Bert Meijer receives the Hermann Staudinger Prize – Further awards at the conference on macromolecular chemistry

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28.06.2022 09:55

Bert Meijer receives the Hermann Staudinger Prize – Further awards at the conference on macromolecular chemistry

The Society of German Chemists (GDCh) honors Professor Dr. Egbert Willem “Bert” Meijer, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands, with the Hermann Staudinger Prize 2022. He will receive the award, which is endowed with 7,500 euros, on September 12 at the Biennial Meeting of the GDCh Division of Macromolecular Chemistry 2022, das from September 12th to 14th in Aachen. The conference will also include two Dr. Hermann Schnell scholarships and the Reimund Stadler Prize of the GDCh specialist group for macromolecular chemistry.

Bert Meijer receives the Hermann Staudinger Prize for his outstanding and very creative contributions in the field of supramolecular polymer chemistry. Among other things, Meijer researches and develops functional supramolecular polymers as a new class of materials. Through targeted molecular design and synthesis, he realized systems in which monomeric units, which combine themselves to form supramolecular polymeric materials, achieve special material properties. Before its discovery, these properties were thought to be unique to (covalently linked) macromolecules. The reversible binding of the building blocks enables easy processing. Supramolecular materials can thus be processed at much lower temperatures and pressures, while the tunable nature of supramolecular polymers opens new avenues for these systems. Many of von Meijer’s strategies are “biomimetic”, transferring principles of biological organization to synthetic polymeric materials.

Bert Meijer, who was born in Groningen in the Netherlands in 1955, studied organic chemistry at the University of Groningen, where he also received his doctorate in 1982. After working at the Philips Natuurständig Laboratorium in Eindhoven and at Koninklijke DSM in Heerlen, he became Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Technical University of Eindhoven in 1991. He has also been Adjunct Professor at Radboud University Nijmegen since 1994, Distinguished University Professor of Molecular Sciences in Eindhoven since 2004 and Visiting Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA since 2008. From 2008 to 2018 he was also director of the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems in Eindhoven. Meijer has been a professor at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences since 2014, has been an External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz since 2018 and has been a guest lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, since 2022.

Bert Meijer has already received various scientific awards, such as the SPINOZA Prize of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) (2001), the Humboldt Research Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2017) and two ERC Advanced Research Grants (2010 and 2018). He is an honorary member of numerous academies and societies, has an impressive number of guest professorships and named lectures and, with over 750 scientific publications, achieves an h-index of 135.

As part of the conference, two young scientists will also receive a Dr. Herrmann Schnell grant. professor dr Eva Blasco, Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, receives a grant worth 3000 euros for her innovative research work in the highly topical area of functional materials for 3D laser printing and lithography. The research activities of the award winner on materials for 4D printing applications have the potential to revolutionize research fields such as microrobotics. Another dr. Herrmann Schnell grant of 3,000 euros is awarded to Dr. Robert Göstl, DWI – Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials eV, Aachen, for his impressive research in the field of mechanophores. His work makes it possible to functionalize materials in new ways. The improved material properties open up new areas of application. the dr Hermann Schnell grants are awarded by the foundation of the same name, which is part of the GDCh, to support young scientists in the field of macromolecular chemistry, its physical-chemical basics and its analysis.

dr In addition, Robert Göstl was awarded the Reimund Stadler Prize by the GDCh specialist group for macromolecular chemistry. The specialist group awards the prize, which is endowed with 5000 euros, usually in even-numbered years as part of the specialist group conference, to a prospective university teacher from the field of polymer chemistry and related areas. The award winner will be determined from among the participants of the university workshop for young talents. Göstl convinced the selection committee with his presentation entitled “From force-reporting to force-resistant: using mechanochemistry to understand polymer materials”.

More information about the conference at https://www.gdch.de/makro2022