The German Catalysis Society, Frankfurt, has chosen Andreas Johannes Vorhold of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Mülheim, Germany, for its Jochen Block Prize. The sporadically awarded prize recognizes a researcher who has not yet attained a professorship but who has performed fundamental and original research related to catalysis.
Vorhold was honored for his work developing and then operating continuous mini-plants of processes that use renewable resources as feedstocks. The society notes: “For example, with the help of homogeneous catalysis he succeeded in producing monomers or tensides, which are of interest for industrial purposes. He uses innovative recycling concepts for separating the expensive catalyst material from the product and reuse it. Thanks to tailor-made catalysts, renewable raw materials can also be used as starting materials for the synthesis of fine chemicals. His work closes the gap between fundamental research and application.”
Vorhold received the award, which includes a €3,000 (≈$3,700) prize, at the 51st annual meeting of German Catalyst Scientists in mid-March in Weimar, Germany.
More details can be found here.