CARES Director Professor Markus Kraft has received one of Germany’s top research prizes, the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award. The award is given in recognition of an outstanding record of scientific achievement for internationally renowned scientists, particularly those whose work is expected to have a formative influence on their discipline.
Professor Kraft was awarded the prize in June at the opening ceremony of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s annual conference, held at Freie Universität in Berlin. The ceremony was attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who gave the opening speech. Professor Kraft’s visit to Germany was hosted by Professor Christof Schulz, the director of the reactive fluids research group at the Institute for Combustion and Gas Dynamics, University of Duisburg-Essen.
Professor Kraft receiving his award from Hans-Christian Pape, President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Award recipients are invited to collaborate with colleagues on a long-term research project in Germany. One aim of Professor Kraft’s proposed collaboration is to develop detailed multi-scale models which are able to describe the influence of operating conditions of a reactor or burner on the chemical growth and the product properties of inorganic (e.g. titania) and organic nanoparticles (e.g. soot and carbon black). Such models can be used, among other applications, to optimise nanoparticle properties with respect to energy requirements, emissions and product quality. For example, nanoparticle films created from a laminar burner can be used as (electro)catalysts. This process has the potential to be applied in industry as it is easily scaled up.
Professor Kraft’s early research career was spent in Germany, where he completed his Doctor rerum naturalium (equivalent to a PhD in Natural Sciences) in Chemistry at University of Kaiserslautern. He subsequently worked at the University of Karlsruhe and the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics in Berlin. In 1999 Professor Kraft became a lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Cambridge. He is now a professor in the department and leads the Cambridge CARES programme in Singapore.
Photo credit for above image: © Jens Jeske/Humboldt-Stiftung
