Prof. Hirsch receives Max Grundig Memorial Award

FAU scientist given award for ground-breaking contributions to materials research

Prof. Dr. Andreas Hirsch, Chair of Organic Chemistry II at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), has been awarded the Max Grundig Memorial Award 2012. The Max Grundig Foundation rewards the outstanding achievements of Andreas Hirsch in the research of new materials and processes. The prize is worth 10,000 euros and has been presented biannually in honour of Fürth entrepreneur Max Grundig since his 100th birthday in 2008. The award ceremony will take place on 9 May at 11:00 a.m. at Rundfunkmuseum in Kurgartenstraße 37, Fürth; press representatives are cordially invited to participate.

Andreas Hirsch has achieved international acclaim thanks to his ground-breaking contributions to molecular materials research over the past years. His work has mainly focused on Carbon, which occurs naturally as graphite and diamonds.. Professor Hirsch and his team alter the physical and chemical properties of carbon to create new molecules with unprecedented properties. One of the objects of research examined by Andreas Hirsch and his group of scientists are fullerenes – tiny molecules that consist of exactly 60 carbon atoms but that are only a billionth of a metre in size. The team has succeeded in altering the fullerenes in such a way that completely new materials for the transformation of light into power or neuroprotective and thus life-prolonging agents can be produced. Another field in which Andreas Hirsch’s group has done pioneering work is the research of the chemistry of carbon nanotubes and graphene; these are widely regarded as the most promising candidates for modern high-performance materials in molecular electronics.

Professor Hirsch has been the Chair of Organic Chemistry II at FAU since October 1995. He is speaker of Special Research Field 953 ‘Synthetic carbon allotropes’ and the Graduate School of Molecular Science (GSMS) as well as a member of the FAU’s Cluster of Excellence ‘Engineering of Advanced Materials.’ Furthermore, Hirsch is a board member of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Molecular Materials (ICMM) and the Institute of Advanced Materials and Processes (ZMP), which is located in Fürth.

Andreas Hirsch earned his doctorate of the University of Tübingen, where he also qualified as a professor (Habilitation) after a research period at the Institute of Polymers and Organic Solids in Santa Barbara, USA. In 1994, at the age of 34, he accepted a position at the University of Karlsruhe. In the same year he received the Otto Roehm Award as well as the annual award for graduates admitted to Habilitation presented by the Working Group of German University Professors of Chemistry (ADUC) of the German Chemical Society (GDCh).

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uni | media service | news No. Nr. 92/2012 on 8.5.2012