Albert-Weller Award
In honour of Albert Weller (1922–1996), the GDCh Division of Photochemistry, generally every two years and jointly with the German Bunsen Society for physical chemistry, awards the Albert-Weller Award for an outstanding doctoral thesis in the field of photochemistry/spectroscopy. The award is intended for early-career scientists up to a maximum of two years after completing their doctorate and includes a certificate and prize money of 1,000 euros. The award is usually presented at the Division of Photochemistry’s annual conference, held in even-numbered years, and the awardee is invited to present the honoured work in a scientific lecture. The award is decided by a panel of reviewers comprising members of both societies. The award may be shared.
The award is not currently open for applications (next call for proposals: late 2026).
The Division of Photochemistry of the German Chemical Society and the German Bunsen Society for physical chemistry presented the Albert-Weller Award 2024 to Dr. Felix Glaser and Dr. Johannes Josef Großkopf on 17 September 2024 in Mainz, on the occasion of the 29th Lecture Conference on Photochemistry in Düsseldorf.
"The award is presented to Dr. Felix Glaser in recognition of his outstanding doctoral thesis, prepared in the working group of Prof. Dr. Oliver S. Wenger at the University of Basel, entitled:
“Mechanisms and Applications of Mono- and Biphotonic Excitations in Photoredox Catalysis”
As part of his doctoral thesis, Dr. Felix Glaser elucidated complex photochemical catalysis mechanisms and developed novel photocatalytic processes in which the energy of two photons is combined, enabling access to thermodynamically demanding reactions. A combination of spectroscopically and synthetically oriented studies led to unusually detailed insights and findings that reveal the potential and limitations of two-photon mechanisms for photocatalytic applications."
"The award is presented to Dr. Johannes Großkopf in recognition of his outstanding doctoral thesis, prepared in the working group of
Prof. Dr. Thorsten Bach at the Technical University of Munich, entitled
“Breaking the Mirror: Development of New Photochemical Deracemization Reactions”
Dr. Johannes Großkopf conducted pioneering work on photochemical deracemisation, enabling important biologically active substances (allenamides, hydantoins, oxindoles, diketopiperazines) to be produced in enantiomerically pure form from the respective racemate. To this end, chiral catalysts were developed that selectively recognise one of the two substrate enantiomers and, through its targeted processing, cause enrichment of the other enantiomer. His research therefore makes a decisive contribution to the use of resource-efficient photochemical methods for producing organic compounds with uniform chirality."
The Division of Photochemistry of the German Chemical Society and the German Bunsen Society for physical chemistry awarded the Albert-Weller Award 2022 to Dr. Carolin Müller and Dr. Felix Strieth-Kalthoff on 20 September 2022 in Düsseldorf on the occasion of the 28th Lecture Conference on Photochemistry .
The award is presented to Dr. Carolin Müller "in recognition of her outstanding dissertation, entitled “Towards Operando Spectroscopy of Supramolecular Photocatalysts – A Case Study on Ru-dppz-derived Systems”. , carried out in the working group of Prof. Dr. Benjamin Dietzek-Ivanšić at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology. As part of her dissertation, Dr Müller succeeded in taking important steps towards operando sub-ps time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopy, thereby investigating the processes occurring in molecular photocatalysts following light excitation. Dr Müller succeeded in characterising the photophysics of extremely short-lived reaction intermediates during photocatalytic hydrogen evolution and thus obtaining information about the reaction mechanism and possible deactivation pathways of the molecular photocatalysts, which influence the efficiency and stability of the systems".
