Evonik honors Benjamin List with Bergius Lecture
Chemical Company Evonik honors Nobel Prize winner from Mülheim with a special tribute
Prof. Benjamin List, Director at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 2021, has been awarded the prestigious Bergius Lecture by chemicals company Evonik. It was awarded on September 12 on the occasion of the forum "Evonik meets Science" in Dresden.
"In recognition of his fundamental contributions in the field of asymmetric organic catalysis, we are honoring Benjamin List with the Friedrich Bergius Lecture 2023," says Harald Schwager, Evonik's Vice Chairman of the Executive Board and responsible for innovation on the Executive Board. "Benjamin List's work has led to the discovery of many highly efficient catalysts that are widely used in the chemical industry. They are important building blocks for resource-saving chemistry."
Benjamin List and Evonik first cooperated in a joint research project more than 20 years ago. List received the Degussa Prize for Chirality in Chemistry back in 2004. Since then, the synthesis of complex molecules using organic catalysts has become a modern tool for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and other materials.
"With his research, Professor List has made significant progress in the field of sustainable raw material extraction and synthesis, thus strengthening the innovative power of the chemical industry, emphasizes Ralph Marquardt, Evonik's Chief Innovation Officer.
With the Friedrich Bergius Lecture, the specialty chemicals company Evonik honors outstanding researchers who have made an important contribution to the development of the science of chemistry and gives them the opportunity to speak on scientifically relevant issues. This year's Friedrich Bergius Lecture was awarded on September 12 at the "Evonik meets Science" forum. There, professors from leading scientific institutions and researchers from Evonik present the latest results of interesting collaborative projects. Entitled "Renewable Carbon Chemistry," this year's conference focuses on sustainable products and technologies. Key topics include defossilization, biosurfactants and the recycling of polymer materials.
"This is a great honor for me," explains Benjamin List. There is a close connection between Friedrich Bergius and the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung. Bergius worked for Th. Goldschmidt AG, a predecessor company of Evonik. Together with Carl Bosch, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1931 for his "services to the development of high-pressure chemical processes," exactly 90 years before Benjamin List. Thanks to his pioneering basic research, Friedrich Bergius is now regarded as one of the greatest German chemists of the 20th century.
The concept of "Evonik meets Science," which aims to secure future innovation successes by networking with the academic world, appeals to chemist Benjamin List. Although basic research is primarily about gaining knowledge, List emphasizes, "we also want our work to help tackle the problems that humanity faces." Therefore, in his talk, Benjamin List talked about how catalysis contributes - and will continue to contribute - to meeting the challenges facing human society.
Bergius' Nobel Prize certificate has long resided in the Institute's Historical Archive as an important contemporary document. The former director of the institute, Günter Wilke, had acquired part of Bergius' estate in the 1980s in order to preserve this part of chemical research history. Like Franz Fischer, founding director of the Kohlenforschung, Bergius worked on the subject of coal liquefaction. The process Bergius developed is thematically close to the Fischer-Tropsch process developed at the institute. However, since there were no further scientific links between Bergius and the Mülheim scientists, the decision was made to hand over the unique archive material to Evonik under a Depository Agreement.
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