# Christoph A. Schalley
**Christoph A. Schalley** (born 1968 in Krefeld, Germany) is a German organic and supramolecular chemist who held the professorship of Organic Chemistry at the Freie Universität Berlin from October 2005 until it ended on 1 January 2026.[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html) • [2](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/_News/ByeBye.html) According to an interview in *Organic Chemistry Frontiers*, he is known for mass spectrometry of noncovalent interactions, template-directed rotaxane synthesis, and self-sorting in supramolecular assembly.[3](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/qo/c6qo90041k) He has been a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry since 2016.[3](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/qo/c6qo90041k)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Field | Organic and supramolecular chemistry, gas-phase ion chemistry |
| Professorship | Organic Chemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, October 2005 to 1 January 2026[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html) • [2](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/_News/ByeBye.html) |
| Training | PhD with Helmut Schwarz, Technische Universität Berlin, 1994–1997; postdoc with Julius Rebek, Jr., Scripps Research Institute, 1998–1999[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html) |
| Signature work | 2015 *Chemical Society Reviews* review that coined "integrative self-sorting"[4](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2015/cs/c4cs00305e) |
| Honors | Mattauch-Herzog award of the German Society for Mass Spectrometry (2006); FRSC (2016)[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html) • [3](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/qo/c6qo90041k) |
| DFG record | about a dozen completed DFG projects, 2000–2024; SFB subprojects 2002–2026[5](https://gepris.dfg.de/person/1682200) |
| Output | According to an interview in *Organic Chemistry Frontiers*, more than 200 publications and eight edited books[3](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/qo/c6qo90041k) |
## Education and career
Schalley studied chemistry from October 1988 to January 1994 at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg and the Technische Universität Berlin; his diploma thesis, on metal-mediated CH and CC activation of cyclopropylketones in the gas phase, was done in the group of [Helmut Schwarz](https://www.edgepedia.org/helmut-schwarz) at TU Berlin.[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html) His PhD thesis, "Gas-Phase Ion Chemistry of Peroxides", was completed with Schwarz from January 1994 to April 1997 and accepted at TU Berlin in 1997; it was published by Shaker and covered neutralization-reionization mass spectrometry of organic peroxides.[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html) • [6](https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/3FWMRHXF42KRH7ULQAQNGVWAN4X75WCU) He then spent 1997 as a research associate with Schwarz working on neutralization-reionization mass spectrometry.[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html)
Supported by a Leopoldina fellowship, he was a postdoc in the group of [Julius Rebek](https://www.edgepedia.org/julius-rebek), Jr. at the Scripps Research Institute in [La Jolla](https://www.edgepedia.org/la-jolla) from January 1998 to June 1999, studying supramolecular capsules in the high vacuum of a mass spectrometer.[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html) • [3](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/qo/c6qo90041k) Returning to Germany, he habilitated at the Kekulé-Institut für Organische Chemie und Biochemie of the Universität Bonn from July 1999 to July 2003 as a Liebig fellow of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie, and started his independent career in rotaxane chemistry there.[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html) • [3](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/qo/c6qo90041k) He was Privatdozent in Bonn from August 2003 to September 2005.[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html)
In July 2005 he declined a call to a professorship in Organic Chemistry at the University of Erlangen/[Nuremberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/nuremberg), and since October 2005 he has been professor for Organic Chemistry at the Freie Universität Berlin, leading the Arbeitsgruppe Organische und Supramolekulare Chemie.[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html) • [5](https://gepris.dfg.de/person/1682200) He was Adjunct Professor at the School of Life Sciences of the Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi'an, China, from January 2017 to December 2019, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Hiroshima in April 2017.[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html)
## Research
[Mass spectrometry](https://www.edgepedia.org/mass-spectrometry) of noncovalent complexes. Schalley was among the mass spectrometrists who popularized investigating non-covalent complexes under environment-free conditions in high vacuum. In the gas phase the dynamic exchange processes seen in solution are suppressed, and intramolecular reactivity is observed instead, offering a distinct view of reaction mechanisms within supramolecular complexes.[3](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/qo/c6qo90041k) His Scripps work applied this combination of solution and gas-phase methods: a 1998 study in the *Journal of the American Chemical Society* showed by ¹H NMR and ESI-MS that quaternary ammonium ion guests are encapsulated in self-assembling hydrogen-bonded capsules, with competition experiments giving a lower limit of about 3.6 kcal/mol for the cation–π contribution to ionic-guest encapsulation.[7](https://doi.org/10.1021/ja9836848) According to a review in *Angewandte Chemie*, he co-authored with Andreas Springer the Wiley-Interscience book *Mass Spectrometry and Gas-Phase Chemistry of Non-Covalent Complexes: Supramolecular Chemistry in the Gas Phase* in the Wiley-Interscience Series on Mass Spectrometry.[8](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201001128)
Rotaxanes and self-sorting. In a 2015 *Chemical Society Reviews* article, Schalley's group coined "integrative self-sorting": forming well-defined supramolecular assemblies with well-controlled subunit positions by incorporating two or more orthogonal binding motifs into at least some subunits. According to the review, the strategy—termed 'integrative self-sorting'—connects to systems chemistry and can yield multi-stimuli responsiveness and kinetic pathway selection when recognition events occur on different time scales.[4](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2015/cs/c4cs00305e) His group observed kinetic path selection even though the final product forms under thermodynamic control.[3](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/qo/c6qo90041k)
