The Pallitsch Group
Current group members
Kathi Pallitsch (Group Leader)
Kathi completed her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Vienna in 2015. After a short postdoctoral stay the Department for Biomedical Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy (Medical University of Vienna), she became an independent group leader at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Vienna in 2016. Since 2016, she was head of three FWF-funded stand-alone projects, on the “Unusual Enzymes of Phosphonate Metabolism”, “The Synthesis of Fluorinated Rare Sugars” and “Phosphonate-based Enzyme Inhibitors”.
She is engaged in staff representation activities, acted as spokeswoman of the entire scientific staff at the University of Vienna from 2019-2025 and is an active member of the University Senate. She is passionate about teaching and is involved in the teaching of courses of each level – from Bachelor to PhD students.
PhD students
Sebastian-Felix Fritz
Sebastian studied Chemistry at the University of Vienna and graduated in group of Katharina Pallitsch in 2024 with his thesis focusing on the synthesis of enantioselectively deuterated phosphonates for enzyme mechanistic studies. During his undergadaute studies he spent an Erasmus semester in Bergen (NOR) with a focus on organic chemistry and lipid chemistry. During his interdisciplinary Master thesis he successfully applied for a short-term research stay at Pennsylvania State University where he was able to work in the group of Prof. Martin J. Bollinger, Jr. using the compounds he made
He is highly engaged in student representation activities since 2018, particularly in freshman tutorials and is an engaged teacher in laboratory courses for Bachelor students. Since 2025 he is student representative of the Vienna Doctoral School in Chemistry (DoSChem).
Florian Götzinger
Florian obtained his BSc in Chemistry from the University of Vienna, where he completed his bachelor’s thesis in the Maulide Group. He then pursued his MSc at the same institution and conducted the research for his Master’s thesis in the Pallitsch group. His work focuses on organophosphorus chemistry, particularly the synthesis of phosphonates as target molecules for biological studies. While his research centers on the synthetic aspects, his contributions support ongoing interdisciplinary investigations at the interface of chemistry and biology.
Since March 2026 he is working on his PhD projects in the Pallitsch group and is an engaged teacher in laboratory courses for students from food sciences.
Naomi Müller
Naomi completed her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Vienna in 2023, with a thesis focused on the synthesis of BODIPY-conjugated fluorescent analogues of retinoic acid. Alongside her biology studies, she achieved her degree in Chemistry, conducting thesis research in the group of Katharina Pallitsch on the enantioselective deuteration of phosphonates for enzyme mechanistic studies. After having completed her Master’s degree in Chemistry at the University of Vienna, where her work focused on the stereoselective synthesis of pantaphos and unsaturated analogues, she started her PhD in the Pallitsch group in June 2026
She is a highly motivated tutor for the organic synthesis laboratory course for undergraduate students.
Master Students
Annika Schindler
Annika studied chemistry at the University of Vienna. She conducted the work for her Bachelor thesis in our group and we are more than happy that she decided to return for her Master thesis, which is dealing with the synthesis of mechanism-based inhibitors of PhnI and PhnJ. She is not only a passionate teacher, which she already proved as a tutor for several semesters, but also a volunteer in her local fire brigade, which comes in handy in our lab from time to time.
Impressions
Former Group Members
| Tina Schmidt, MSc | Tina's Linkedin profile |
| Fanny Kormout, MSc | PhD candidate, group of Prof. Dennis Kurzbach, UniVie |
| Kristof Braunsteiner, MSc | Kristof's Linkedin profile |
| Dr. Tamara Dinhof | Coca Cola Quality and Food Safety Leadership Trainee |
| Kaja Liepert, MSc | PhD candidate, group of Prof. Robert Liska, TU Wien |
| Dr. Lukas Scheibelberger | Process Chemist, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Linz |
| Dr. Toda Stanković | Head of Quality Control, Citrics, Jungbunzlauer Wulzeshofen |
| Dr. Thomas Kalina | Bundesamt für Eich- und Vermessungswesen |
Contact box
Katharina Pallitsch
Privatdoz.
Institute of Organic Chemistry
Faculty of Chemistry - University of Vienna
Währingerstraeß 38
1090 Vienna
+431427752105
ORCID