“Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award” for Arne Thomas

Monday, 19. December 2011

UniCat-Professor Arne Thomas of TU Berlin is one out of three awardees of the „Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award“ 2011.

Prof. Dr. Arne Thomas © TU-Pressestelle/Dahl

Prof. Arne Thomas © TU Berlin/U. Dahl

The winners of the Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award 2011 have been announced. The prizes, each worth EUR 10,000, have been awarded by an independent scientific committee of the Bayer Science & Education Foundation. This new international prize was first presented in 2009. It is awarded annually in the three categories biology, chemistry and materials. The selection is made on the basis of the originality and quality of candidates’ research and the significance of this work for the respective award category.

Prof. Dr. Arne Thomas receives the “Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award” 2011 in the category „Materials“ for the synthesis of highly porous functional materials. Their structure and properties can be adapted target-oriented for special applications. This can lead to multiple utilizations. Porous materials are used as catalysts or catalyst supports, for gas storage, purification and separation, as material for column chromatography and for ion exchange, as electrodes, insulation material and a wide range of additional applications.

This year, Prof. Dr. Arne Thomas has received an ERC Starting Grant and the "Award for Exemplary Teaching" of TU Berlin. With the Starting Grants the European Research Council supports internationally outstanding young scientists in establishing or strengthening an independent research group in the area of fundamental research.

Personal data

Arne Thomas, born 1975, studied chemistry at the Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, the Philipps University in Marburg and at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. He earned his doctorate with Professor Markus Antonietti at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces.  Subsequently he then worked with an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Santa Barbara / USA in the laboratory of Professor Galen D. Stucky.

In mid-2005 he returned to the MPI of Colloids and Interfaces, where he worked as a research group leader and scientific coordinator of the project house "EnerChem", a merger of five Max Planck Institutes, which are jointly developing ‘Nano chemical concepts of a sustainable energy supply’ In mid-2009 he accepted the position as a UniCat professor of inorganic chemistry (functional materials) at the Technical University of Berlin. The group of Arne Thomas deals with both porous inorganic and organic materials, as well as inorganic-organic hybrid materials.

Bayer Science & Education Foundation

The “Bayer Science & Education Foundation" has focused on funding young scientists in the three categories biology, chemistry and materials.  The selection is made on the basis of the originality and quality of candidates’ research and the significance of this work for the respective award category.

You find more information on the "Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award 2011" here.