Name?
Hello! I'm Frank Dissinger and I'm your candidate on the academia list.
Age?
27, how ist hat important?
What is your professional/academic background?
Between 2010 and 2015 I studied chemistry in Mainz. In 2013-14 I spent a semester abroad in Scotland at the University of Aberdeen. In the group of Prof. Feldmann's, I did research on total fluorine determination using AAS. Since 2015 I have been working on my PhD thesis in the group of Prof. Waldvogel at the University of Mainz. Our group is mainly focused on organic/electrochemistry, but in the context of a DFG research unit I am more interested in semiconductors, optoelectronic devices, nanowires and organic surface modification. Therefore i collaborate with experimental physicists, engineers, and theorists in various groups spread all around Germany.
What are your plans fort he future?
First of all, of course, I hope to successfully finish my PhD project. After that, I would like to continue working in research and development. Whether this will be at a university or in a company depends on the offer.
How have you been in contact with the GDCh so far?
I have been a member of the GDCh since 2014 and mainly active in the JCF Mainz/Wiesbaden. Here I have organized and realized different lectures and information events. In 2015 I took par tat the WiFo in Dresden, my first GDCh conference. In 2016 I visited Kiel for my first JCF spring symposium. I really enjoyed this inter-regional side of the JCF, so I went to Halle in 2016 to the speaker meeting, at that time still as a substitute. After that I became elected to be a member of the speaker team here in Mainz in 2017. During the spring symposium 2017 in Mainz I was mainly involved in on-site management as well as acting as a session chair.
What was your most exciting project so far and why?
The 20th anniversary of the spring symposium was a pile of hard work and a lot of fun as well. Generally, every organizing team tries to make everything bigger, better, more extravaganmt than the year before. But still everything remains within a reasonably defined framework. So I would say that the planning of the symposium "Sustainability - renew, resource, rethink" at the ACHEMA 2018 was even more exciting. On the one hand it was created in cooperation with the JuWiChem and the EYCN and on the other hand it was a completely new project. A few known basic conditions but otherwise no restrictions or specifications. Extraordenary chance to test some ideas, to network a lot, to let your creativity run free, to buy skydancers, etc...
What would you like to achieve in the GDCh executive board?
Katharina and I consider ourselves representatives of the interests of all the 10.000 young chemists. Of course, some of my personal ideas also found their way into OUR campaign, that you can find here. My probably most important concern is the positioning of the GDCh and thus of chemistry in the broad society. We urgently need to leave our comfort zone and actively engage in dialogue with doubters and skeptics. We must no longer hesitate from acting as experts on controversial issues.
Where can one meet you?
At work, swimming, at the bar? You will hear me…
How to contact you best?
Write an email to