Professor Maximilian Fichtner has been awarded the International Dr Barbara Mez-Starck Prize worth 25,000 euros for his research into post-lithium batteries. The globally recognised battery expert is considered an excellent communicator and advocate of alternative storage media. The Dr Barbara Mez-Starck Foundation also inaugurated a work of art in honour of the founder at the award ceremony.
"In Professor Maximilian Fichtner, we have honoured an outstanding scientist who is bringing the topic of sustainability to the general public," said the foundation's board members Werner Braun and Thomas Vetter at the award ceremony in the Barbara Mez-Starck House on Tuesday, 21 October. "With prize money of 25,000 euros and the broader focus of the award on the promotion of sustainable technologies, we want to make this commitment even more visible." This is the first time that the International Dr Barbara Mez-Starck Prize has been awarded in this amount.
The prizewinner, Professor Maximilian Fichtner, Director of the Helmholtz Institute Ulm for Electrochemical Energy Storage (HIU), received the award for his pioneering contributions to battery research, in particular to the development of halide batteries and the development of calcium and magnesium batteries, as well as to the development of storage mechanisms in graphitic anodes. In addition to his scientific excellence, Professor Fichtner is heavily involved in science communication and is interviewed by media worldwide about his expertise.
Laudator Professor Axel Groß, Head of the Institute of Theoretical Chemistry at Ulm University, to which the founder's scientific legacy is affiliated, praised Fichtner for his contribution to the acceptance and establishment of sustainable energy technology and described him as the spiritual father of the POLiS Cluster of Excellence for the Research and Development of post-lithium batteries. "I am delighted to receive this award, because you can't apply for it, it is awarded. That's something special," said prizewinner Professor Maximilian Fichtner.
Together with the 60 or so invited guests, the foundation was able to pay Dr Barbara Mez-Starck another honour. A sculpture commemorating the founder and her life's work was unveiled in front of the building at Oberberghof 7 in Ulm. Three columns clad with stainless steel plates represent the work of Dr Barbara Mez-Starck from the 1950s onwards: the Starck catalogue for microwave research, from which the MOGADOC database emerged, which links spectra, molecular structures and literature sources and is still used today.
Artist Jasper Bamberger created perforated images from the scientist's handwritten notes using a binary code. "I wanted to translate the principles of her work - archiving, cataloguing, condensing - into sculptural means. Dr Barbara Mez-Starck's handwriting has thus been transferred into the material itself. The object reflects the founder's way of working in a poetic way back to her life's work," Jasper Bamberger explained his approach. The graduate of the Offenbach University of Art and Design spent around one and a half years working on the sculpture, which is up to three metres high.
About the Dr Barbara Mez-Starck Foundation
Founded in 1998 by Dr Barbara Mez-Starck, the non-profit organisation promotes scientific research in the field of natural sciences, in particular chemistry and physics. It also supports the Chemistry Information Systems working group at Ulm University, which maintains and develops the founder's life's work. The foundation also awards annual prizes for outstanding scientific service performances to researchers and to the best master's graduates in chemistry at Ulm University. With the construction of the new Barbara Mez-Starck House on the Oberberghof, the Foundation has made a clear statement that it will continue to support scientific work in the field of fundamental research at Ulm University.
Text and media contact: Daniela Stang