American award for Frank Neese

Researcher of the Institute receives ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry

Frank Neese, Director of the Department of Molecular Theory and Spectroscopy at the Max Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung, will receive the "ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry".

The American Chemical Society has announced the recipients of the "National Awards" for the next year. Usually these awards go to researchers working at an American university or research institution. Since the awards began in 1960, the Inorganic Chemistry award has gone only to Australia (1x), England (3x) and Germany (2x) in addition to the USA. This year Prof. Frank Neese, Director of the Department of Molecular Theory and Spectroscopy at the Max Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung, will receive the "ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry".  His predecessor Karl Wieghardt, former director at the MPI for Bioinorganic Chemistry, was also among the German-based awardees.

The award winners, according to the guidelines of the American Chemical Society, must have made outstanding research achievements in the field of inorganic chemistry. Only once has a theoretical chemist been honored - Roald Hoffman, chemistry Nobel laureate in 1981. Therefore Neese is only the second theorist to receive this award.

The Award was established in 1960 by Texas Instruments. Since 1998 MilliporeSigma, a Merck company based in Darmstadt, Germany, has supported it.

"The fact that my American colleagues have given their highest award in inorganic chemistry to a biologist who works mainly in theory means a great deal to me and testifies to a high degree of openness," emphasizes Frank Neese. For the award he will make a trip to the USA. According to tradition, each National Award winner will be honored with a festive symposium. The symposium in honor of Frank Neese is scheduled to take place on March 19 as part of the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (March 17-21, 2024) in the city of New Orleans.