D-CHAB News

Dr. Tomas Fiala, postdoc at the LOC, is one of the 8 researchers who received the prestigious Branco Weiss Fellowship in 2023, awarded by ETH Zurich to outstanding postdocs. His research aims to uncover how protein post-translational modifications direct the immune response in the brain, affecting brain homeostasis and the development of neurodegenerative disorders. The followship allows him to pursue his research for up to five years at an institute of his choice anywhere in the world.

Prof. Renato Zenobi is the recipient of the 2023 ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Spectrochemical Analysis. The award is given to researchers who are advancing the fields of spectrochemical analysis and optical spectrometry. The award is handed over at the Fall ACS (American Chemical Society) Meeting in San Francisco.

The Senior Moulton Medal, named after Baron Moulton, is awarded to authors of the most meritorious papers published by IChemE in the last year. Rewarded are papers that are forward-looking in topic areas that will be important in the future. This year, Gonzalo Guillen-Gosalbez, Elysia Lucas and Miao Guo are awarded the senior Moulton Medal for their paper about Sustainable Production and Consumption. 

The Vincent du Vigneaud Awards by the American Peptide Society recognize outstanding achievement in peptide research at mid-career. The du Vigneaud Awards are sponsored by Bachem, and are awarded to two deserving recipients at the biennial American Peptide Symposia. Professor Helma Wennemers, from the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, receives the award in 2023, together with Marcey Waters from the University of North Carlina.

The Werner Prize is awarded by the Swiss Chemical Society to promising young Swiss scientists or young foreign scientists working in Switzerland for outstanding research in the field of chemistry. Victor Mougel receives the 2023 Werner Prize for his research at the interface of molecular, surface, and materials chemistry, and especially for the development of high efficiency systems for solar-driven conversion of CO2 to hydrocarbons based on a bioinspired approach.

The Prelog Lecture is organized annually by the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry. On this occasion, the Prelog Medal is awarded for innovative contributions to stereochemistry in its broadest sense. This year, Prof. Dr. Hiro Suga (University of Tokyo), is giving the Prelog Lecture on “The RaPID system that revolutionizes the discovery of de novo peptides & proteins for therapeutics” on Nov. 21, 2022, 4 pm. HCI J7 (ETH Hönggerberg). Learn more about Prof. Hiro Suga and his research. 

The Peter Speiser Award 2022, awarded by the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, was given to Prof. Dr. Katalin Karikó. Dr. Peter Speiser was professor of drug formulation and delivery at the ETH from 1961 to 1988 and is considered today as a pioneer in the field of nanomedicine. Katalin Karikó is Senior Vice President at BioNTech SE, Mainz, Germany. On October 12, 2022, she gave her award lecture on developing mRNA for therapy.

The German Chemical Society (GDCh) awards Gisbert Schneider, Professor of Computational Drug Design at the IPW, the Gmelin-Beilstein commemorative coin. This award is given to national and international personalities who have made special contributions to the history of chemistry, chemical literature or chemistry information. The award will be presented on May 5, 2022, at the annual meeting of the GDCh Division "Computers in Chemistry" in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

CRS (Controlled Release Society) is the home for experts dedicated to the delivery of drugs, cosmetics, flavors, fragrances, pesticides and other actives. Among the awards that honor those who have contributed to the CRS society and science, is the Samyang CRS Award in Honor of Sung Wan Kim. This year, this award goes to Jean-Christophe Leroux.

The Maurice-Marie Janot Award is granted every two years, during the World Meeting on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology. The price recognizes an individual researcher, also in the context of a team, for groundbreaking contributions to the field of Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology. This year, Jean-Christophe Leroux (IPW) receives the award.

Ruth Signorell, Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences is among this year's recipients of the Doron Prize. She is receiving the award for her pioneering work in the field of "Fundamental Aerosol Science." The prize, endowed with CHF 100,000, has been awarded annually since 1986 to individuals or institutions for their achievements in the fields of science, culture, and public welfare.

The Paracelsus Prize is an award of the Swiss Chemical Society for outstanding chemists of international status. It evolved from the Paracelsus Medal, which has existed since 1940. It is endowed with 20,000 CHF and a gold medal. This year, Antonio Togni is awarded the prize for his groundbreaking contributions to organic, inorganic, organometallic chemistry and catalysis both in industry and academia, as well as for his inspiring approaches to teaching & education.

