Clara Immerwahr Award 2012 goes to Kylie Vincent for her work on enzymes

Montag, 09. Januar 2012

Dr. Kylie Vincent

The first winner of the Clara Immerwahr Award, conferred by the Berlin Cluster of Excellence “Unifying Concepts in Catalysis” (UniCat), is Dr. Kylie Vincent. The prize aims to reward excellent young female scientists in the field of catalysis. Kylie Vincent’s research is based on the application and production of hydrogen with the aid of enzymes. The Award ceremony will take place on 10th February.

The Clara Immerwahr Award will be given for the first time on 10th February 2012 at a public ceremony. Internationally renowned scientist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Professor Ada Yonath, will give a lecture as part of the ceremony. This year the prize is financed by BASF, one of UniCat’s partners in industry, and the TU Berlin.

The Cluster of Excellence “Unifying Concepts in Catalysis” (UniCat) had called for applications for the Clara Immerwahr Award in October 2011. The award is associated with a financial support of 15.000 Euro for a research stay at UniCat.  It aims to reward the outstanding research of an excellent young female scientist in the field of catalysis. It is thought to pave the way for setting up an independent research group in the consortium, or for establishing close collaborative links with UniCat. The Clara Immerwahr Award 2012 is funded by BASF SE, one of UniCat's partners in industry, and by the TU Berlin.

The selection was made by a jury of five Professors from the UniCat consortium. The winner will be honoured during a public ceremony involving a guest lecture held by the internationally renowned female scientist, Prof. Dr. Ada Yonath, Rehovot, Israel, February 10, 2012 at TU Berlin. More information on the Clara Immerwahr Award can be found at www3.unicat.tu-berlin.de/clara-immerwahr-award

The Clara Immerwahr Award serves as an excellent example of the promotion of excellent young female scientists and is another successful measure taken by UniCat aimed at advancing female researchers. Alongside publicity for excellent women scientists, these measures include seminars on gender awareness and professionalisation of members of UniCat, the establishment of a guest scientist programme specifically for female scientists, the forming of Success Teams and the founding of the UniCat regular informal women’s meeting. More detailed information on the individual measures can be found on the UniCat gender website at www3.unicat.tu-berlin.de/Gender.54.0.html .

The Clara Immerwahr Award is a tribute by UniCat to Dr. Clara Immerwahr, who obtained her doctorate at the University of Breslau in 1900 with a research paper in physical chemistry, making her the first woman to be awarded a doctorate in chemistry from a German university. Moreover, her marriage to Fritz Haber provides a direct link to the Fritz Haber Institute, a member institution of UniCat.

For further information please contact:
Claudia Nasrallah, Gender Coordinator, UniCat Cluster of Excellence; Tel.: +49 (0) 30/314-28 882, E-Mail: claudia.nasrallah(at)tu-berlin.de