Van't Hoff Prize for Prof. Mischa Bonn

Bunsen Society honors Director of the MPI for Polymer Research

Mischa Bonn receives the prize for his diverse work in the field of physical chemistry on topics such as the structure and dynamics of water at interfaces, vibrational spectroscopy of molecules, the investigation of microscopic model membranes, the determination of the interactions of proteins at interfaces or the measurement of ultrafast charge carrier dynamics in materials.

Mischa Bonn was appointed Max Planck Director at the Institute for Polymer Research in 2011 and started building laboratories for his research. Today, his department houses several research groups, with over 350 scientific publications having been published since 2011.

The van't Hoff Prize is awarded since 2009. It was instigated by Nobel Laureate Gerhard Ertl. The name of the prize goes back to the first Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff. In addition to the prize money, it consists of a silver medal and a certificate. In 2012, the van't Hoff Prize was awarded to Prof. Dr. Gerard Meijer, who is working together with Mischa Bonn and others on the research of the properties of water within the "Maxwater" project.

About Prof. Mischa Bonn

Mischa Bonn completed his Master of Science in Physical Chemistry with the highest honors at the University of Amsterdam in 1993. In 1996 he received his doctorate from Eindhoven University and the Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF) in Amsterdam. After two postdoctoral stays at the Fritz Haber Institute (1997-1999) and Columbia University (1998-2001), he became assistant (1999-2002) and associate (2003-2009) professor at Leiden University, and group leader at AMOLF (2004-2011). He has been Associate Professor at the University of Amsterdam since 2005 and was appointed Director of the MPI-P in 2011.