Prof. Lercher’s research addresses fundamental aspects of catalysts and catalyzed reactions that enable catalysis to lower the carbon footprint via new approaches to synthesize energy carriers and chemical intermediates. The research is focused to realize catalyzed conversions at significantly lower reaction temperatures and with higher selectivity than possible today. Two aspects of enzyme sites, i.e., the tight fit of the space around the active site and the chemical functionality of this space, are used as guideline to synthesize novel catalysts. The in-depth characterization of the nature and structure of such catalytically active sites, of their chemical functionality and of the space around it, as well as of the molecules populating this space is the key to the successful realization of this strategy. The pores of catalysts and the molecules surrounding their active centers stabilize ground and excited states of reactants, intermediates, and products. Johannes studies the dynamic evolution of catalysts such as zeolites, molecular organic frameworks and supported metal catalysts throughout their lifespan and spectroscopically monitors changes during catalyst synthesis, sorption and reactions. The work combines advanced physicochemical methods to characterize the structure and electronic state of these materials as well as the reactions including IR, Raman, solid state NMR spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy.