Professor Matthias Beller, Leibniz-Institut für Katalyse (LIKAT), Rostock, Germany, has been awarded the French-German Bi-national Award (Prix Franco-Allemand) 2014, a cooperation of the Société Chimique de France (SCF, French Chemical Society) and the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society).

Beller is honored for his outstanding discoveries in the field of catalysis and sustainable chemistry, as well as his fruitful collaborations with French chemists. The award was presented during a ceremony on May 21, 2015, in Paris, France.

Matthias Beller studied chemistry at the Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany, where he finished his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1989. After a postdoctoral stay with K. B. Sharpless at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA, he worked in research at Hoechst AG for five years. In 1996, he became Associate Professor for inorganic chemistry at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and in 1998 Full Professor at the University of Rostock, Germany. Since 2005, he is director of the Leibniz-Institut für Katalyse e.V. (LIKAT), Rostock.

Among other honors, Professor Beller has been awarded the Leibniz-Preis of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the European Sustainable Chemistry Award. He is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and of the Akademie der Wissenschaften (Academy of the Sciences), Hamburg, and has been Vice President of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Association (Leibniz Association) since 2012. Among other commitments, he is Chairman of the Editorial Board of ChemSusChem, a member of the International Advisory Board of ChemCatChem, as well as a member of the Editorial Board of Angewandte Chemie.

His research focuses on homogeneous catalysis, especially of transition-metal catalysts, aiming for the development of new, environmentally benign catalysts and synthetic protocols as well as their application in industry. Current activities include Fe-catalyzed oxidations and hydrogenations, hydroformylations, hydroaminomethylation and hydroamination, Pd- and Cu-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions, and Rh- and Ru-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenations.

Selected Publications

• Regioselective Pd-Catalyzed Methoxycarbonylation of Alkenes Using both Paraformaldehyde and Methanol as CO Surrogates,
  Qiang Liu, Kedong Yuan, Percia-Beatrice Arockiam, Robert Franke, Henri Doucet, Ralf Jackstell, Matthias Beller,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 4493–4497.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.201410764
• Solar Hydrogen Production by Plasmonic Au–TiO₂ Catalysts: Impact of Synthesis Protocol and TiO₂ Phase on Charge Transfer Efficiency and H₂ Evolution Rates,
  Jacqueline B. Priebe, Jörg Radnik, Alastair J. J. Lennox, Marga-Martina Pohl, Michael Karnahl, Dirk Hollmann, Kathleen Grabow, Ursula Bentrup, Henrik Junge, Matthias Beller, Angelika Brückner,
  ACS Catal. 2015, 5, 2137–2148.
  DOI: 10.1021/cs5018375
• Hydrogenation using iron oxide–based nanocatalysts for the synthesis of amines,
  Rajenahally V Jagadeesh, Tobias Stemmler, Annette-Enrica Surkus, Henrik Junge, Kathrin Junge, Matthias Beller,
  Nat. Protoc. 2015, 10, 548–557.
  DOI: 10.1038/nprot.2015.025
• Recent Applications of Palladium-Catalyzed Coupling Reactions in the Pharmaceutical, Agrochemical, and Fine Chemical Industries,
  Christian Torborg, Matthias Beller,
  Adv. Synth. Catal. 2009, 351, 3027–3043.
  DOI: 10.1002/adsc.200900587
• Palladium-Catalyzed Carbonylation Reactions of Aryl Halides and Related Compounds,
  Anne Brennführer, Helfried Neumann, Matthias Beller,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 4114–4133.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.200900013
• Sustainable Metal Catalysis with Iron: From Rust to a Rising Star?,
  Stephan Enthaler, Kathrin Junge, Matthias Beller,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 3317–3321.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.200800012