Alwin Mittasch Prize 2023

Martin Muhler, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, has been awarded the Alwin Mittasch Prize 2023 from the German Society for Catalysis (GeCatS) for his outstanding work in catalysis research.

The prize is awarded for exceptional research work that has led to a deeper understanding or an expansion of the fundamentals of catalysis and its industrial applications. The award is endowed with EUR 10,000 and supported by BASF SE. It was presented at the 56th annual meeting of German catalysis researchers (56. Jahrestreffen Deutscher Katalytiker) in Weimar, Germany.

Martin Muhler is honored for his fundamental contributions to the cross-scale understanding of the mode of action of catalyst materials in chemical reactions for future-oriented technologies. His research creates a path from model systems to catalysts in industrial applications.

Research

The focus of Martin Muhler’s research activities is on industrial heterogeneous redox catalysis. Heterogeneous catalysts are indispensable for large-scale production processes and are used in numerous applications, for example, in refineries or in energy conversion. His areas of work also include electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, and synthesis gas catalysis.

Martin Muhler’s findings have been incorporated into the improvement of many technical processes. In addition to ammonia and methanol synthesis, he has also worked on the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis, dry reforming of methane, CO₂ hydrogenation, and the synthesis of higher alcohols. Based on his work, waste gas streams containing CO₂ can be effectively used in steel production.

Career

Martin Muhler studied chemistry at the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany. He completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of Gerhard Ertl in 1986 at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. He then was a postdoctoral researcher at Haldor Topsoe A/S, Denmark. From 1991 to 1996, he worked at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Berlin. Muhler completed his habilitation in technical chemistry at the Technical University of Berlin in 1996. Since 1996, Muhler has held a Professorship for Technical Chemistry at the Ruhr University Bochum. He has also headed the Heterogeneous Redox Catalysis group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, since 2015.

Among other honors, Muhler was awarded the DECHEMA Prize by the Max Buchner Research Foundation in 1999. He served as Chairman of GeCatS from 2014 to 2018 and is a member of the academics project “Energy Systems of the Future” (ESYS) and of the advisory board for the Power-to-X (P2X) Copernicus project.

Selected Publications