Awards & Honors
The GDCh Working Group Supramolecular Chemistry awards up to two prizes in memory of Professor Carsten Schmuck (1968–2019) for outstanding PhDs completed at research institutions in Germany in the field of supramolecular chemistry. Each award comprises a certificate and prize money of 500 euros donated by the Schmuck family. The SupraChem PhD Award is generally presented every two years as part of the SupraChem conference series. The award decision is made by a prize committee appointed by the Working Group’s Board.
The prize is not currently open for applications (next call for proposals: summer 2027).
The 2026 PhD Award of the GDCh Supramolecular Chemistry Division was presented for the first time on 9 March 2026 on the occasion of the SupraChem 2026 Conference in Dortmund to Dr. Elie Benchimol and Dr. M. A. Niyas.
Dr. Elie Benchimol received the award in recognition of his doctoral thesis entitled „Multi-cage systems and dynamic transformations." The awardee presented a doctoral thesis that comprises groundbreaking work on non-trivial palladium cage assemblies and their dynamic self-sorting and response to guests.
Dr. M. A. Niyas received the award in recognition of his doctoral thesis entitled "π-Stacked Supramolecular Complexes of Nanographene Multiimides." The awardee presented a doctoral thesis that comprises groundbreaking work on discrete supramolecular assemblies and host-guest complexes based on elaborate imide-functionalized π-systems.