The Liebig-Denkmünze will be presented to professor Joachim Sauer at the 126th meeting of the society of German natural scientists and physicians (GDNÄ) in Dresden on September 20th 2010. Sauer is professor for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the Humboldt-University, Berlin, since 1993.
Joachim Sauer is awarded for his innovative theoretical work on understanding the structure and chemical reactions of zeolites and transition metal oxide aggregates. His work is of great importance, as both zeolites and transition metal oxides are industrially important catalysts: for example, vanadium oxide is used for the oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde.
In 1999 Sauer initiated, with the support of other scientists from Berlin, the special research project SFB 546 ” Übergangsmetalloxide”. This was the starting point for successfully requesting the Excellency cluster: “Unifying Concepts in Catalysis” , or briefly ” UniCat“.
Joachim Sauer is the husband of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel.
