Karl Ziegler Award for Tanja Weil
Award ceremony during the Karl Ziegler Anniversary Symposium of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh)
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the chemist Karl Ziegler, the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) invites to a public symposium in Frankfurt am Main on April 25, 2023. At the Anniversary Symposium, the Karl Ziegler Award, endowed with 50,000 euros, will be awarded to Tanja Weil, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research.
On the fiftieth anniversary of his death, the GDCh commemorates Karl Ziegler and his work, which still has great relevance today. During a public symposium in Frankfurt am Main, scientists will present the life and research of Karl Ziegler and show the direct influence his discoveries still have on our lives today.
This year, the Karl Ziegler Award, which will be presented at the symposium, goes to Tanja Weil, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. According to the president of the GDCh, Karsten Danielmeier, she receives this award due to her "extraordinary scientific achievements, which are characterized by high quality both in breadth and depth."
In her research, Tanja Weil combines polymer synthesis with supramolecular structure formation in the service of concrete biomedical issues and has published ground-breaking work in this area.
In a letter to Tanja Weil, Danielmeier is particularly impressed by her recent research "in which she was able to realize the synthesis of supramolecular polymers in living cells, based on successive cascade reactions." In this field of research, peptide structures, for example, can be used in cancer cells in such a way that they change the structure of the cell from the inside, leading to the death of the cell.
The prize, which is endowed with 50,000 euros and a gold medal, is awarded by the Karl Ziegler Foundation. This foundation was established in 1993 as a dependent organization at the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (Society of German Chemists) and made public in 1998 on the occasion of the 100th birthday of its namesake through the first foundation activities. The founder is Karl Ziegler's daughter, Dr. Marianne Witte, who set up this foundation in memory of her father, the Nobel Prize winner of 1963, Professor Dr. Dres. h.c. Karl Ziegler (1898 - 1973).
