Prof. Robert Schlögl, who handed over the management of the MPI CEC to Prof. Leitner at the beginning of April, will become the new President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

After being proposed as the new president of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation by an international search committee with the unanimous approval of the Foundation's Board of Trustees, he was appointed to the new position last week by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock for a five-year term beginning January 1, 2023. Prof. Schlögl will replace neurophysiologist Hans-Christian Pape, who has held the position since 2018 and whose term ends in 2023. 

Robert Schlögl joined MPI CEC in 2012 as founding director and has established and led its Heterogeneous Reactions Division. He retired at the end of March 2022. Schlögl is an internationally renowned and networked scientist with a research focus on energy conversion processes and catalysts. As an expert on energy systems of the future and the complex challenges of the energy transition, he is also highly experienced in policy advice and science communication.

Robert Schlögl is Vice President of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and a member of several other academies, including Fellow of the Royal Society in London. He was and is involved in three DFG-funded Clusters of Excellence and Collaborative Research Centers as well as numerous collaborative projects of the EU.

Robert Schlögl has already been a member of the Humboldt Research Award Committee from 2010 to 2019 and has himself been a scientific host to Foundation grantees on several occasions.

Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time in Germany. In over 140 countries worldwide, the Foundation maintains an interdisciplinary network of more than 30,000 Humboldtians - including 57 Nobel Prize winners.
The Foundation sponsors scientists and scholars, irrespective of their discipline and nationality, and is committed to international understanding, scientific progress and development.

Press release of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation: https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/explore/newsroom/press-releases/the-chemist-robert-schloegl-to-be-new-president-of-the-humboldt-foundation