The Wöhler Prize for processes that conserve resources has been awarded to Ferdi Schüth, Director of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Coal Research, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. The prize was presented by the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, GDCh) at the Wissenschaftsforum in Bremen, Germany.

Schüth studied chemistry and law at the University of Münster, Germany, where he received his doctorate in chemistry in 1988 under E. Wicke. In 1988/89, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota, USA, with L. D Schmidt. From 1989 to 1995, he worked on his habilitation in Mainz, Germany, under K. Unger, and for five months in 1993 with G. D. Stucky at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. In 1995, he moved to Frankfurt University, Germany, and 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 and of Advanced Materials.

His research involves the synthesis and characterization of inorganic materials with applications in the heterogeneous catalysis of CO oxidation and energy related conversions (i.e. methane activation, biomass conversion, and catalyzed hydrogen storage).

See also:

• Wolfram Koch on the GDCh’s Top Event
  Wolfram Koch, Executive Director, GDCh, talks about the Wissenschaftsforum Chemie 2011 in Bremen, Germany
  
• Andreas Pfaltz Gives Heilbronner Hückel Lecture
  
• François Diederich Recieves Baeyer Medal
• H.-J. Freund Receives Karl-Ziegler-Award
• Peter Bruce Wins Arfvedson Schlenk Prize
• GDCh-Wissenschaftsforum Chemie 2011: Chemie schafft Zukunft