Ernst Haage Prize in Chemistry
Since 2006, the Ernst Haage Prize awards young scientists for outstanding achievements in the field of chemical science and promotes particularly young academics. The Ernst Haage-Foundation awards the prize which is endowed with € 7,500. Nominees must be scientists who hold a doctorate from a German research institution/university. They should have their primary residence in Germany, be no more than 40 years old and not have a permanent employment contract.
The Ernst Haage Prize for Doctoral Students (PhDs) honors excellent researchers who have completed their PhD in the past year at the MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion or the MPI für Kohlenforschung with outstanding achievement.
With the Ernst Haage Apprenticeship Prize appropriate recognition is also given to exceptional performance of our apprentices.
The award ceremony will take place in a festive setting in which the national Ernst Haage Prize winner for Chemistry will present their work in a lecture. A keynote speaker will kick off the ceremony with a keynote speech.
Award Winners 2024
National Ernst Haage Prize
Prof. Dr. Barbara A. J. Lechner Rudolf Mößbauer Professor at the Technical University of Munich, leading a research group in functional nanomaterials.. Her group investigates the dynamic restructuring of functional nanomaterials under realistic conditions, e.g. model catalysts under reactive gas atmospheres.
Award for PhDs/Postdocs
Tim Schulte is a PhD student at the MPI für Kohlenforschung in the department of Organic Synthesis led by Prof. Tobias Ritter.
Dr. Sheng-Hsiang Lin is a post-doctoral researcher at the MPI CEC in the Molecular Catalysis Department of Prof. Walter Leitner in the group Multifunctional Catalytic Systems led by Dr. Alexis Bordet.
Award for Apprentices
Hinrich Kludig, Industrial mechanic at the MPI für Kohlenforschung
Elisabeth Glöckler, chemical laboratory assistant at the MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion
The Ernst Haage Foundation
The launch of the Ernst Haage Foundation in 2006 for the support of young researchers was possible thanks to a generous private donation. The foundation's Board of Trustees, composed of a representative of the founder as well as the Executive Board of the Max Planck Institutes in Mülheim, honors excellent research achievements by young scientists in the field of chemistry each year with the Ernst Haage Prize.
The Foundation is named after Ernst Haage (1901-1968), a Mülheim entrepreneur who was closely associated with research at the Max Planck Institutes in the city from 1932 onwards through his scientific and technical instruments and components.
All Award winners (since 2006)
Ernst Haage Prize (national)
2024 Prof. Dr. Barbara A. J. Lechner
2023 Dr. Oliver Dumele
2022 Jun.-Prof. Dr. Eva Blasco & Dr. Sabine Richert
2021 Dr. Max Martin Hansmann
2020 Dr. Crispin Lichtenberg
2019 Dr. Thomas-Christian Jagau
2018 Dr. Tim-Patrick Fellinger
2017 PD Dr. Harald Oberhofer
2016 Prof. Dr. Aliaksandr Bandarenka
2015 Dr. Inke Siewert
2014 Dr. Martin H. G. Prechtl
2013 Dr. Oana Cojocaru-Mirédin
2012 Dr. Kallol Ray
Ernst Haage Prize (2006-2011)
2011 Dr. Nicholas Cox
2010 Dr. Dimitrios A. Pantazis
2009 Dr. Maria-Eirini Pandelia & Dr. Carsten Milsmann
2008 Dr. Connie Lu
2007 Dr. Johannes Messinger
2006 Dr. John Berry
Ernst Haage Prize for Doctoral Students
2024 Tim Schulte & Dr. Sheng-Hsiang Lin
2023 Dr. Joyce Grimm & Dr. Maria Drosou
2022 Dr. Niklas Kinzel
2021 Dr. Dr. Rebeca Gómez Castillo
2020 Dr. Akash Kaithal & Dr. Roberta Properzi
2019 Dr. Casey van Stappen
2018 Dr. Lucas Schreyer
2017 Dr. Patricia Rodrígue Maciá
2016 Dr. Cyriac Massué
2015 Dr. Julia Schumann
2014 Dr. Katharina Weber
2013 Dr. Michael Römelt
2012 Dr. Andreas Hansen
Ernst Haage Prize for Apprentices
2024 Elisabeth Glöckler & Hinrich Kludig
2023 Sandra Denner & Berfin Göker
2022 Sophie von Buttlar & Jolina Keßler
2021 Nina Bäumer & Paul Grote
2020 Christian Kahl & Nico Tchorz
2019 Vanessa Richter & Pia Münstermann
2018 Julia Busch & Till Wehner
2017 Christine Leenen
2016 Christian Sichelschmidt
2015 Christian Klucken
2014 Tobias Stamm
2013 Teresa Bartoldus
2012 Alina Steinbach
2011 Natalia Kowalew
2010 Yvonne Brandenburger & Mario Dunsch
2009 Christiane König
Ernst Haage Prize 2024
The national Ernst Haage Prize for Chemistry goes to Prof. Dr. Barbara A. J. Lechner.
