Professor Ferdi Schüth, Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Coal Research, Mühlheim an der Ruhr, Germany, has won the Wilhelm Klemm Prize, which is awarded by the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society) for internationally recognized research in inorganic chemistry. The award was presented on September 18, 2012, at the annual meeting of the GDCh’s Solid Sate Chemistry Working Group held in Darmstadt, Germany, September 17–19.

Ferdi Schüth studied chemistry and law at the University of Münster, Germany, where he received his doctorate in chemistry in 1988 under Ewald Wicke. He spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota, USA, with Lanny Schmidt. From 1989 to 1995, he worked on his habilitation at the University of Mainz, Germany, under Klaus Unger, and for five months in 1993 with Galen D. Stucky at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. In 1995, he moved to Frankfurt University, Germany, then in 1998, he was appointed Director of the MPI for Coal Research.
Schüth is a member of the advisory board of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Advanced Materials, ChemCatChem, ChemSusChem, and Chemistry – An Asian Journal.

Schüth´s research involves the synthesis and characterization of inorganic materials, with particular focus on heterogenous catalysis of CO oxidation and energy related conversions, for example, for methane activation, biomass conversion, and catalyzed hydrogen storage.

• A Strategy for the Synthesis of Mesostructured Metal Oxides with Lower Oxidation States,
  H. Tüysüz, C. Weidenthaler, F. Schüth,
  Chem. Eur. J. 2012, 18, 5080.
  DOI: 10.1002/chem.201103650

Also of interest:

• Video: Wissenschaftsforum: F. Schüth on Catalysts for Alternative Fuels,
  Ferdi Schüth, Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, Germany, talks about his work on catalysts for alternative fuels
• News: Ferdi Schüth Receives the Wöhler Prize
  Ferdi Schüth, Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, Germany, receives GDCh prize for processes that conserve resources