Professor Andreas Hierlemann, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, is awarded this year’s DECHEMA Prize of the Max Buchner Research Foundation for his pioneering work in developing interdisciplinary sensor systems by combining chemical and biological systems with microelectronics. The prize is endowed with € 20,000 and will be presented on 25 November 2011, at the DECHEMA-Haus in Frankfurt, Germany.

Andreas Hierlemann studied chemistry at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and was awarded his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1996 by the Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen. He held post-doctoral positions at the Texas A & M University, USA, and at the Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, USA. In 1999, he joined the physics department of ETH Zurich, where he was appointed associate professor of Microsensorics in 2004. In 2008, he became full professor of Biosystems Engineering at the new Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering based in Basel, Switzerland.

His research interests include the development of integrated chemical and biomicrosensor systems, the development of microfluidic techniques for cell handling and cell characterization, and the direct coupling of biological entities, such as neurons or heart cells, to microelectronic chips.

• Dechema Prize of the Max Buchner Research Foundation

• Opposite signs of capacitive microsensor signals upon exposure to the enantiomers of methyl propionates
  P. Kurzawski, A. Bogdanski, V. Schurig, R. Wimmer, A. Hierlemann,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 913-916.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.200704346