Ferdi Schüth, Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Coal Research, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, celebrates his 60th birthday on July 8, 2020.
Schüth’s research focuses on inorganic materials with applications in heterogeneous catalysis. His interests include high-surface-area materials with controlled porosity, nanostructured catalysts, model reactions such as CO oxidation, and energy-relevant conversions such as methane activation, biomass conversion, ammonia decomposition, and catalyzed hydrogen storage.
Ferdi Schüth studied chemistry and law at the University of Münster, Germany. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Münster in 1988 under the supervision of Ewald Wicke. Then, he served as a postdoctoral researcher with Lanny D. Schmidt at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, USA, until 1989. Schüth worked on his habilitation at the University of Mainz, Germany, from 1989 to 1995, with a stint as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, in 1993. He joined the University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in 1995 as Full Professor of Inorganic Chemistry. In 1998, Schüth joined the MPI for Coal Research as Director and group leader.
Among many other honors, Schüth has received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) in 2002, the Wilhelm Klemm Prize from the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society) in 2012, the Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker Prize in 2014, and an Honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, in 2016. He is an Elected Member of the German National Academy of Science Leopoldina and of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts (Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste).
Schüth serves as an Associate Editor of Chemistry of Materials and as a Member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of Advanced Materials, Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, and Chemical Engineering & Technology, in addition to other commitments. From 2007 to 2014, he served as Vice President of the DFG, and from 2014 to 2020, as Vice President of the Max Planck Society.
Selected Publications
- Mechanochemical Grafting: A Solvent-less Highly Efficient Method for the Synthesis of Hybrid Inorganic–Organic Materials,
Amol P. Amrute, Bodo Zibrowius, Ferdi Schüth,
Chem. Mater. 2020, 32, 4699–4706.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c01266 - Hydrothermal Stability of High-Surface-Area α-Al2O3 and Its Use as a Support for Hydrothermally Stable Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis Catalysts,
Amol P. Amrute, Kai Jeske, Zbigniew Łodziana, Gonzalo Prieto, Ferdi Schüth,
Chem. Mater. 2020, 32, 4369–4374.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c01587 - Carbon Supported Phosphoric Acid Catalysts for Gas-Phase Synthesis of Diesel Additives,
Anna Grünert, Wolfgang Schmidt, Ferdi Schüth,
Catal. Lett. 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-020-03200-4 - Magnetic Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Protection, Functionalization, and Application,
An-Hui Lu, E. L. Salabas, Ferdi Schüth,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 1222–1244.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.200602866 - Ordered mesoporous materials in catalysis,
Akira Taguchi, Ferdi Schüth,
Microporous Mesoporous Mater. 2005, 77, 1–45.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micromeso.2004.06.030 - Generalized synthesis of periodic surfactant/inorganic composite materials,
Qisheng Huo, David I. Margolese, Ulrike Ciesla, Pingyun Feng, Thurman E. Gier, Peter Sieger, Rosa Leon, Pierre M. Petroff, Ferdi Schüth, Galen D. Stucky,
Nature 1994, 368, 317–321.
https://doi.org/10.1038/368317a0
Also of Interest
- Schüth New Vice President of Max Planck Society,
ChemViews Mag. 2014.
Professor Ferdi Schüth, Germany, has been elected at the Annual Meeting of the Max Planck Society - Wilhelm Klemm Prize for F. Schüth,
Jonathan Faiz/ChemViews Magazine,
ChemViews Mag. 2012.
Ferdi Schüth, Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, Germany, awarded GDCh prize for work on inorganic chemistry - Video: Wissenschaftsforum: F. Schüth on Catalysts for Alternative Vera Köster,
ChemistryViews.org 2011.
Ferdi Schüth, Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, Germany, talks about his work on catalysts for alternative fuels
