Clara Immerwahr Award

We are delighted to congratulate this year's awardee, Dr. Bonnie Murphy from the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt am Main. She has been honored with the Clara Immerwahr Award 2025 in recognition of her outstanding contributions to catalysis research.

Born and raised in Edmonton, Canada, Dr. Murphy completed her B.Sc. Joint Honours in Biology and Chemistry at St. Francis Xavier University. She later earned her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oxford under the guidance of Prof. Fraser Armstrong. 

Following her doctoral studies, she worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in 2014, again under the mentorship of Prof. Armstrong at the University of Oxford. In 2016, she joined the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics as a Postdoctoral Research Associate under the mentorship of Werner Kühlbrandt.

Since 2019, Dr. Murphy has been leading a Max Planck Research Group at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt. Her research focuses on uncovering the structure and mechanisms of proteins—particularly those of bioenergetic relevance—using single-particle cryo-EM in combination with biochemical, molecular, and electrochemical techniques.