Prof. Barbara A. J. Lechner was awarded the national Ernst Haage Prize 2024. (Photo: Thomas Hobirg/MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion)
We are delighted to congratulate Prof. Barbara A.J. Lechner on being awarded the Ernst Haage Prize of the Max Planck Institutes in Mühlheim. The award ceremony took place at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion on 15 November 2024. Two things became apparent during this year’s Ernst Haage Prizes presentation. Firstly, modern chemical research is incredibly diverse and exciting. Secondly, regardless of which area of chemistry the scientists are researching, sustainability plays a crucial role in their work.
In his keynote lecture, Prof. Dr. Siegfried R. Waldvogel, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI CEC), discussed the role that electrochemistry will play in the future. He emphasized how much the share of renewable energies has increased in recent years – and will continue to increase in the future. According to Waldvogel, electrochemistry is of great value for the production of both synthetic fuels and fine chemicals. Among other things, this is because it is a relatively safe technology. Furthermore, it also produces little chemical waste. “Electrosynthesis is a very big playground,” Waldvogel is convinced.
The winners of the Ernst Haage Prize 2024 (from left to right): Prof. Dr. Barbara A.J. Lechner, Tim Schulte, Dr. Shen-Hsiang Lin, Elisabeth Glöckler, Hinrich Kludig. (Photo: Thomas Hobirg/MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion)
To advance chemical research regarding sustainability, a deeper understanding of the many processes within a reaction is needed in many areas. This became clear in the lecture by prizewinner Prof. Dr. Barbara A. J. Lechner. The e-conversion expert, who teaches at the Technical University of Munich, was awarded the national Ernst Haage Prize this year.
The Ernst Haage Prize for doctoral students and postdocs was awarded to Tim Schulte, who works in Prof. Tobias Ritter’s team at the Max Planck Institute für Kohlenforschung. He succeeded with young researchers in making the risky chemistry with aryl diazonium salts significantly safer. The second Ernst Haage Prize in this category went to Dr. Shen-Hsiang Lin, who completed his doctorate in the department of Prof. Dr. Walter Leitner at the MPI CEC. He gave a lecture on the innovative method of magnetic catalysis.
Since 2006, the Ernst Haage Prize has been awarded to young scientists for outstanding achievements in chemistry and promotes young scientists in particular. The award is endowed with prize money of € 7,500. The Ernst Haage Prize is named after the Mülheim entrepreneur Ernst Haage, who died in 1968 and was closely associated with research at the Max Planck Institutes in Mülheim since 1932 through his scientific and technical instruments, devices, and apparatus. The education of young people was always important to him.