Professor Joachim Gross, University of Stuttgart, Germany, has received the DECHEMA Prize of the Max Buchner Research Foundation for his outstanding research on the thermodynamics of mixtures. The award is endowed with a € 20,000 prize. The presentation took place on November 30, 2012, as part of a special DECHEMA colloquium in Frankfurt, Germany, at which Professor Gross delivered a prize lecture on the tools of molecular thermodynamics and their development and application.

Joachim Gross studied Chemical Engineering at Berlin Technical University, Germany, and gained his Ph.D. there on equations of state and associated macromolecular substances. From 2000–2004, he worked at BASF, Ludwigshafen, Germany, in the development process. He spent a year as associate professor and professor at the Technical University Delft, Netherlands. In 2010, Gross joined the faculty at the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics and Thermal Process Engineering at the University of Stuttgart, where he is currently Professor.

Gross’ research focuses on developing physically-based and predictive thermodynamic models of complex fluids to enable the calculation and design of their physical properties.

• A density functional theory for vapor-liquid interfaces using the PCP-SAFT equation of state,
  Joachim Gross,
  J. Chem. Phys. 2009, 131, 204705.
  DOI: 10.1063/1.3263124
• An equation of state contribution for polar components: Polarizable dipoles,
  Matthias Kleiner, Joachim Gross,
  AIChE J. 2006, 52(5), 1951–1961.
  DOI: 10.1002/aic.10791
• An equation-of-state contribution for polar components: Quadrupolar molecules,
  Joachim Gross,
  AIChE J. 2005, 51(9), 2556–2568.
  DOI: 10.1002/aic.10502