Frontiers Award

On June 1, 2023, the Frontiers Award 2023 was presented at the MPI CEC.

In 2023, the award went to Prof. Dr. Karen Goldberg from the University of Pennsylvania.

Winner of the award: Prof. Dr. Karen Goldberg

Karen Goldberg has been Vagelos Professor of Energy Research at the University of Pennsylvania since 2017. She is also the founding director of the Vagelos Institute of Energy Science and Technology (VIEST). Her research focuses on the development of new catalytic systems for the efficient production of chemicals and fuels from a range of available feedstocks.

In her Award Lecture "Molecular Oxygen as a Reagent in Late Transition Metal Organometallic Chemistry", the awardee not only explained what she and her team are researching, but also clarified the goal of her research to develop new environmentally friendly and economically viable methods for converting feedstocks (highly saturated feedstocks such as natural gas and alkanes, highly oxygenated feedstocks such as CO2 and those found in biomass) into more valuable organic products.

The Frontiers Award 2019 went to Prof. Dr. James Mayer, Charlotte Fitch Roberts Professor of Chemistry at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. The lecture series and award ceremony took place in January.

Awardee: Prof. Dr. James Mayer

Prof. Dr. James Mayer completed his studies at Harvard University in 1978 before earning his PhD at the California Institute of Technology in 1982. After teaching chemistry at the University of Washington for many years, he moved to Yale University in 2014.

Mayer is a scientist whose interests include inorganic, material, bioinorganic, organometallic and physical organic chemistry. His main focus is on redox reactions, which include both bond formation and bond cleavage. Mayer is intensively engaged in coupled transfers of protons and electrons.

He has received many awards in his career, most recently he was awarded the ACS Award 2018 in Inorganic Chemistry. Prof. Mayer has contributed hundreds of research articles, book chapters and reviews to anthologies and journals and has lectured at universities and research institutions in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Prof. Mayer received the Frontiers Award for his outstanding contributions to the understanding of proton-coupled electron transfer reactions.

Lectures

"Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer in Molecules: Six Degrees of Separation"

"Exploring Scaling Relationships in Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalysis"

"Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer with Oxide Nanocrystals"

Award Lecture "Chemical and Electrical Energies: moving protons as well as electrons"

The Frontiers Award Ceremony 2018 took place from January 24^th to 26^th at the MPI CEC, and the award was given to Prof. Dr. Karsten Reuter, Chair of Theoretical Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich.

Awardee: Prof. Dr. Karsten Reuter

Prof. Dr. Karsten Reuter received his doctorate in 1998 in Erlangen and has since then worked at numerous internationally renowned research institutions. His research focuses in particular on quantitative modelling of material properties and functionalities. He also frequently creates links to methods and concepts from the fields of physics, materials science and engineering. In addition, Prof. Reuter is active in various national and international committees, including the advisory board of the Leibniz Supercomputing Center in Munich. Prof. Reuter received the Frontiers Award for his outstanding achievements in describing chemical processes at interfaces with models. Taking into account the necessary complexity, he succeeded in obtaining sufficiently precise statements in order to establish a realistic relationship with real processes.

The Frontiers Award Ceremony 2016 took place from November 9^th to 11^th at the MPI CEC, and honored Prof. William Tolman, Distinguished McKnight University Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota, Twin-Cities (USA).

Awardee: Prof. Dr. William Tolman

Since 2013 Tolman has served as Editor-in-chief of the renowned journal Inorganic Chemistry. His research encompasses synthetic bioinorganic and organometallic/polymer chemistry. His research group focuses on the fundamental structural and mechanistic understanding of metalloprotein active sites and the synthesis and characterization of metal complexes for use as catalysts for the polymerization of cyclic esters. Prof. Tolman serves on numerous national and international committees and received many awards for his research.

The Frontiers Award took place from March 3^rd to 5^th, 2015 at the MPI CEC. Prof. Eberhard Umbach was awarded the prize for his sedulous engagement within the sciences to promote the energy transition in Germany, and for his outstanding research work in the field of experimental surface physics.

Highlight of the program was Umbach's award lecture “Chemical Research for the ‚Energiewende‘: Luxury or Necessity?“. He discussed the possibilities, risks and progress of the chemical research work for the energy transition. The content of this lecture is summed up in our press release (in German only).

Awardee: Prof. Dr. Eberhard Umbach

Member of acatech Executive Board, Founding President of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) until 2013, former Vice President of the Helmholtz Association and coordinator of the research field energy