Andreas Hirsch was born in Esslingen, Germany, in 1960. He studied chemistry at the University of Tübingen, Germany, where he obtained his PhD in 1990 under Michael Hanack. He has carried out postdoctoral research at the Institute for Polymers and Organic Solids in Santa Barbara, California, with Fred Wudl. In 1991 he subsequently returned to Tübingen as research associate at the Institute for Organic Chemistry. After his Habilitation in 1994 he joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe as a professor. Since October 1995, he has been Full Profes-sor of Organic Chemistry at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg. Andreas Hirsch's main research activities have been focussed on the development of methodologies for efficient syntheses of exohedral derivatives of fullerenes and the use of such compounds as structural templates and building blocks for supramolecular architectures and nanomaterials. Other research interests are in the area of dendrimers, calixarene conjugates, new alkynes, new types of synthetic lipids and amphiphiles, model compounds for photoinduced charge separation, chemical derivatization and solubilization of carbon nanotubes, including the investigation of their synthetic potential and properties as new materials.

Michael Brettreich was born in Nürnberg, Germany in 1968. He studied chemistry in Erlangen and received his Ph. D. in 2000 in the group of Andreas Hirsch. From 2000 to 2001 he did postdoctoral research in the group of Fred Wudl at the UCLA. His research interests concentrate on the field of chemistry and supramolecular chemistry of fullerenes in particular the design of amphiphilic and watersoluble fullerene derivatives. Currently he holds an administrative position in the Institute for Organic Chemistry in Erlangen.