Prof. em. Dr. Roel Prins

Roel Prins was Full Professor of Catalysis at the Laboratory for Technical Chemistry of the ETH Zurich, beginning in 1987. From 1998 to 2000, he was head of the Department of Chemistry. He retired end of March 2006.

Prof. Prins was born on February 16, 1941 in The Netherlands. He studied physical chemistry at the University of Amsterdam. After completing his studies, he worked for ten years at the Shell Laboratories in Amsterdam and Emeryville, USA, mainly in petrochemical catalyst research. In 1977 he was appointed full professor of inorganic chemistry at the Institute of Technology Eindhoven Netherlands. From 1986 to 1987 he was visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. His research focused on heterogeneous catalysis with emphasis on zeolite research. Using the small pores of zeolites for shape-selective reactions and removing sulfur and nitrogen atoms from hydrocarbons are increasingly important in terms of the environment. EXAFS (extended X-ray fine structure spectroscopy) research on catalysts was done at the Swiss Beamline at the Synchrotron in Grenoble, France.