Professor Jürgen Troe, University of Göttingen and Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany, has been awarded the Otto Hahn Prize 2015 by the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society), the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (DPG, German Physics Society), and the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

The award honors outstanding achievements in chemistry, physics, or engineering, and includes a prize money of 50,000 €. It was presented at a ceremony in the historic St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt am Main on November 24, 2015.

Professor Troe is honored for his seminal research on reaction kinetics. His results have improved the understanding of chemical processes in the atmosphere as well as combustion processes. Both his theoretical work and laser experiments have allowed him to elucidate the basic mechanisms of unimolecular reactions.

Jürgen Troe studied physics and chemistry at the Universities of Göttingen and Freiburg, both Germany. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Göttingen in 1965 and finished his habilitation there in 1968. He then joined the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, as Full Professor of Physical Chemistry. Professor Troe returned to the University of Göttingen in 1975 and was Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry from 1990 to 2008. He retired in 2008, but remained in Göttingen as part of a “Niedersachsenprofessur” which allowed him to continue his research.

Among other honors, Professor Troe has been awarded the Bodenstein-Preis by the Deutsche Bunsen-Gesellschaft für Physikalische Chemie (DBG) in 1971, the Polanyi Medal by the Royal Society, London, in 1992, the Walther Nernst Memorial Medal by the DBG in 1998, and several honorary doctorates.

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Selected Publications

• Experimental and Modeling Study of the Temperature and Pressure Dependence of the Reaction C₂H₅ + O₂(+ M) → C₂H₅O₂(+ M),
  R. X. Fernandes, K. Luther, G. Marowsky, M. P. Rissanen, R. Timonen, J. Troe,
  J. Phys. Chem. A 2015, 119, 7263–7269.
  DOI: 10.1021/jp511672v
• Temperature and Pressure Dependence of the Reaction S + CS (+M) → CS₂ (+M),
  P. Glarborg, P. Marshall, J. Troe,
  J. Phys. Chem. A 2015, 119, 7277–7281.
  DOI: 10.1021/Jp5121492
• Further insight into the tunneling contribution to the vibrational relaxation of NO in Ar,
  E. I. Dashevskaya, I. Litvin, E. E. Nikitin, J. Troe,
  J. Chem. Phys. 2015, 142, 164310.
  DOI: 10.1063/1.4919126
• Specific rate constants k(E, J) for unimolecular bond fissions,
  J. Troe,
  J. Chem. Phys. 1983, 79, 6017.
  DOI: 10.1063/1.445784
• Predictive possibilities of unimolecular rate theory,
  J. Troe,
  J. Phys. Chem 1979, 83, 114–126.
  DOI: 10.1021/j100464a019
• Theory of thermal unimolecular reactions at low pressures. I. Solutions of the master equation,
  J. Troe,
  J. Chem. Phys. 1977, 66, 4745.
  DOI: 10.1063/1.433837

 

Also of Interest

• Otto Hahn Prize 2013,
  ChemViews Mag. 2013.
  Ferenc Krausz, Germany, has been awarded the Otto Hahn Prize 2013 for his work on attosecond physics
• M. Reetz Receives Otto Hahn Prize,
  ChemViews Mag. 2011.
  Manfred Reetz, Director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research, receives the Otto Hahn Prize from the GDCh