The 2025 Wolf Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Helmut Schwarz, Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), Germany, Germany, for “quantifying reactive species in the gas phase to solve fundamental problems in catalysis.”
Helmut Schwarz’s research is focused on chemistry in the gas phase and combines experimental and theoretical work. His interests include reactions of metal-cluster ions, metal-mediated oxidations, reactive transition-metal compounds, bond activation, and the development of mass spectrometry (MS) techniques. With his work, Helmut Schwarz has improved the understanding of catalytic processes and made important contributions to the development of tailor-made catalysts as well as to advancing the analytical capabilities of mass spectrometry.
The Wolf Prizes are international awards honoring scientists and artists “for their achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among peoples”. The scientific categories of the prize are medicine, agriculture, mathematics, chemistry, and physics. The Wolf Prizes in Physics and Chemistry are often considered the most prestigious awards in those fields after the Nobel Prize. The Wolf Prizes have been awarded by the Wolf Foundation since 1978 and come with USD 100,000 in prize money.
Career & Honors Helmut Schwarz
Helmut Schwarz, born on August 6, 1943, studied chemistry at TU Berlin, Germany, and received his Ph.D. there in 1972. He completed his habilitation at TU Berlin in 1974 and was appointed Professor of Chemistry there in 1978. In addition to many other commitments, Schwarz served as President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany, from 2008 to 2017.
Among many other honors, Helmut Schwarz has received the van’t Hoff Award from the Royal Academy of Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in 1980, the Liebig Medal from the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, GDCh) in 1998, the Prelog Medal in Gold from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich in 2000, the Frank H. Field and Joe L. Franklin Award for Outstanding Achievement in Mass Spectrometry from the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 2001, the Otto Hahn Award for Chemistry and Physics from the GDCh and the German Physical Society (Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, DPG) in 2003, the Science Medal of the Slowak Academy of Sciences in 2009, the Blaise Pascal Medal in Chemistry from the European Academy of Sciences in 2011, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2012, the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists (WATOC) Schrödinger Medal in 2015, the Karl Ziegler Prize from the GDCh in 2015, and numerous honorary doctorates.
Helmut Schwarz is a Member of the Academy of Sciences Erfurt, Germany, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, Germany, the Academy of Sciences Göttingen, Germany, the Academia Europaea, the German Academy of Engineering acatech, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Salzburg, Austria, as well as a Foreign Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, a Foreign Honorary Member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, and an Honorary Member of the Israel Chemical Society, the Polish Chemical Society, and the Accademia delle Scienze dell’Istituto di Bologna, Italy. In addition, he is a Fellow of the Institute for Scientific Information, the European Academy of Sciences, Liège, Belgium, and the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, as well as a Foreign Fellow of the Estonian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India.
Selected Publications
- Counter-Intuitive Gas-Phase Reactivities of [V2]+ and [V2O]+ towards CO2 Reduction: Insight from Electronic Structure Calculations,
Jilai Li, Caiyun Geng, Thomas Weiske, Helmut Schwarz,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 12308–12314.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202001223 - On the Crucial Role of Isolated Electronic States in the Thermal Reaction of ReC+ with Dihydrogen,
Jilai Li, Caiyun Geng, Thomas Weiske, Helmut Schwarz,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 9370–9376.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202001599 - Revisiting the Intriguing Electronic Features of the BeOBeC Carbyne and Some Isomers: A Quantum-Chemical Assessment,
Jilai Li, Caiyun Geng, Thomas Weiske, Mingfei Zhou, Jun Li, Helmut Schwarz,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 17261–17265.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202007990 - Complete cleavage of the N≡N triple bond by Ta2N+ via degenerate ligand exchange at ambient temperature: A perfect catalytic cycle,
Caiyun Geng, Jilai Li, Thomas Weiske, Helmut Schwarz,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2019, 116, 21416–21420.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1913664116 - How and Why Do Cluster Size, Charge State, and Ligands Affect the Course of Metal-Mediated Gas-Phase Activation of Methane?,
Helmut Schwarz,
Israel J. Chem. 2014, 54, 1413–1431.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ijch.201300134 - Thermal Hydrogen-Atom Transfer from Methane: The Role of Radicals and Spin States in Oxo-Cluster Chemistry,
Nicolas Dietl, Maria Schlangen, Helmut Schwarz,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 5544–5555.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201108363 - Chemistry with Methane: Concepts Rather than Recipes,
Helmut Schwarz,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 10096–10115.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201006424 - Gas-phase activation of methane by ligated transition-metal cations,
Detlef Schröder, Helmut Schwarz,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2008, 105, 18114–18119.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0801849105 - Thermal Activation of Methane by Tetranuclear [V4O10]+,
Sandra Feyel, Jens Döbler, Detlef Schröder, Joachim Sauer, Helmut Schwarz,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 4681–4685.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.200600188
- Wolf Foundation, Israel
Also of Interest
- 2023 Wolf Prize in Chemistry Announced,
ChemistryViews 2023.
Chuan He, The University of Chicago, Hiroaki Suga, The University of Tokyo, and Jeffery W. Kelly, Scripps Research, honored - 2022 Wolf Prize in Chemistry Announced,
ChemistryViews 2022.
Bonnie L. Bassler, Princeton University, Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Stanford University, and Benjamin F. Cravatt III, Scripps Research, honored - Wolf Prize in Chemistry 2021 Announced,
ChemistryViews 2021.
Leslie Leiserowitz and Meir Lahav, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, honored - 2019 Wolf Prize in Chemistry,
ChemistryViews 2019.
Stephen L. Buchwald, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and John F. Hartwig, University of California at Berkeley, both USA, honored - 2017 Wolf Prize in Chemistry,
ChemistryViews 2017.
Robert G. Bergman, University of California, Berkeley, USA, honored - 2016 Wolf Prize in Chemistry,
ChemistryViews 2016.
K. C. Nicolaou and Stuart L. Schreiber honored - 2014 Wolf Prize in Chemistry,
ChemistryViews 2014.
Professor Chi-Huey Wong, Academia Sinica and The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA, is this year’s winner - 2013 Wolf Prize in Chemistry,
ChemistryViews 2013.
The 2013 Wolf Prize is awarded to Robert Langer, USA, for his work on controlled-release drug delivery systems - 2012 Wolf Prize in Chemistry,
ChemistryViews 2012.
The 2012 Wolf Prize recognizes Paul Alivisatos and Charles Lieber, pioneers in nanotechnology - 2011 Wolf Prize in Chemistry,
ChemistryViews 2011.
This year’s Wolf Prize in chemistry goes jointly to Stuart A. Rice, Ching Tang, and Krzysztof Matyjaszewski