The award is presented to Dr. Strieth-Kalthoff "in recognition of his outstanding dissertation, entitled “Systematic and Computer-Assisted Methods for the Discovery and Development of Chemical Reactions”. , carried out in the working group of Prof. Dr. Frank Glorius at the University of Münster. The dissertation impressively demonstrates how methods from organic synthesis, combinatorial chemistry, time-resolved spectroscopy and quantum chemistry can be used both to dis-cover novel photocatalytic reactions and to in-vestigate and understand them in terms of their molecular mechanisms. Using the newly discovered reactivities based on triplet–triplet energy-transfer processes, Mr Strieth-Kalthoff demonstrates how the insights gained can be used to design improved catalysts and synthetic transformations. This dissertation therefore makes an important contribution to developing visible-light photocatalysis into a milder, broadly applicable and therefore more sustainable strategy for synthesising complex organic molecules".
The Division of Photochemistry of the German Chemical Society and the German Bunsen Society for physical chemistry are awarding the Albert-Weller Award 2020, sponsored by ATTO-TEC GmbH, to Dr. Michael Peter Kathan and Dr. Yusen Luo on the occasion of the virtual 27th Lecture Conference on Photochemistry.
The prize is awarded to Dr. Kathan in recognition of his outstanding doctoral thesis, entitled: "Photoswitching Reactivity – From Remote-Controlled to Light-Driven Chemical Systems”. The award winner’s impressive work addresses the fundamental question of the photochemical control of thermal equilibria. Dr. Kathan developed creative approaches for optically controlling and driving condensation–hydrolysis equilibria with the aid of photoswitches. Through the creative coupling of photoinduced 6-electrocyclisation and thermal keto–enol tautomerism, he was able, on the one hand, to remotely control living polymerisation processes and, on the other, to form or break dynamic covalent imine bonds against their equilibrium position, i.e. effectively uphill. His work has significant application potential for self-healing materials, for example in sensors and for solar recycling of polymers. The doctoral thesis was completed in the working group of Prof. Dr. Stefan Hecht at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
The prize is awarded to Dr. Luo to recognize her outstanding doctoral thesis, entitled: “Photoinduced Electron Transfer Dynamics in Ruthenium(II) Bis(terpyridine) Based Molecular Dyads and Triads”. Dr. Luo studied the photoinduced electron-transfer dynamics in covalently linked molecular dyads and triads as model systems for molecular photoredox catalysts. Using model systems comprising a Ru-terpyridine-based photosensitiser, a fullerene acceptor and a phenothiazine donor, Dr. Luo could obtain novel insights into the mechanisms of photodriven electron transfer. Resorting on temperature-dependent ultrafast time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopy, Dr. Luo experimentally demonstrated novel effects, e.g. investigating the impact of a formally spectator ligand on the electronic coupling between photosensitiser and electron donor. Such “remote control” of electron transfer has been speculated about but has never been demonstrated experimentally before.
| Year | Place of award ceremony | Name | Institute |
| 2024 | Mainz | Dr. Felix Glaser Dr. Johannes Josef Großkopf | University of Basel |
| 2022 | Düsseldorf | Dr. Carolin Müller Dr. Felix Strieth-Kalthoff | Friedrich Schiller University Jena |
| 2020 | Online lecture conference | Dr. Michael Peter Kathan Dr. Yusen Luo | Humboldt University of Berlin |
| 2018 | Not awarded | ||
| 2016 | Jena | Dr. Dominik Bucher Dr. Martin Herder | LMU Munich Humboldt University of Berlin |
| 2014 | Cologne | Dr. Katharina Röttger Dr. Maria Wächtler | University of Kiel |
| 2010 | Erlangen | Dr. Tobias Nils Wassermann | University of Göttingen |
| 2008 | Bielefeld | Dr. Philipp Zacharias | University of Cologne |
| 2007 | Cologne | Dr. Anton Granzhan Dr. Manuela Schiek | University of Siegen |
| 2005 | Jena | Dr. Christoph David Müller | University of Cologne |
| 2003 | Mülheim a.d. Ruhr | Dr. Robert Huber Dr. Uwe Pischel | LMU Munich Porto/Portugal |
| 2001 | Würzburg | Dr. Wojciech Macyk Dr. Tobias Steinel | University of Erlangen-Nuremberg |
| 1999 | Munich | Dr. Peter Gilch | LMU Munich |