Professor Bernhard Rieger, Technische Universität München, Germany, was awarded the Wöhler Prize for Sustainable Chemistry. The prize was presented at the Wissenschaftsforum Chemie 2013, on September 2.

Rieger receives the award for his contributions to polymer chemistry, which include the synthesis of new polymers and the development of polymerization processes based on alternative carbon sources. In particular, he is recognized for his work on sustainable polymer synthesis and the use of CO₂ as a resource in these syntheses.

Rieger studied at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, where he received his PhD in 1988 for work supervised by Wolfgang Beck and Ulrich Nagel. From 1988–1989, he was a postdoctoral researcher with James C. W. Chien at the University of Massachusetts, USA, and from 1989–1991, he was a researcher at BASF AG, Ludwigshafen, Germany. He carried out his habilitation at the University of Tübingen, Germany, from 1991–1995, and subsequently joined the faculty at the University of Ulm, Germany. He was made WACKER Chair of Macromolecular Chemistry and Director of the Institute of Silicon Chemistry at the Technische Universität München in 2007.

Rieger and his research group are interested in topics including polymeric organic and hybrid materials and silicon-based products, catalysis, and the chemical conversion of carbon oxides.

Selected publications by Rieger:

• Synthesis of 2,2,5,5-Tetrasubstituted 1,4-Dioxa-2,5-disilacyclohexanes via Organotin(IV)-Catalyzed Transesterification of (Acetoxymethyl)alkoxysilanes,
  Sascha A. Erhardt, Florian Hoffmann, Jürgen O. Daiß, Jürgen Stohrer, Eberhardt Herdtweck, Bernhard Rieger,
  Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 19, 4818–4825.
  DOI: 10.1002/chem.201202124
• Functionalization of Metal–Organic Frameworks through the Postsynthetic Transformation of Olefin Side Groups,
  Konrad Hindelang, Alexander Kronast, Sergei I. Vagin, Bernhard Rieger,
  Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 19, 8244–8252.
  DOI: 10.1002/chem.201300477
• Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Nanoparticles via Photo-Induced Micellation and Siloxane Core-Crosslinking of Stimuli-Responsive Copolymers,
  Chistian Anger, Frank Deubel, Stephan Salzinger, Tobias Halbach, Jürgen Stohrer, Rainer Jordan, Jonathan Veinot, Bernhard Rieger,
  ACS Macro Lett. 2013, 2, 12–124.
  DOI: 10.1021/mz3006439