Alexander Ruf Dissertation
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TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN Previously unknown organomagnesium compounds in astrochemical context Alexander Ruf Dissertation TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN Fakultät Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan für Ernährung, Landnutzung und Umwelt Lehrstuhl für Analytische Lebensmittelchemie Previously unknown organomagnesium compounds in astrochemical context Alexander Ruf Vollständiger Abdruck der von der Fakultät Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan für Ernährung, Landnutzung und Umwelt der Technischen Universität München zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.) genehmigten Dissertation. Vorsitzender: Prof. Dr. Erwin Grill Prüfer der Dissertation: 1. apl. Prof. Dr. Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin 2. Prof. Dr. Michael Rychlik 3. Prof. Eric Quirico, PhD (Université Grenoble Alpes) Die Dissertation wurde am 06.12.2017 bei der Technischen Universität München ein- gereicht und durch die Fakultät Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan für Ernährung, Landnutzung und Umwelt am 18.01.2018 angenommen. Do we feel less open-minded, the more open-minded we are? A tribute to sensitivity and resolution... Acknowledgments This work has been prepared at the Helmholtz Zentrum München in the research unit Analytical BioGeoChemistry of apl. Prof. Dr. Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin, in collaboration with the Chair of Analytical Food Chemistry at the Technical Uni- versity of Munich. In the course of these years, I have relied on the courtesy and support of many to which I am grateful. The success of this PhD thesis would not have been possible without help and support of many wonderful people. First of all, I would like to thank the whole research group Analytical BioGeo- Chemistry for a very friendly, informal, and emancipated working atmosphere that formed day-by-day an enjoyable period of residence - it has felt like freedom! Small issues like having stimulating lunch discussions or going out into a bar, friendly peo- ple could be found herein to setting up a balance to scientific work. I am thankful for enabling travels to conferences and meetings. I am fullfilled, this level of ex- panding mindsets is priceless and crucial, both on a scientific and a personal level. However, a couple of people, deserve a mentioning by name to express them my deep gratitude. Philippe - as my PhD supervisor with always open doors to my issues. To me, it was an ideal degree of balancing inspiration, guidance, support and "letting me do my things". I am very grateful for the matter of trust into my work, e.g. at rep- resentations on conferences or at Munich SFB OLIM project meetings. In addition, thanks for "embedding" me into a huge scientific network, on which bases for many ideas on future projects have been created (e.g. Paola Caselli from observational and modling astrochemistry in space, Dieter Braun from orgin(s) of life research or Dirk Schulze-Makuch and Nancy W. Hinman from the field of astrobiology). Last but not least, Post Doc positions were thus enabled. One example, I want to high- light, is the successful story of the PNAS publication. Publishing in PNAS as a PhD student is hard to believe and simple amazing. This work was a product of multidiscliplinary, collaborative science, to which you introduced me so well! On a face-to-face level, thanks also for having instantaneously a sympathetic ear at all times for all kinds of problems, including private issues. I enormously acknowledge this incredible degree of flexibility. I am aware that this is not always an easy job to get into short discussions with me. Nevertheless, to me, these feeling of comfortabil- ity made me being creative and let science to be pushed forward. Interactions have felt barrierless, more like a friendship than a strict professor-student relationship. This kind of freedom is the spore of scientific success! Thanks, Philippe, for this hardly describable atmosphere. I am looking forward to the future ! Franco - daily work atmosphere was enhanced in quality due to our interactions. Thanks for having countless discussions and creative input on mass spectrometric data analysis, graph-theoretical problems, quantum chemistry, philosophy, politics, girlfriends, either in the office or at Isar. Those were always barrierless, open- minded discussions - discussions "über den Tellerrand hinaus". It has always felt to be self-explanatory to help each other - a good feeling! Creative ideas regarding visualization, graphs, etc. helped me a lot during various kinds of studies. Addition- ally, while writing this thesis at the moment, I am highly looking forward on your secret quotation, you will present during my PhD defense party. Addtional thanks for proof-reading