The Gmelin-Beilstein Memorial Medal 2024 has been awarded to Dr. Eva E. Wille by the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society). The prize was presented at the Chemiedozententagung 2024 in Aachen, Germany, on March 11, 2024.
The award honors individuals for their contributions to the history of chemistry, chemical literature, or chemical information, and is endowed with EUR 7,500. Eva Wille receives the award for her extraordinary commitment to the development of the chemical literature, far beyond her core work at Wiley-VCH Verlag, her long-time employer. The prize honors her extraordinary commitment to the promotion and development of chemical literature. In particular, it recognizes her successful promotion of literature on chemical history and to the classification of various areas of chemistry in a historical context, especially during the era of National Socialism.
Eva Elisabeth Wille, born in 1955, studied chemistry at the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Germany, where she received her Ph.D. in 1983 for work supervised by Gerhard Binsch. After postdoctoral work with Dieter Ziessow at the Technical University Berlin, Germany, she joined VCH Verlagsgesellschaft (now Wiley-VCH) in 1985. She held a range of positions within the company, including Head of the Journals Division and Publishing Director of the Scientific, Technical, and Medical (STM) programs. She also worked on the formation and development of ChemPubSoc Europe (now Chemistry Europe). She was Vice President and Executive Director, Chemistry, at Wiley-VCH until her retirement in 2020.
Eva Wille collaborated with many stakeholders in the publishing industry and served as Board Member of several publishing associations, including the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (trade association of the German publishing industry), the Deutsche Fachpresse (German association of business media), and the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Zeitschriftenverleger (AGZV, association of German journal publishers). Since 2020, she has been a member of the Advisory Board of the “Lives in Chemistry—Lebenswerke in der Chemie” series published by the GDCh’s Division for the History of Chemistry.
Wille was awarded the Medaille de la Société Chimique de France (SCF, French Chemical Society) in 2010, the Carl Duisburg Medal from the GDCh in 2013, and the “Goldene Nadel” from the Börsenverein in 2023. She was awarded Honorary Membership by the Chemical Society of Israel in 2017 and is an Honorary Chemistry Europe Fellow.
Also of Interest
- Lives in Chemistry—Lebenswerke in der Chemie
A series of autobiographies providing insights into the lives and thoughts of outstanding research scientists in the context of the times they lived in - Chemistry Europe Fellows 2020/2021,
ChemistryViews 2022. - Carl Duisberg Plaque for E. Wille,
ChemistryViews 2013.
The Carl Duisberg Plaque of the GDCh has been awarded to Eva Wille for her outstanding services to scientific publishing