The Dan Maydan Prize in Nanoscience Research is awarded annually to outstanding young scientists, from Israel or abroad, for significant academic achievements in nanoscience and nanotechnology. This year, Maksym V. Kovalenko (LAC) receives the award for his pioneering work on the surface chemistry of nanocrystals and their use for electronic and optoelectronic devices, including batteries, photodetectors, thermo-electrics, solar cells and light sources. The prize is endowed with 10,000 US dollars.

The young researcher is honored for his doctoral thesis in the group of Javier Pérez-Ramírez (ICB). The prize is awarded annually to students, undergraduates and doctoral candidates for outstanding work in the fields of power engineering and information and automation technology.

Lignin is one of the most common organic compounds in the world. What if this complex substance could be easily converted into sustainable fuel? Patrick Hemberger, scientist at the synchrotron of the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, was the first to find an efficient way to investigate this process in detail. For his research, he has been awarded the 2020 Ruzicka Prize. The video of the Award Ceremony and Award Lecture is now available.  

The "Prous Institute-Overton and Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery" aims to encourage innovation and investigation in technologies related to drug discovery. This year, the Award goes to Gisbert Schneider, Professor at IPW, for his pioneering work integrating machine learning into medicinal chemistry, drug discovery and chemical biology. 

Prof. Petr Novak receives the Yeager Award 2020 from the International Battery Association (IBA) for his outstanding contributions to the field of electrochemical energy conversion and storage. The award will be presented to him a the 2020 IBA Annual Meeting in March in Bled, Slovenia where he is invited to give the award plenary talk.

Helma Wennemers, Professor at the LOC, has won this year's Netherlands Scholar Award for Supramolecular Chemistry. She got the award for her work on the rational design and development of peptide-based asymmetric catalysts and bioinspired molecular scaffolds for applications in supramolecular and biological chemistry. 

Prof. Dario Neri wins the World ADC Award 2019 in the category "Individual Input to the Field 2018". The awards recognize innovation, leadership, and devotion to antibody-drug conjugate research. Across nine categories the World ADC Awards showcase extraordinary endeavors, teamwork, and commercial acumen that has propelled the field to the forefront of cancer research today.

On November 8, 2019, Prof. Erick Carreira held the 6th Barluenga Lecture entitled "Synthesis as an Enabling Tool" at the University of Oviedo in Spain. He was awarded the Barluenga Medal 2019. 

On October 21 and 22, 2019, Prof. Erick Carreira held the Carl Shipp Marvel Lectures in Organic Chemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. The annual lectureship hosts internationally recognized senior researchers in the field of organic chemistry.

The Ruzicka Prize 2019 has been awarded to Dmitry Katayev, Group Leader in the Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences (D-CHAB). He was honored for his excellent new synthetic methods with easily accessible and bench-stable reagents.

Prof. Ruth Signorell is awarded the Mildred Dresselhaus Senior Award 2019 of the Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI). The award recognizes her contributions to the fundamental understanding of the physical and chemical properties of aerosols and nanoparticles. The prize is also linked to the Mildred Dresselhaus Guest Professorship at CUI.

Prof deMello is one of the winners of the 2020 Advances in Measurement Science Lectureship Award by ACS Sensors, Analytical Chemistry, Journal of Proteome Research, and the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Winners are selected based on their lecture abstracts and their research output during the past five years.

Prof. Hilvert receives the Ronald Breslow Award 2020 by the American Chemical Society. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of biomimetic chemistry.

Dr. Vladimir Paunović wins the MaP Award 2019 at the Graduate Symposium of the Competence Center for Materials and Processes. He is awarded for his outstanding PhD thesis entitled 'Catalytic Processes for Natural Gas Valorization via Bromine Chemistry'. Dr. Paunović earned his doctoral degree in the group of Prof. Javier Pérez-Ramírez.

The Swiss Academy of Sciences awarded the Schläfli Prizes 2019 for the four best scientific dissertations.

Prof. Seebach receives the Arthur C. Cope Award at the ACS Spring 2019 National Meeting in Orlando, Florida. He is awarded for fundamental and practical contributions to chemistry, including theory, innovative concepts, and methods for chemical synthesis, along with preparation and study of novel bioactive structures.

