Her work in the field of functional nanomaterials has convinced the jury: Prof. Dr. Barbara Lechner from the Technical University of Munich will be awarded the Ernst Haage Prize 2024. This prestigious prize is awarded annually by the Ernst Haage Foundation of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI CEC) and the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung (MPI KOFO) in Mülheim an der Ruhr. The award is endowed with 7500 euro.

The dynamic restructuring of functional nanomaterials under realistic conditions is what particularly interests Barbara Lechner. Among other things, she and her team use a scanning tunneling microscope with high temporal and spatial resolution directly in gas mixtures for their experiments. They are investigating how the structure of metal particles and oxide carrier materials changes and influences the function of the material.

Lechner, who studied chemistry in Innsbruck, earned her doctorate in physics at the University of Cambridge. As a postdoctoral researcher, she worked in the group of Prof. Miquel Salmeron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, CA, before becoming a group leader at the Chair of Physical Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). In 2020, Lechner was appointed Rudolf Mößbauer Professor at TUM and now heads a research group for functional nanomaterials. Lechner has received numerous awards and grants for her work, including the ERC Starting Grant 2019.

Recognizing Excellence: Annual Awards for Trainees, Doctoral Students, and Postdocs by the Ernst Haage Foundation

In addition to the national award, the Ernst Haage Foundation also presents annual awards for outstanding trainees, doctoral students and postdocs. This year, Tim Schulte, a doctoral student from Prof. Tobias Ritter's working group (MPI KOFO), and Sheng-Hsiang Lin, a doctoral student from Prof. Dr. Walter Leitner's working group (MPI CEC), received the award for young scientists. The awards for particularly outstanding trainees go to the chemical laboratory assistant Elisabeth Glöckler (MPI CEC) and the precision mechanic Hinrich Kludig (MPI KOFO).

Ernst Haage: A Legacy of Supporting Young Scientists

Throughout his life, the Mülheim entrepreneur Ernst Haage (1901-1968) attached great importance to promoting young scientists and providing young people with a good education. The Ernst Haage Prize has been awarded in his name since 2006. Haage's daughter Ursula Bonnen, who passed away in 2019, established the Ernst Haage Foundation together with the MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion. Haage had worked as head of precision mechanics on campus for a long time before founding his own company.

The public award ceremony will take place on Friday, November 15, starting at 9:30 a.m. in the main lecture hall of the MPI für Kohlenforschung. The Board of Trustees has secured Prof. Siegfried Waldvogel, who has been the new Director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion since December 2023, as keynote speaker.