Wolfgang Ostwald Price for scientific life-time achievement goes to Helmuth Möhwald

09-29-2009: The Colloid Society awards its highest honour to Professor Helmuth Möhwald. The Wolfgang Ostwald Price will be presented to the director of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces on the occasion of the 44th general meeting in Hamburg.

The oldest founding director at the MPI of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam will be honoured for an enormous, versatile and long-time research work. Helmuth Möhwalds worldwide leading position in the research area and his merits in science will find its special appreciation with this award. Möhwalds research extends from studies of the assembly of molecules in monolayers at interfaces, via the assembly of organized organic multilayers and their function to the design of functional microcapsules and their application.

Recent scientific work is concentrating on self-repairing coatings. Thereby special nanocontainers made of polymers make sure, that active agents will be released at arising damages and repair them instantly. On top of that the substances can be released as needed. Furthermore the remote-controlled release of drugs is a central theme. Obviously drugs help most if they are able to get directly to the diseased organs or cells such as tumor cells. But also the field of sonochemistry which deals with the effects of ultrasonic on chemical systems is one of the latest research topics.

Helmuth Möhwald has published more than 700 refereed publications and has been cited more than 24.000 times. And he is very successful as a professor: Meanwhile more than 50 former co-workers fill a position as professor at home and abroad in diverse areas such as in physical chemistry, applied- and biophysics, polymer chemistry, material sciences and chemical engineering.