Thomas Loerting was born in
Innsbruck where he also graduated from high-school ("Reithmanngymnasium") in 1992. He studied chemistry at the University of Innsbruck and received his
Master's degree in 1997. In 1998, over the course of his
Ph.D. in Innsbruck, Loerting was a guest lecturer at the
Gadjah Mada University in
Yogyakarta and the
Chulalongkorn University in
Bangkok, Thailand. He successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis titled "Kinetics of water mediated proton transfer in the atmosphere" in 2000. In 2001, he joined the team of Nobel laureate
Mario Molina at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Loerting returned to Innsbruck in 2004 as assistant professor working together with Erwin Mayer. His habilitation "Disordered water at low temperatures" was submitted 2007. In 2008, he was elected as member of the
Austrian Academy of Sciences ("Junge Kurie"). Since 2010, he is associate professor at the Institute of Physical Chemistry.[2] As of 2012, he is also speaker of the research platform "Advanced Materials", which counts over 10 research groups.[3] In addition to his academic work, he serves as advisor to the Austrian Luge Federation.
Research
Thomas Loerting research includes more than 180 peer-reviewed international publications with more than 8000 citations, resulting in a
h-index of 48 (as of October 2022).
His first contributions were in the field of Theoretical and Computational chemistry, contributing to the understanding of hydration of
sulfur dioxide and
sulfur trioxide as well as the decomposition of
chlorine nitrate, relevant to the chemistry of the atmosphere. He soon moved on to experiments where he advanced the field of
amorphous ices,
ice polymorphs and
carbonic acid over the course of his career.
Amorphous ices
Thomas Loerting provided significant contributions for the understanding of
polyamorphism in water. This includes the recognition of VHDA as third distinct amorphous state of
water[4] as well as extensive studies on structure and dynamics of low- and high-density amorphous ice (LDA and HDA) using
dilatometry,
spectroscopy,
calorimetry and
diffraction. One particularly notable finding was that LDA and HDA both exhibit
glass-to-liquid transitions at ambient pressure,[5] which provides support for the
LLCP scenario in water.[6]
Ice polymorphs
In addition to his achievements in the field of amorphous ices, Thomas Loerting is recognized for his works on crystalline ices, including the recent discovery of
ice XIX. Together with his team he provided the first experimental proof that for each hydrogen-disordered ice phase (in this case:
ice VI) several hydrogen-ordered counterparts (ices
XV and XIX) may exist.[7][8][9][10]
Cryochemistry
Another focus in the body of work of Thomas Loerting is acid-base chemistry under cryo-conditions. By employing the cryo-preparation and rapid quenching technique developed by Hage, Hallbrucker and Mayer,[11] coupled with
FTIR-spectroscopy of the solid and the matrix isolated species, Loerting and his co-workers have pioneered formation and isomerisation of carbonic acid and its derivatives.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]
Awards and fellowships
Thomas Loerting has received numerous awards for his scientific input. Among the most notable are:
^Hage, W.; Hallbrucker, A.; Mayer. E (1993). "Carbonic acid: synthesis by protonation of bicarbonate and FTIR spectroscopic characterization via a new cryogenic technique". J. Am. Chem. Soc. 115 (18): 8427–8431.
doi:
10.1021/ja00071a061.
^Tautermann, C. S.; Voegele, A. F.; Loerting, T.; Kohl, I.; Hallbrucker, A.; Mayer, E.; Liedl, K. R. (2002). "Towards the Experimental Decomposition Rate of Carbonic Acid (H2CO3) in Aqueous Solution". Chem. Eur. J. 8 (1): 66–73.
doi:
10.1002/1521-3765(20020104)8:1<66::AID-CHEM66>3.0.CO;2-F.
PMID11822465.
^Winkel, K; Hage, W; Loerting, T; Price, S. L.; Mayer, E. (2007). "Carbonic Acid: From Polyamorphism to Polymorphism". J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129 (45): 13863–13871.
doi:
10.1021/ja073594f.
PMID17944463.
^Kohl, I.; Winkel, K.; Bauer, M.; Liedl, K. R.; Loerting, T.; Mayer, E. (2009). "Raman Spectroscopic Study of the Phase Transition of Amorphous to Crystalline β-Carbonic Acid". Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 48 (15): 2690–2694.
doi:
10.1002/anie.200805300.
PMID19212997.
^Bernard, J.; Seidl, M.; Kohl, I.; Liedl, K. R.; Mayer, E.; Gálvez, Ó.; Grothe, H.; Loerting, T. (2011). "Spectroscopic Observation of Matrix-Isolated Carbonic Acid Trapped from the Gas Phase". Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 50 (8): 1939–1943.
doi:
10.1002/anie.201004729.
PMID21328675.
^Lester, I. M. (2015). "Announcement: Top reviewers for The Journal of Chemical Physics". J. Chem. Phys. 144 (19): 190201.
doi:
10.1063/1.4951669.
PMID27208926.