The habilitated chemist has taught as a Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Leibniz Universität Hannover since 1998. There, Behrens was a member of the board and managing director of the institute.
The Inorganic Solid State and Materials Chemistry working group he headed was concerned, among other things, with the controlled synthesis of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) under mild conditions. These inorganic-organic hybrid materials were modelled using computational chemistry. Behrens' group also researched the functionalisation of solid surfaces, for example, to develop drug-releasing coatings for implants.
Peter Behrens was involved in various research networks at LUH, such as the Lower Saxony Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Implant Research and Development (NIFE), the Laboratory for Nano and Quantum Engineering (LNQE) and several clusters of excellence. For example, he was a member of the Cluster of Excellence Rebirth since 2007, the Cluster of Excellence Hearing4All since 2012 and the Cluster of Excellence PhoenixD since 2019.
At PhoenixD, he was part of the planning team from the beginning, prepared the application, built up the PhoenixD community, and gave PhoenixD its name by inventing the "D" for Disciplines. As a board member, he was responsible for setting up the PhoenixD Research School and the accompanying continuing education programme for doctoral students from the various institutes involved in the cluster. In addition, he was extraordinarily committed to university teaching and the interdisciplinary training of PhD students. The promotion of women in male-dominated natural science subjects was his particular concern.
During his long professional career, he supported numerous organisations, including being a member of the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research, the German Institute for Rubber Technology and the Braunschweig Scientific Society.
We will miss his scientifically and strategically significant contributions and his open and cordial nature.
A funeral service for family, friends and colleagues will be held on Saturday, 4 February 2023, at 2 pm in the Kali Chemistry Lecture Hall of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at Leibniz Universität Hannover (Callinstraße 3-9). The funeral will take place at a later date in the closest family circle.
Instead of flowers and wreaths, the family asks for a donation for the immuno-oncological working group of the Hannover Medical School (MHH) - password: Trauerfall Peter Behrens. The donation account of the Förderstiftung MHH plus has the international account number IBAN DE 95 2505 0180 0900 4444 44.