Prof. Markus Reiher receives the Credit Suisse Award for Best Teaching 2018. The award is given to previous winners of the Golden Owl and promotes quality teaching at tertiary level.

Javier Pérez-Ramírez receives the 2019 Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis which recognizes individual contributions in the field of catalysis with emphasis on discovery and understanding of catalytic phenomena.

Dr. Jan-Georg Rosenboom received the KlarText Award from the Klaus Tschira Stiftung for his PhD thesis as well as for his excellent science communication article on the production of bioplastic.

Cristina Müller, Senior Scientist at the Center for Radiopharmaceutical Sciences, received this year’s Marie Curie Award for her research on Terbium-161 based therapy of prostate cancer, presented at the 31st Annual Conference of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM).

Dr. Murielle Delley, former PhD student in Prof. Copéret's group, receives the Chorafas Prize 2018 for her outstanding work in the field of inoganic chemistry. The prize rewards research characterized by its high potential for practical application and by the special significance attached to its aftermath.

Prof. Riniker receives the Latsis Prize 2018 of ETH Zurich for her groundbreaking contributions to the methodological development and applications of molecular dynamics simulations.

The Mukaiyama Award 2018 by the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan, goes to Prof. Bode. The purpose of the award is to recognize and encourage outstanding contributions to the field of synthetic organic chemistry.

On April 2, 2019, the American Chemical Society will honor Prof. Seebach with the Arthur C. Cope Award. This is is one of the most prestigiuos awards, given for outstanding achievements in the field of organic chemistry.

On September 5, Prof. Pérez-Ramírez received the 2017 Sustainable Energy Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry at the event "Mitigating issues of future wastes: enhancing resource productivity in emerging technologies".

Prof. Copéret receives the Humboldt Research Award in recognition of his research activities to date, which have had a lasting impact on the field. In addition, he is invited to carry out research projects of his own choice in cooperation with colleagues at a research institution in Germany.

Dr. GiovanniMaria Piccini was awarded the Ewald Wicke Prize by the Deutsche Bunsen-Gesellschaft für physikalische Chemie for “his methodological developments in nuclei and reaction dynamics and their application to relevant chemical problems”.

On June 8, Prof. Pérez-Ramírez was honored with the Xingda Lectureship at Peking University in China. He held a lecture entitled 'Catalysis Engineering for Sustainable Technologies'.

Prof. Zenobi receives the Ioannes Marcus Marci Medal from the Czech-Slovak Spectroscopy Society for his pioneering work in tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Prof. Wörner receives the Coblentz Award 2018, which goes annually to outstanding young molecular spectroscopists under 40. Prof. Wörner will receive the award in June at the International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

The group led by Prof. Quitterer has identified an enzyme that is responsible for the transition from burning fat to burning sugar inside the human heart. They reached the finals of the 2018 Spark Award for developing a new drug that influences the enzyme’s function and that could help patients with heart failure in the future.

In December 2017, Prof. Seebach was awarded by the Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale Metodologie e Processi Inovativi di Sintesi (CINMPIS) for his pioneering and outstanding contributions to the field of Organic Chemistry.

This year's Golden Owl award goes to Prof. Mezzetti from the Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry. Every year the students decide who is given this award to honor lecturers of each department for their excellent teaching ablilties.

This year's Inhoffen Medal, the most prestigious German prize within the area of natural product chemistry, goes to Prof. Helma Wennemers. She received this prize at the Inhoffen Lecture on November 7, 2017.

The ACS annually recognizes the development of novel implementations of modern advancements in the field of separation science and technology. The Separations Science and Technology Award 2018 goes to the group of Prof. Morbidelli.

For his research on integrated continuous production of therapeutic proteins, Prof. Morbidelli receives the Excellence in Process Development Research Award 2017 from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Prof. Hungerbühler is awarded the Wöhler Prize for Sustainable Chemistry at the Science Forum Chemistry in Berlin on September 13. The GDCh recognizes his outstanding contributions to the development and implementation of sustainable chemistry.

Prof. Grützmacher is awarded the Wilhelm Klemm Prize at the Science Forum Chemistry in Berlin on September 12. The GDCh recognizes his outstanding contributions to the field of inorganic chemistry.

The Molecular Graphics and Modelling Society (MGMS) recognises Prof. Riniker's ongoing research work on the applications of molecular dynamics in biomolecular systems with the 9th Silver Jubilee Award.

