronskowski, Ab Initio Thermochemistry of Solid-State Materials, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 5242.

V. L. Deringer, A. L. Tchougréeff, R. Dronskowski, Crystal Orbital Hamilton Population (COHP) Analysis as Projected from Plane-Wave Basis Sets, J. Phys. Chem. A 2011, 115, 5461.

P. K. Sawinski, M. Meven, U. Englert, R. Dronskowski, Single-crystal neutron diffraction study on guanidine, CN₃H₅, Cryst. Growth and Design 2013, 13, 1730.

V. L. Deringer, R. P. Stoffel, A. Togo, B. Eck, M. Meven, R. Dronskowski, Ab initio ORTEP drawings: a case study of N-based molecular crystals with different chemical nature, CrystEngComm 2014, 16, 10907.

R. Missong, J. George, A. Houben, R. Dronskowski, Synthesis, Structure, and Properties of SrC(NH)₃, a Nitrogen-based Carbonate Analogue with the Trinacria Motif, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 12171.

X. Liu, J. George, S. Maintz, R. Dronskowski, β-CuN₃: The Overlooked Ground-State Polymorph of Copper Azide with Heterographene-Like Layers, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 1954.

P. Jacobs, A. Houben, W. Schweika, A. L. Tchougréeff, R. Dronskowski, A Rietveld refinement method for angular- and wavelength-dispersive neutron time-of-flight powder-diffraction data, J. Appl. Crystallogr. 2015, 48, 1627.

M. T. Sougrati, A. Darwiche, X. Liu, A. Mahmoud, R. P. Hermann, S. Jouen, L. Monconduit, R. Dronskowski, L. Stievano, Transition-metal carbodiimides as Molecular Negative Electrode Materials for Lithium- and Sodium-Ion Batteries with Excellent Cycling Performances, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 5090.

S. Maintz, V. L. Deringer, A. L. Tchougréeff, R. Dronskowski, LOBSTER: A Tool to Extract Chemical Bonding from Plane-Wave Based DFT, J. Comput. Chem. 2016, 37, 1030.

R. Dronskowski, S. Kikkawa, A. Stein (Eds.): Handbook of Solid State Chemistry (in six volumes), Wiley-VCH (2017).