Barbara A. J. Lechner is Rudolf Mößbauer Professor at the Technical University of Munich and heads a research group for functional nanomaterials. Her group investigates the dynamic restructuring of functional nanomaterials under realistic conditions, such as model catalysts in a reactive gas atmosphere.
The Ernst Haage Prize for PhD students and postdocs is awarded to Tim Schulte (Max Planck Institute for Coal Research) and Dr. Sheng-Hsiang Lin (Max Planck Institute for Coal Research).
The Ernst Haage Foundation's Trainee Prize for outstanding performance was awarded to Elisabeth Glöckler (MPI CEC) and Tim Schulte (MPI for Coal Research).
Ernst Haage Prize 2023
The National Ernst Haage Award for Chemistry 2022 goes to Dr. Oliver Dumele.
Oliver Dumele is a group leader at Humboldt University in Berlin, where he works on the synthesis of new chemical compounds. One focus is on layered and macrocyclic materials.
The Ernst Haage Prize for Doctoral Students and Postdocs is awarded to Dr. Joyce Grimm (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung) and Dr. Maria Drosou (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung).
The Ernst Haage Foundation Trainee Award was presented to Sandra Denner (MPI CEC) and Berfin Göker (MPI für Kohlenforschung) for outstanding achievements.
Ernst Haage Prize 2022
The Board of Trustees of the Ernst Haage Foundation has chosen two national award winners in 2022.
The National Ernst Haage Award for Chemistry 2022 goes to Jun.-Prof. Dr. Eva Blasco and Dr. Sabine Richert.
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Eva Blasco is Junior Professor at the Organic Chemistry Institute and Centre for Advanced Materials at the University of Heidelberg since October 2020 and has stood out for her outstanding scientific achievements in the field of design and synthesis of new polymer-based functional materials for applications in 3D and 4D printing.
Dr. Sabine Richert is Emmy Noether Research Group Leader at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the University of Freiburg and is honored for her extraordinary contributions in the field of spin information transfer and information storage in photo-generated multi-spin systems designed for molecular spintronics applications.
The Ernst Haage Prize for Doctoral Students is awarded to Niklas Kinzel (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion).
The Ernst Haage Foundation Trainee Award will be presented to Sophie von Buttlar (MPI CEC) and Jolina Keßler (MPI für Kohlenforschung) for outstanding achievements.
Ernst Haage Prize 2021
The National Ernst Haage Award for Chemistry 2021 goes to Dr. Max Martin Hansmann.
Max Hansmann is a junior professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (Organic Chemistry) at Technische Universität and has distinguished himself through excellent independent work and outstanding publications.
The Ernst Haage Prize for Doctoral Students is awarded to Dr. Rebeca Gómez Castillo (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion).
The Ernst Haage Foundation Trainee Award will be presented to Nina Bäumer (MPI CEC) and Paul Grote (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung) for outstanding achievements.
The award ceremony took place on November 5, 2021, as a hybrid event at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr, to which the award winners from 2020 were also invited.
Ernst Haage Prize 2020
National Ernst Haage Prize 2020: Dr. Crispin Lichtenberg
Crispin Lichtenberg received his doctorate with distinction in Aachen in 2013 and has been an independent research group leader at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg since 2016.
He is being honored for his groundbreaking contributions to the molecular chemistry of Bismuth.
