Former PhD student, currently Postdoc with Prof. Dirk Trauner (NYU).

Christian grew up in Bern and studied chemistry at the University of Basel. He worked with Prof. O. S. Wenger and Prof. K. Gademann and completed his Master's thesis in the Sparr group. Since 2014, Christian pursues his PhD with a focus on the development of 1,5-bifunctional organometallic reagents for the [5+1]-de-novo construction of arenes from carboxylic acid esters. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as sensitive mono-substituted tetracenes and pentacenes were already efficiently prepared by this methodology. The ideal reactivity of 1,5-bifunctional organometallic reagents towards esters is currently investigated to prepare other compounds relevant for the material and life sciences.
Christian further enjoys sports and photography.

Catalyst-Control over Sixfold Stereogenicity
X. Wu,⁺ R. M. Witzig,⁺ R. Beaud, C. Fischer, D. Häussinger, C. Sparr*
Nat. Cat. 2021, 4, 457–462. (⁺ denotes equal contributions). Preprint deposited on ChemRxiv.

Design and application of aminoacridinium organophotoredox catalysts
B. Zilate, C. Fischer, C. Sparr*
Chem. Commun. 2020,  56, 1767–1775. Invited feature article

Modulation of Acridinium Organophotoredox Catalysts Guided by Photophysical Studies
C. Fischer,⁺ C. Kerzig,⁺ B. Zilate, O. S. Wenger,* C. Sparr*
ACS Catal. 2020,  10, 210–215. (⁺ denotes equal contributions)

Scalable Synthesis of Acridinium Catalysts for Photoredox Deuterations
B. Zilate, C. Fischer, L. Schneider, C. Sparr*
Synthesis 2019,  51, 4359–4365. Practical Synthetic Procedure

Modulation of Acridinium Organophotoredox Catalysts Guided by Photophysical Studies
C. Fischer,⁺ C. Kerzig,⁺ B. Zilate, O. S. Wenger,* C. Sparr*
ACS Catal. 2019,  9, in print. (⁺ denotes equal contributions)

Configurationally Stable Atropisomeric Acridinium Fluorophores
C. Fischer, C. Sparr*
Synlett 2018, 29, 2176–2180. Special Issue in memoriam Kurt Mislow (invited)

Synthesis of 1,5-Bifunctional Organolithium Reagents by a Double Directed ortho-Metalation: Direct Transformation of Esters into 1,8-Dimethoxy-Acridinium Salts
C. Fischer, C. Sparr*
Tetrahedron2018, 74, 2436–2440.

Direct Transformation of Esters into Heterocyclic Fluorophores
C. Fischer, C. Sparr*
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.2018, 57, 2436–2440.

A 1,5-Bifunctional Organomagnesium Reagent for the Synthesis of Disubstituted Anthracenes and Anthrones
A. Link, C. Fischer, C. Sparr*
Synthesis2017, 49, 397–402.
Invited contribution, special issue dedicated to Prof. Dieter Enders

Direct Transformation of Esters into Arenes with 1,5-Bifunctional Organo­magnesium Reagents
A. Link, C. Fischer, C. Sparr*
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.2015, 54, 12163–12166.