Thomas Bein received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Hamburg (Germany) and the Catholic University Leuven (Belgium) in 1984. He continued his studies as Visiting Scientist at the DuPont Central Research and Development Department in Wilmington, DE (USA). From 1986 to 1991 he was Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque (USA). In 1991 he joined Purdue University (Indiana) as Associate Professor, and was promoted to Full Professor of Chemistry in 1995. In 1999 he was appointed Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Munich (LMU), where he also served as Director of the Department of Chemistry.

His work has been recognized by several awards, including an ERC Advanced Grant focusing on Covalent Organic Frameworks. He has been co-founder and LMU-Coordinator of two national Excellence Clusters, including “e-conversion”. Bibliographic data: > 500 publications, > 58.000 citations, h=124. Since 2018, Thomas Bein has been listed as a Highly Cited Researcher (Clarivate).

His current research interests cover the synthesis and physical properties of functional nanostructures, with an emphasis on molecular frameworks and nanostructured materials for energy conversion applications.