Ernst Haage Prize for Doctoral Students 2020: Dr. Roberta Properzi (MPI für Kohlenforschung) and Dr. Akash Kaithal (MPI CEC)
Ernst Haage Apprenticeship Prize 2020: Christian Kahl (MPI CEC) and Nico Tchorz (MPI für Kohlenforschung)
The festive award ceremony usually takes place during a two-day conference that brings internationally renowned scientists to Mülheim. In 2020, however, the conference and the ceremony could not take place. The awardees will be honored during the symposium in 2021.
Ernst Haage Prize 2019
Since 2018, the Ernst Haage Award is jointly presented by the two Max Planck Institutes in Mülheim. The symposium and award ceremony were held at the MPI für Kohlenforschung in 2019. Following the tradition of previous years, the two institutes invited internationally well-recognized scientists to speak at the 2-day conference:
- Prof. Robin B. Bedford, University of Bristol, UK
- Dr. Thibault Cantat, CEA, France
- Prof. Clémence Corminboeuf, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
- Prof. Marc Koper, Universiteit Leiden, NL
- Prof. Kathrin Lang, TU München, GER
- Prof. Antoni Llobet, ICIQ - Institut Català d'Investigació Química, Spain
- Prof. Markus Reiher, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
- Prof. Erwin Reisner, University of Cambridge, UK
- Prof. Corinna Schindler, University of Michigan, USA
- Prof. Dirk Trauner, New York University, USA
- Prof. Atsushi Urakawa, TU Delft, NL
Awardees
Ernst Haage Prize 2019: Dr. Thomas-Christian Jagau
Dr. Thomas-Christian Jagau received his doctorate with the grade 'summa cum laude' in Mainz in 2013 and has been an independent junior research group leader in the Department of Chemistry at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich since 2015. He is honored for his groundbreaking contributions to the quantum chemical description of electronic resonance states.
Ernst Haage Prize for PhD Students 2019: Dr. Casey van Stappen
Dr. Casey van Stappen received his PhD at the MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion in the Department of Inorganic Spectroscopy at the International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS-RECHARGE). He completed his dissertation on spectroscopic investigations to understand the electronic structure and reactivity of nitrogenases with summa cum laude in summer 2019.
Ernst Haage Prize for Apprentices 2019: Vanessa Richter (MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion) and Pia Münstermann (MPI für Kohlenforschung).
Ernst Haage Prize 2018
In 2018, the Max Planck Institutes in Mülheim jointly awarded the Ernst Haage prize for the first time.
The prize was, and is since, awarded for outstanding research in the broader field of chemical basic resarch.
As in previous years, the award ceremony and the preceding symposium took place at Schloss Broich from November 12th-13th. The MPIs welcomed once more a number of renowned colleagues to Mülheim:
Prof. Michele Aresta (University of Bari, Italy)
Prof. Marco Mazzotti (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
Univ.-Prof. André Bardow (RWTH Aachen University, Germany)
Prof. Bruno Chaudret (University of Toulouse III, France)
Prof. Walter Leitner (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Germany)
Prof. Frank Neese (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Germany)
Dr. Elsje Alessandra Quadrelli (CPE Lyon, France)
Prof. Helmut Schwarz (TU Berlin, Germany)
Dr. Etsuko Fujita (Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA)
Dr. Ya-Huei Chin (University of Toronto, Canada)
Awardees
In 2018, the Ernst Haage Prize went to:
Ernst Haage Prize 2018: Dr. Tim-Patrick Fellinger
Dr. Tim-Patrick Fellinger received his doctorate in Potsdam and currently heads a research group in the field of energy materials and electrochemistry at the Technical University of Munich. He is honored for his outstanding research work in the field of basic catalyst development in oxygen-related electrochemical energy conversion.
Ernst Haage Doctoral Award 2018: Dr. Lucas Schreyer
Dr. Lucas Schreyer did research for his doctoral thesis in the Department of Homogeneous Catalysis at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung and received his doctorate "summa cum laude" at the University of Cologne in September 2018. His doctoral thesis in the field of organocatalysis deals with asymmetric carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions.
Ernst Haage Prize for Apprentices 2018: Julia Busch and Till Wehner
The Ernst Haage Foundation Trainee Prize is awarded to Julia Busch and Till Wehner for outstanding achievements.
Ernst Haage Prize 2017
The Ernst Haage symposium and the Ernst Haage Prize ceremony took place from November 22nd-24th at Schloss Broich in Muelheim an der Ruhr.
