Dr. Karl Wamsler Innovation Award
The Dr. Karl Wamsler Innovation Award is presented by the TUM and the chemicals company Clariant to promote excellent performance in the field of catalysis, including bio-catalysis and White Biotechnology.
The award is named after Dr. Karl Wamsler who died in 2016. Wamsler was one of the most important and formative figures in post-war German chemistry. He was also a generous patron when it came to supporting science and the arts and was named TUM Honorary Senator in 2015. The award was introduced in 2017 and carries a monetary award of 50,000 euros.
Video: Dr. Karl Wamsler Innovation Award 2020
The award winners:
Full professor - Head of Center for Molecular Modeling
Prof. Veronique Speybroeck received 2023 the Dr. Karl Wamsler Innovation Award „In appreciation of her leadership, uniting theory and practice in catalysis, pushing boundaries in simulation techniques to model material and catalytic processes under real operating condition.“
Yusuf Hamied 1702 Professor for Chemistry, University of Cambridge
Prof. Mathew Gaunt received the Dr. Karl Wamsler Innovation Award 2022 „in appreciation of his seminal research characterized by groundbreaking ideas and inventive solutions, pushing frontiers in organic chemistry and the assembly of functional molecules.“
Full professor at the University of Tokyo.
She received the Dr. Karl Wamsler Innovation Award in 2021 “in recognition of her ground-breaking work on utilizing carbon dioxide and sophisticated polymerization catalysis with organometallic complexes.”
W.M. Keck Professor of Energy and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Prof. Yang Shao-Horn, Ph.D. received the Dr. Karl Wamsler Innovation Award in 2020 „in appreciation of her visionary electrocatalysis research, developing universal guiding principles to understand and optimize charge transfer at the solid-gas and solid-liquid interface to store energy in chemical bonds“.
President of the Technical University of Munich, Professor emeritus of Inorganic Chemistry
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang A. Herrmann received the Dr. Karl Wamsler Innovation Award in 2019 "in recognition of his extraordinary life's work both as a scientist and as a pioneer, role model and catalyst of higher education in his role as President".
Camille Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Prof. Stephen L. Buchwald, Ph.D. received the Dr. Karl Wamsler Innovation Award in 2018 “in appreciation of his extraordinary contributions to the art and science of catalytic synthetic methods, especially for CC- and CN-coupling reactions with their impact on organic synthesis and the pharmaceutical industry”.
Executive Director of the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis at the University of Rostock (Germany)
Prof. Dr. Matthias Beller received the Dr. Karl Wamsler Innovation Award in 2017 “in recognition of his internationally outstanding innovations in the field of interdisciplinary homogenous and heterogeneous catalysis, through which he has made possible innovative and environmentally friendly applications in the chemical industry”.