Claudia Felser, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, Germany, has received the Liebig Memorial Medal 2022 from the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society). The award is endowed with EUR 7,500 and was presented at the 132nd Assembly of the Society of German Naturalists and Physicians (GDNÄ) in Leipzig, Germany, on September 9, 2022. The GDCh awards the Liebig Memorial Medal for outstanding achievements in the field of chemistry.

Claudia Felser receives the award for outstanding work on the theoretical prediction of the physical properties of inorganic solids and their experimental confirmation. This work has led to several important breakthroughs in the chemistry and physics of solids. The phenomena she investigates, such as superconductivity, thermoelectricity, and topological insulators, are relevant in both basic research and applications. Felser’s research interests include the design, synthesis, and physical investigation of new quantum materials, in particular, Heusler compounds and topological materials for energy conversion and spintronics.

Claudia Felser studied chemistry and physics at the University of Cologne, Germany, where she received her Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1994. After postdoctoral fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany, and the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Nantes, France, she became Assistant Professor at the University of Mainz, Germany, in 1996. Felser was promoted to Full Professor there in 2003. Since 2011, she has served as a Scientific Member and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids.

Among other honors, Felser has received the Order of Merit of the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz in 2001, the James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials from the American Physical Society (APS) in 2019, and the Max Born Prize from the DPG (German Physical Society) and IOP (Institute of Physics) in 2022. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Magnetic Society, the APS, the IOP, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), and the Materials Research Society of India, as well as a Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the German National Academy of Science and Engineering acatech, the United States National Academy of Engineering, and the United States National Academy of Sciences.

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Selected Publications

• Topology, skyrmions, and Heusler compounds,
  Claudia Felser, Stuart Parkin,
  MRS Bull. 2022.
  https://doi.org/10.1557/s43577-022-00384-5
• Fully Two-Dimensional Incommensurate Charge Modulation on the Pd-Terminated Polar Surface of PdCoO₂,
  Pengfei Kong, Guowei Li, Zhongzheng Yang, Chenhaoping Wen, Yanpeng Qi, Claudia Felser, Shichao Yan,
  Nano Lett. 2022, 22, 5635–5640.
  https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03857
• Simple rules for the understanding of Heusler compounds,
  Tanja Graf, Claudia Felser, Stuart S.P. Parkin,
  Prog. Solid State Chem. 2011, 39, 1–50.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.progsolidstchem.2011.02.001
• Spintronics: A Challenge for Materials Science and Solid-State Chemistry,
  Claudia Felser, Gerhard H. Fecher, Benjamin Balke,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 668–699.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.200601815
• Topological Materials: Weyl Semimetals,
  Binghai Yan, Claudia Felser,
  Annu. Rev. of Condens. Matter Phys. 2017, 8, 337–354.
  https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-031016-025458
• Large Room Temperature Anomalous Transverse Thermoelectric Effect in Kagome Antiferromagnet YMn₆Sn₆,
  Subhajit Roychowdhury, Andrew M. Ochs, Satya N. Guin, Kartik Samanta, Jonathan Noky, Chandra Shekhar, Maia G. Vergniory, Joshua E. Goldberger, Claudia Felser,
  Adv. Mater. 2022.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202201350

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