Ralph Puchta, born in Munich (Germany), studied chemistry at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and obtained in 2003 his Ph.D. in organic chemistry on a quantum chemical and experimental study in the field of supramolecular chemistry under the supervision of Tim Clark and Rolf W. Saalfrank. In 2004 he joined the team of Rudi van Eldik at the Institute for Inorganic Chemistry in Erlangen, working computationally on mechanistic problems in coordination chemistry. In addition, he continued his theoretical studies on supramolecular chemistry. Since his habilitation in 2013 he is Privatdozent at the Chair of Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry in Erlangen, continuing his independent research and a number of national and international co-operations.