Dr. Helmut Schwarz, emeritus professor of TU Berlin, received jointly with the former Einstein visiting fellow, Prof. Dr. John F. Hartwig (University of California, Berkeley, USA) and Prof. Dr. Avelino Corma (Universitat Politècnica de València-CSIC, Spanien) the 17. BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the area of basic sciences. The prize will be awarded to them on the 19. Juni in Bilbao, Spain.
The jury, chaired by Nobel Prize winner Prof. Dr. Theodor Hänsch, selected the three winners from 94 nominations. According to the award committee their fundamental advances in the field of catalysis have helped to “control and accelerate chemical reactions”, thereby “improving efficiency and reducing energy consumption” in industrial production.
The UniSyCat Cluster of Excellence warmly congratulates Helmut Schwarz on this prestigious award. With his research, Helmut Schwarz made a significant contribution to paving the way for the establishment of a center for catalysis research in Berlin, which now has UniSysCat at its core.
"With his research, Helmut Schwarz has made a decisive contribution to establishing TU Berlin as an internationally renowned center of catalysis research," explains TU Berlin President Professor Dr. Geraldine Rauch, who nominated Helmut Schwarz for the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award. "We can use the UniSysCat Cluster of Excellence, for which TU Berlin is an applicant university, to strengthen this position. Our focus here is particularly on the transfer of technology from basic research to industry."
By combining advanced experiments with sophisticated computational tools, Helmut Schwarz was able to elucidate the function of chemical reactions atom by atom with an unprecedented level of detail. Using mass spectrometry, he isolated individual atoms and controlled the reaction environment so that each result could be traced back to a single atom rather than the collective effort of thousands. "In most cases, millions of atoms are involved in a reaction. But what we really need to know is which of them actually do the work.", as Schwarz explains.
Despite his basic research approach, Schwarz's discoveries have changed important industrial processes. For example, he was able to optimize a process in which a compound of hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen is produced that is used in numerous industrial applications. In this method, the reaction of methane with ammonia is mediated by a catalyst. However, the resulting carbon by-product contaminated the catalyst and ultimately rendered it inoperable. Helmut Schwarz was able to uncover crucial details of the reaction and suggest a modification to the catalyst to prevent the formation of soot.
The BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A.) Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards are an international awards program that recognizes significant contributions in the fields of scientific research and cultural creation. The awards have been conferred annually since 2008 and are endowed with 400,000 euros each.