Wtih a new energy storage technology, the team of Prof. Kovalenko reached the top 5 finalists for the Spark Award 2017. They created anew technolog using graphite flakes as cathode material in rechargeable aluminium chloride-graphite batteries.

Prof. Copéret receives the Wheland Award 2017/2018 from the Department of Chemistry of the University of Chicago. The award is given biannually to a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to chemistry.

Prof. Chih-Jen Shih from the Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering (ICB) is awarded by the American Chemical Society for his research in colloid and surface chemistry.

The Inhoffen Medal is the most prestigious german prize within the area of natural compound chemistry. Prof. Helma Wennemers will receive this prize at the Inhoffen Lecture in July 2017.

Prof. Leroux received the 2016 "Lipid-Based Drug Delivery Outstanding Research Award" from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) for his contributions to the application of lipid excipients in development of novel and effective drug delivery systems.

This year's Golden Owl goes to Prof. Halin from the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Every year the students decide who is given this award to honor lecturers for their excellent teaching ablilties.

On October 20 2016, the "PHOENIX Pharmaceutical Sciences Prize" was awarded to the group of Prof. Hanns Ulrich Zeilhofer for achievments in the field of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmaceutics.

Prof. Togni receives the 2017 ACS National Award for Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry, for his outstanding contributions to the advancement in the field.

Prof. Diederich receives the "Nauta Award for Pharmacochemistry" for his outstanding contributions to Medicinal Chemistry and the development of international organizational structures in the field. This is the most important award for Medicinal Chemistry in Europe.

The Competence Center for Materials and Processes (MaP) awards a prize to the best interdisciplinary PhD thesis of ETH Zurich in the area of Materials and Processes in the preceding year. This year's award goes to Dr. Giantivo Vilé, former PhD student in the group of Prof. Péréz-Ramírez

Prof. Christophe Copéret is awarded this year's Max Rössler Prize for his research on functional materials, such as solid catalysts, the derivatization of microelectronic devices, and developing new imaging techniques to visualize individual particles or track metabolites in the human body.

In recognition of her outstanding contributions to the energy sector, Dr. Suzanne Thoma, CEO of the BKW Group, will be awarded the 2016 ETH Zurich Chemical Engineering Medal.

Prof. Helma Wennemers is this year's winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry Pedler Award: "For the profound and elegant discovery of small molecules that function like natural macromolecules"

Prof. Jean-Christophe Leroux and Prof. Michael Detmar are among the top 5 finalists for the Spark Award 2016. They reached the finals with a new method enabling fluorescent imaging of the lymphatic system

Dr. Vincent Forster, CEO and co-founder of Versantis, receives the 2016 Pfizer Research Award. He is a former member of the group of Prof. Leroux.

Dr. Peter Kraus receives the Justin Jankunas Doctoral Dissertation Award of the American Physical Society. He is awarded for his dissertation, “Studies of Electronic and Nuclear Structure and Dynamics by High Harmonic Spectroscopy,” which he wrote under the direction of Prof. Hans Jakob Wörner at ETH Zürich

On 2 December, 2015 Prof. Seebach received the award "Zasłużony dla Politechniki Łódzkiej" which translates to "Meritorious of the Lodz University of Technology"

The Werner Prize 2016 is awarded to Prof. Maksym Kovalenko for his innovative studies on the chemistry, physics, and applications of inorganic nanostructures.

On November 9, Professor Seebach receives the IKCOC Prize at “The Thirteenth International Kyoto Conference on New Aspects of Organic Chemistry“ (IKCOC-13).

On October 29 2015, the PHOENIX group awarded the "PHOENIX Pharmaceutical Sciences Prize 2015" to the group of Prof. Jean-Christophe Leroux for their work in the category of Pharmaceutical Technology.

Prof. Dr. Hans Jakob Wörner is awarded the Carus Medal for his research on time-dependent quantum mechanics using subfemtosecond spectroscopy.

Prof. Renato Zenobi receives the Fresenius Prize for outstanding achievements in nanoscale analytical methods.

Prof. Dario Neri receives the ERC Advanced Grant for research on therapeutic agents with "activity on demand"

Inventions of Prof. Erick Carreira and Prof. Helma Wennemers among the Top 5