Robert Mayer

Robert Mayer leads the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group in Physical Organic Chemistry in Catalysis and the Emergence of Life at the Technical University of Munich. His research integrates experimental and computational approaches to study complex catalytic systems and prebiotic reaction networks.

His group develops high-throughput physical organic chemistry methods, combining robotics, kinetics, and data science to predict organic reaction outcomes. Key investigations include catalytic mechanisms in water, nonenzymatic metabolic pathways, and the chemical origins of life.

Dr. Mayer holds a Ph.D. from Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, where he developed nucleophilicity scales and Lewis acid ranking systems. As a postdoctoral fellow at Université de Strasbourg, he explored prebiotic amino acid metabolism. His honors include the Liebig Fellowship, Emmy-Noether program funding, and membership in the Bavarian Academy's Junges Kolleg.

Research infrastructure includes stopped-flow kinetics, automated liquid handling systems, and computational resources for mechanistic modeling.