The Jochen Block Prize 2019 of the German Catalysis Society (GeCatS) has been awarded to Sandra Luber, University of Zurich, Switzerland. Luber is recognized for her contributions to the theoretical treatment of catalysts, in particular with regard to structure, dynamics, and spectroscopy.
The Jochen Block Prize honors outstanding achievements of young scientists and is endowed with 3,000 EUR. It was presented at the Annual German Catalysis Meeting in Weimar, Germany, on March 14, 2019.
Sandra Luber studied chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, and at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and earned her Ph.D. in 2009 from the ETH Zurich for work on relativistic quantum chemistry and theoretical spectroscopy. She performed postdoctoral research at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and at Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. After ten months at BASF SE in Ludwigshafen, Germany, she became project group leader at the University of Zurich. Luber has been Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Professor at the University of Zurich since March 2017.
Sandra Luber’s research focuses on catalysis and design. Her interests include the investigation of chiral systems, purpose-driven spectroscopy, vibrational spectroscopy for condensed phase systems and interfaces, and the analysis of functional compounds.
Among other honors, Luber has received the IBM Research Prize for Computer Modeling and Simulation in Chemistry, Biology, and Materials Science in 2007, the Clara Immerwahr Award from the the Cluster of Excellence UniCat (Unifying Concepts in Catalysis), TU Berlin, Germany, in 2017, the Hans G. A. Hellmann Award from the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Theoretische Chemie (AGTC) in 2017, and the Werner Prize 2018 from the Swiss Chemical Society (SCS).
Also of Interest
- Clara Immerwahr Award 2017,
ChemViews Mag. 2017.
Sandra Luber, Switzerland, honored for outstanding work in catalysis research