The following speakers were invited:
Prof. Jeroen Anton van Bokhoven (ETH Zürich)
Prof. Bruce Gates (University of California Davis)
Prof. Anders Hagfeldt (EPFL Lausanne)
Prof. Leif Hammarström (University of Uppsala)
Prof. Roel van de Krol (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin)
Prof. Johannes Messinger (Umeå University)
Prof. Martin Muhler (Ruhr University Bochum)
Prof. Siglinda Perathoner (University of Messina)
Prof. Michiel Sprik (University of Cambridge)
Prof. Kyung Byung Yoon (Sogang University)
Awardees 2017
Ernst Haage Prize 2017 - PD Dr. Harald Oberhofer
Dr. Harald Oberhofer is group leader and private lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich.
Dr. Harald Oberhofer received his doctorate in Vienna and, after a postdoctoral stay in Cambridge, moved to the Technical University of Munich, where he established a working group in the field of theoretical chemistry as part of his habilitation. He is awarded for his outstanding research work on the theoretical description of energy conversion and transport processes.
Ernst Haage PhD Prize 2017 - Dr. Patricia Rodríguez Maciá
Dr. Patricia Rodríguez Maciá is Postdoc at the MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mülheim/Ruhr.
Dr. Patricia Rodríguez Maciá is a postdoctoral fellow at the MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion in the group' Proteins on Electrodes'. In 2017, she completed her dissertation on catalysts derived from the enzyme hydrogenase with 'summa cum laude'.
Prize for Apprentices 2017 - Christine Leenen
Christine Leenen is an apprentice at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion.
The Ernst Haage Foundation's Apprentice Prize is awarded to Christine Leenen for outstanding achievements.
Ernst Haage Prize 2016
The Ernst Haage symposium and the Ernst Haage Prize ceremony took place from November 22nd-24th at Schloss Broich in Muelheim an der Ruhr.
On the occasion of the 3-day symposium, the MPI CEC once more invited several internationally well-recognized scientists to speak at the conference:
Prof. Fraser Armstrong (University of Oxford)
Prof. Bas de Bruin (University of Amsterdam)
Prof. Matthias Driess (TU Berlin)
Prof. Oliver Einsle (University of Freiburg)
Prof. Michael Grätzel (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)
Prof. Can Li (Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics)
Prof. Christian Limberg (HU Berlin)
Prof. Marc Koper (Leiden University)
Prof. Tobias Ritter (MPI für Kohlenforschung)
Prof. Robert Schlögl (MPI CEC
Prof. Licheng Sun (KTH Royal Institute of Technology; Dalian Institute of Technology)
Awardees
Ernst Haage Prize 2016 - Prof. Dr. Aliaksandr Bandarenka
Assistant Professor for Physics of Energy Conversion and Storage at the Technical University of Munich
Ernst Haage PhD Prize 2016 - Dr. Cyriac Massué
Postdoc at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin
Prize for Apprentices 2016 - Christian Sichelschmidt
Apprentice at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion
Ernst Haage Prize 2015
For the first time, the Ernst Haage award ceremony was preceded by a short and focused symposium on chemical energy conversion. Our aim, to bring together approaches based on homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, was also reflected in the symposium. Over three days, internationally highly recognized scientists presented their most recent research results. The MPI CEC was happy to welcome the following lecturers to its first Ernst Haage Symposium:
Prof. Robert Davis (University of Virginia)
Prof. Walter Leitner (RWTH Aachen)
Prof. Joachim Mayer (RWTH Aachen)
Prof. Franc Meyer (Universität Göttingen)
Prof. Joost N.H. Reek (University of Amsterdam)
Prof. Philippe Sautet (University of Lyon)
Prof. Ferdi Schüth (MPI für Kohlenforschung/Vizepräsident der MPG)
Prof. Stenbjörn Styring (University Uppsala)
Prof. Sir John Meurig Thomas (University of Cambridge)
Awardees
Ernst Haage Prize 2015: Dr. Inke Siewert
Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the Georg-August-University Göttingen
Ernst Haage PhD Prize 2015: Dr. Julia Schumann
Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the Fritz-Haber-Institut of the Max Planck Society
Prize for Apprentices 2015: Christian Klucken
Department of Biophysical Chemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion
