Karsten Koppe joined Merck KGaA in Darmstadt, Germany, in January 2016 working in R&D on fluorine chemistry activities. Prior to his appointment at Merck, he worked at the University of Duisburg/Essen and the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf in research co-operations with industry partners from 2004 to 2015. During this time he developed materials for a variety of applications, amongst others catalysts for organic syntheses, task-specific ionic liquids, and perfluorinated compounds for the use as fluorosurfactants. In October 2005 he received his PhD in the field of fluorine chemistry from the University of Duisburg/Essen (H.-J. Frohn) and McMaster University (G.J. Schrobilgen).