Within the DFG Collaborative Research Center SFB 765 on multivalency, his subproject A01 (2008–2019) studied multivalent, multiply threaded (pseudo)rotaxanes switched by external stimuli, with [supramolecular polymers](https://www.edgepedia.org/supramolecular-polymer) acting as "molecular muscles" that contract and expand to generate precisely controlled mechanical motion, grounded in thermodynamic analyses of allosteric, chelate, and interannular cooperativity of the multivalent bond.[9](https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/63629180?language=en)
Responsive gels and surfaces. His group prepared multistimuli-responsive gels on which a variety of logic gates can be implemented, reported a simple route to superhydrophobic and [slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces](https://www.edgepedia.org/slippery-liquid-infused-porous-surface) using supramolecular gels with perfluorinated side chains on glass, and showed that mono- and multilayers of chemically switchable rotaxanes on gold switch concertedly between two clearly distinguishable states.[3](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/qo/c6qo90041k) His research portfolio spans rotaxanes, supramolecular gas-phase chemistry, thermodynamic analysis of multivalent and cooperative binding, stimuli-responsive switchable gels, and switchable rotaxane surface layers.[3](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/qo/c6qo90041k)
## Representative work
The 2015 *Chemical Society Reviews* review "Integrative self-sorting: a versatile strategy for the construction of complex supramolecular architecture" ([DOI](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2015/cs/c4cs00305e)) defined a strategy now used across systems chemistry: assemblies in which subunits occupy controlled positions because each carries orthogonal binding motifs.[4](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2015/cs/c4cs00305e)
## Honors and funding
Schalley received the Mattauch-Herzog award of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Massenspektrometrie in 2006 for his work on the mass spectrometry and gas-phase chemistry of non-covalent complexes.[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html) • [3](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/qo/c6qo90041k) His other honors include a Heisenberg fellowship of the DFG, the Liebig fellowship of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (1999–2002), a Leopoldina postdoc fellowship (1998–1999), the Schering award (1998), the 100 talents prize of Shaanxi province, China (2017), four Freie Universität Berlin excellence-in-teaching awards (2008, 2013, 2014, 2017), and fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2016).[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html)
The DFG registry GEPRIS lists about a dozen completed DFG-funded projects between 2000 and 2024 and none currently running; among them are rotaxane-based bifunctional catalysts and molecular motors (2000–2008), gas-phase host–guest chemistry of dendritic molecules (2004–2014), self-sorting for complex topological structures (2009–2013), layer-by-layer self-assembly of macrocycles and rotaxanes (2009–2013), and electrochemical switching of crown ether/ammonium rotaxanes (2020–2024).[5](https://gepris.dfg.de/person/1682200) He also participated in Collaborative Research Center projects from about 2002 to 2026, including SFB 765 multivalency subprojects (about 2008–2019), a microreactor-ESI-MS project on cluster nucleation (2014–2017), and the subproject "Fluor-Spezifische Wechselwirkungen an Grenzflächen" (about 2019–2026).[5](https://gepris.dfg.de/person/1682200) The CV and GEPRIS date his Heisenberg fellowship differently, 2004–2005 and 2003–2005 respectively; both are cited here without resolution.[1](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html) • [5](https://gepris.dfg.de/person/1682200)
## Recent developments
In 2023 his group published a review in *Chem* on self-sorting as a strategy in the synthesis of rotaxanes and catenanes, a topic that has attracted the attention of numerous supramolecular chemists, and an article in the *Israel Journal of Chemistry* on the mobility of homomeric lasso- and daisy chain-like rotaxanes in solution and in the gas phase as a means to study structure and switching behavior.[10](https://www.cell.com/chem/fulltext/S2451-9294(23)00134-1) • [11](https://doi.org/10.1002/ijch.202300022) His last DFG individual grant ended in 2024, though SFB participation continued to 2026.[5](https://gepris.dfg.de/person/1682200) According to a Schalley Group announcement, he terminated his professorship at the Freie Universität Berlin effective 1 January 2026 and is now working on the banks of Röblinsee lake in northern [Brandenburg](https://www.edgepedia.org/brandenburg).[2](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/_News/ByeBye.html)
## References
1. [Christoph Schalley • Schalley Group • Curriculum Vitae](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/Curriculum_Vitae/index.html)
2. [Bye Bye Schalley Group! • Schalley Group](https://www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/en/chemie/chemie/forschung/OrgChem/schalley/_News/ByeBye.html)
3. [Interview with Christoph A. Schalley, Organic Chemistry Frontiers](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/qo/c6qo90041k)
4. [Integrative self-sorting: a versatile strategy for the construction of complex supramolecular architecture, Chemical Society Reviews](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2015/cs/c4cs00305e)
5. [DFG GEPRIS: Professor Dr. Christoph A. Schalley](https://gepris.dfg.de/person/1682200)
6. [Gas phase ion chemistry of peroxides, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek](https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/3FWMRHXF42KRH7ULQAQNGVWAN4X75WCU)
7. [Characterization of Self-Assembling Encapsulation Complexes in the Gas Phase and Solution, JACS](https://doi.org/10.1021/ja9836848)
8. [Mass Spectrometry and Gas-Phase Chemistry of Non-Covalent Complexes, Wiley](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201001128)
9. [DFG GEPRIS: SFB 765 project A01](https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/63629180?language=en)
10. https://www.cell.com/chem/fulltext/S2451-9294(23)00134-1
11. [The Mobility of Homomeric Lasso- and Daisy Chain-Like Rotaxanes in Solution and in the Gas Phase, Israel Journal of Chemistry](https://doi.org/10.1002/ijch.202300022)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Physical world and mathematics › Physical and mathematical scientists › Chemists › Researchers in polymer, supramolecular, and materials chemistry › Supramolecular chemistry and host–guest systems*
*Initially written Sep 21, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 25, 2026; Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 25, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
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