Holger Friedrich completed his Ph.D. in organometallic chemistry, at the University of Cape Town, under the supervision of John Moss. He then took up an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the Technical University of Munich before joining the University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal) as a lecturer.  He was promoted to full professor in 2009.  He retains an interest in homogeneous catalysis (oxidation, transfer hydrogenation), though his dominant research is in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. He is interested in a wide range of catalytic transformations, which include oxidation, oxidative dehydrogenation, dehydrogenation, CO2-assisted dehydrogenation, hydrogenation, valorization of bio-feedstocks, and catalytic combustion. A major focus of his group is on the synthesis of novel catalytic materials and pioneering new synthesis methodologies. To date, he has supervised the successful completion of ca. 100 MSc and Ph.D. projects and published some 280 papers.

– University of Kwazulu-Natal