Jens Frahm and Franz Pischinger Inducted into the Hall of Fame of German Research

• Hall of Fame of German Research now comprises 20 members

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, today announced that with the induction of two new laureates, Jens Frahm and Franz Pischinger, the Hall of Fame of German Research now comprises 20 members. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, has been organizing and hosting the Hall of Fame of German Research together with "Manager Magazin” since 2015.

“As a science and technology company, we are delighted to induct two further laureates into the Hall of Fame of German research,” said Stefan Oschmann, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. “Curiosity has been a driving force of the accomplishments made by the scientists we are recognizing today. With their work, scientists at universities, institutes and companies enable advances, thus securing the foundations of our prosperity. They deserve a ‘Hall of Fame‘. We are here this evening to celebrate Mr. Frahm and Mr. Pischinger.”

Physics professor Jens Frahm is the founder, scientific director and general manager of Biomedizinische NMR Forschungs GmbH at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. He was recognized for pioneering state-of-the-art methods of magnetic resonance imaging in medical diagnostic technology, which among other things, have made video images of the beating heart possible. Franz Pischinger, retired professor of mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen, is the founder of FEV GmbH, a research and development enterprise that today has more than 4,000 employees around the world. With his research and inventions, which include the removal of exhaust gases from gasoline and diesel engines, Pischinger has contributed substantially to environmental protection and sustainability.

Both scientists were inducted into the virtual Hall of Fame on Wednesday evening at a celebration in Wiesbaden, Germany, attended by around 100 guests from the worlds of business, science and politics. Apart from members of the Executive Board of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, the guests also included Heinz Riesenhuber, former German Federal Minister of Research and Technology, Joachim Milberg, former Chief Executive Officer and former Supervisory Board Chairman of BMW, and Thomas Oppermann, floor leader of the Social Democratic party (SPD) in the German federal parliament.

Professor Uwe Clausen, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Logistics and Material Flows, represented the academic research side. The guests also included Professor Hans-Joerg Bullinger, former President of the Fraunhofer Society and also a Hall of Fame laureate from 2013, and Professor Ernst Schmachtenberg, university chancellor of RWTH Aachen.

Each year, the Hall of Fame of German Research honors scientists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the further development of research, thus promoting Germany's future international competitiveness as an industrial location.

The German publication "Manager Magazin" launched the Hall of Fame of German Research in 2009. In 2014, former liquid crystals researcher at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Ludwig Pohl (84) was inducted into the Hall of Fame of German Research. The 20 members of the Hall of Fame include Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Stefan Hell, winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and Karlheinz Brandenburg, developer of the MP3 audio data compression method.