Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award for Analytical Science
This award honors scientists who are developing innovative analytical methods in chemistry with new applications that aim to improve human life.
About the Award
In memory of the company’s founder Heinrich Emanuel Merck the biennial Award stands for excellence in analytical chemistry for over two decades. It is open to researchers who are developing innovative solutions to analytical problems in the life, material and environmental sciences; areas of science that are constantly gaining importance in our daily lives.
Key Facts
- Cycle: Biennial
- Eligibility criteria: Scientists who have made valuable contributions to analytical sciences aimed at improving the quality of human life
- Who can apply: Self-applications are explicitly encouraged, as are nominations by a department, a colleague, a society
- Application documents of the candidates: First authorship based on own published research results (no older than 3 years) and a CV
- Award ceremony: The recipients of the 2022 Heinrich Emanuel Merck award are honored at the Euroanalysis conference, in 2022 at the EuroFAST2022.
- The award comes with 15,000 EUR prize money
2022 laureate
In 2022, Dr. Valérie Gabelica is honored with the Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award for Analytical Science for her outstanding work on advancing mass spectrometry to study nucleic acid structures and interactions. Her work allows measurement of chirality directly within the mass spectrometer and could enable a wide range of new applications. Valérie Gabelica is a research director at Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) and the director of the Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie (IECB) in France.
2019 laureate
In 2019, Prof. David Alsteens at UC Louvain, Belgium is honored with the Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award for Analytical Science. He has developed a technique to measure ligand-receptor interactions on cell surfaces in native conditions while recording high-resolution images of cellular membranes. David Alsteens is research associate at the Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS) and full professor at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering at Université catholique de Louvain (UC Louvain).
2017 Laureate
In 2017 Prof. Francesco Ricci from the University of Rome, Italy received the Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award for Analytical Science for his groundbreaking development of DNA-based sensors. Prof. Ricci developed new strategies for the development of sensors for various diagnostic applications. The principal functions of the sensors are based on the same mechanisms that nature uses for biomolecular receptors. The analytical sensors are able to detect a wide range of antibodies, proteins and further analytes, which are relevant in medicinal research.
Previous Laureates of the Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award
| Year | Name | University/company | Country | Distinguished project |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Dr. Valérie Gabelica | Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie (Univ. Bordeaux, INSERM & CNRS) | France | Advancing mass spectrometry to study nucleic acid structures and interactions |
| 2019 | Prof. David Alsteens | UC Louvain | Belgium | Probing ligand binding to native membrane receptors in physiologically relevant conditions using AFM |
| 2017 | Prof. Francesco Ricci | University of Rome | Italy | DNA-Based Beacon for Single-Step Fluorescence Detection of Proteins |
| 2015 | Prof. Petra Dittrich | ETH Zürich | Switzerland | Microfluidic analytical platforms |
| 2012 | Prof. Aaron R. Wheeler | University of Toronto | Canada | Droplet-scale estrogen assays in breast tissue |
| 2010 | Prof. Luisa Torsi | Bari University | Italy | Organic sensitivity-enhanced field-effect sensors for determination of chiral compounds |
| 2007 | Dr. Alexander Makarov | Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bremen | Germany | Performance evaluation of a hybrid linear ion trap/orbitrap mass spectrometer |
| 2007 | Prof. Dr. Shuming Nie | Emory University, Atlanta | USA | In vivo cancer targeting and imaging with semiconductor quantum dots |
| 2004 | Prof. Yoshinobu Baba | University of Tokushima | Japan | Nanospheres for DNA separation chips |
| 2002 | Prof. Jonathan V. Sweedler | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | USA | Measuring the peptides in individual organelles with mass spectrometry |
| 2000 | Prof. Norman Dovichi | University of Alberta |
Canada |
A multiple-capillary electrophoresis system for small-scale DNA sequencing and analysis |
| 1998 | Prof. Renato Zenobi | ETH Zurich | Switzerland | Laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry |
| 1996 | Prof. D. Jed Harrison | University of Alberta | Canada | Micromachining a miniaturized capillary electrophore-based chemical analysis system on a chip |
| 1996 | Prof. Andreas Manz | Imperial College London | Great Britain | Micromachining a miniaturized capillary electrophore-based chemical analysis system on a chip |
| 1993 | Prof. Aviv Amirav | Tel Aviv University | Israel | Pulsed-flame photometer : a novel gas chromatography detector |
| 1990 | Dr. Scott Bidlingmeyer |
Millipore Corporation | USA | Liquid chromatography detectors |
| 1990 | Prof. Reinhard Nießner | Technical University of Munich | Germany | The photoelectric aerosol sensor array applied to heavy metal aerosols |
| 1988 | Prof. Masataka Hiraide | Nagoya University | Japan | Separation of trace elements from high-purity metals |
| 1988 | Prof. Otto S. Wolfbeis | Graz University | Austria | Fluorescence sensors |