D-CHAB News

Javier Pérez-Ramírez will receive the prestigious 2024 Award for Excellence in Natural Gas Conversion for his groundbreaking advances in reshaping the landscape of catalytic materials and processes to address critical energy, resource, and environmental challenges. The award will be presented at this years National Gas Conversion Symposium in Xiamen, China, and brings together more than 100 renowned researchers from academia and industry. 

Professor Helma Wennemers has been teaching at D-CHAB for twelve years with unwavering enthusiasm – be it specialized lectures or introductory lectures in organic chemistry. For her performance, the ETH Zurich Student Association (VSETH) has honored her with the Golden Owl 2023. In this interview, she speaks about her experiences and role models and reveals the value of traditional teaching methods.

As natural catalysts, enzymes are highly efficient at speeding up complex chemical reactions. Victor Mougel and his team aim to mimic this ability. They are the first to synthesize a complete series of iron-sulfur cubane redox clusters with all oxidation states, revealing how the clusters’ environment affects redox potential and reactivity. They also proved the clusters' effectiveness in developing efficient CO₂ reduction catalysts. Mougel receives the Ruzicka Prize 2023 on Nov. 23.

Naresh Kumar, Senior Scientist in the Zenobi Group (LOC), is awarded the 2023 Masao Horiba Award for his contributions to the advancement of nanoscale chemical analysis in novel semiconductor materials using optical nanospectroscopy. Established in 2003, the Masao Horiba Award promotes excellence in analytical and measurement technologies research among scientists and engineers at universities and public research institutes worldwide. Find more details about the awardee in this article.  

The Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Spain is a public institution dedicated to the study and research in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and geology and their applications, as well as their promotion for the benefit of society. Now Javier Pérez Ramírez has also been elected a member. The ceremony and presentation of the diploma took place this week.

The "Académie Nationale de Pharmacie" has elected Prof. Dr. Jean-Christophe Leroux, Professor at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, as a member. The Association is dealing with all aspects of pharmaceutical science and technology, and is advising public authorities and informing the public.

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.

Plastics or artificial polymers have become an indispensable part of our everyday lives, and yet they cause big problems today. Athina Anastasaki and her team have discovered how polymer construction can be precisely controlled and how they can be recycled efficiently - findings that are also important for industry. For this, Athina Anastasaki (D-MATL) will receive the Ruzicka Prize 2022 on December 19. Here she provides insights into the exciting field of polymer chemistry. 

The Sustainable Methanol team is the winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Environment, Sustainability and Energy Division Horizon Prize, the John Jeyes Award 2022. The team is based at ETH Zürich, TotalEnergies, Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia and Paul Scherrer Institute. They won the prize for the discovery, understanding, and technical development of a novel catalytic technology for the recycling of carbon dioxide to produce sustainable methanol.

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.

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.  

Michele Parrinello, Professor for Computational Science (D-CHAB), has received the 2020 Benjamin Franklin Medal together with Roberto Car from Princeton University for inventing an efficient computational method by combining molecular dynamics simulation and electronic structure calculations.

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. 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. 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.

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.