of this thesis. Basem - helpful discussions, creating new ideas regarding theoretical and exper- imental background helped a lot during this doctoral time period. Your experience and gut feeling regarding quantum chemical computations is priceless! Addition- ally, I am highly grateful for your personal availability whenever I had problems or questions. Jenny, Astrid - thanks for all the "krims krams", which HAS to be done. What- ever, if bureaucratic issues or personally questions bothered me, you were always instantaneously willing to help. Anja - thanks a lot for every kind of help regarding administrative issues. In particular, reimbursement issues for travels and conferences went really smoothly thanks to your active and enthusiastic help. Eventhough, also these things HAVE to be checked rather than someone WANTS to do them, you created a convenient atmosphere including nice little words, also when working off these neccessary points from our lists. Norbert - thanks for "hardcore", fundamental discussions on basic chemistry issues regarding coordination compounds, especially during the period of detection and verification of dihydroxymagnesium carboxylates. Suggestions from NMR side helped to dig deeper in mechanistic understanding. Critical input always helps to optimize solid arguments and move further to feel confident of fundamentally new scientific knowledge! Additional thanks for numerous discussions on astrophysical, astrochemical and astrobiological topics, including their philosophical consequences. Not to forget: an amazing week in Paris together with Juliana in our shared flat - I highly enjoyed it! Addtional thanks for proof-reading of this thesis. Marianna - thanks for priceless help on multivariate data analytical problems. Dealing with our daily-life multi-dimensional data complexity, it would have been not possible to extract meaningful information without dealing with statistical data analysis. Daniel - thanks for always having a "helping hand", especially with R program- ming issues. Ryan - thanks for introducing me to "the grammar police". Nancy - thanks for open discussions on astrobiological, geochemical issues. Your experienced insights from NASA astrobiology background helped a lot in setting up hypothesis. Benedicte - thanks for constructive and efficient collaboration on astrobiological and geobiological problems. By discussing via email instantaneously or via lab exchanges, fruitful hypothesis were born. I am looking forward on their realizations in near future. Rainer (Augart) - herein, I don’t want to forget to mention people, who sup- ported me during "science kindergarten". Rainer, you were the initial motivator during my apprenticeship as a chemical lab assistant, forcing me to go deeper into theoretical chemical science. Sadly, I don’t have the opportunity anymore to express my deep gratitude personally to you, but I want to use this medium as an alter- native. Without setting the basis, paths cannot be followed! This should never be forgotten. Christian (Neusüß), Dirk Flottmann - in addition to previous words, I want to thank both of you for support during my BSc studies. Nonrestricted, open scien- tific discussions and stimulations to move forward into theoretical chemical science pushed me actually forward. An important issue, I don’t want to forget here, is the initiated contact by you, Christian, with Philippe in Munich. This connection set my scientific basis! Eric (Quirico), Michael Rychlik - thanks for flexible support and spontaneity while finishing this PhD thesis. Lee - highly deep gratitude for long ongoing friendship, which cannot be ex- pressed by any language. Our close interactions since over 20 years shaped my character as a person. I think, shared passion for various kinds of science (maths, physics, astronomy, chemistry, philosophy) or music issues (as the toco-jungs period) fixed us together and gave me inspriation in several areas all over the years. At a certain point, friendships are so deeply well-grounded that you don’t question them anymore. THANKS, beyond words.. Mama, Papa, Thomas - thanks for EVERYTHING ! Unconditional support in all kinds of situations or daily issues gave me freedom to have life as easy as possible. But not everything’s easy in daily life. Thank you also for supporting me when having had hard times in my life. In general, I feel grateful because of continuous interest in things I am doing. Thanks for listening for hours, when I am talking about science or other things, I am curious about. Even if scientific background diverges, you never quit in listening and show your interest in my issues. That’s a wonderful feeling! For this, I want to quote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "Alles, was den einen Menschen interessiert, wird auch in dem andern einen Anklang finden". Without your support, I would not be at the level where I am now ! Marie