Doctoral Prize by the Bottling Family Foundation for Dr. Christian Schilling
On July 3, 2019, the Bottling Family Foundation awarded the prize of 3,500 euros for an outstanding doctoral thesis in the Department of Chemistry at TU Darmstadt. This year's prizewinner is Dr. Christian Schilling, who received his doctorate with distinction in the field of physical chemistry in the research group of Prof. Dr. Christian Hess.
His doctoral thesis entitled Operando Spectroscopy and DFT Modeling of Gold/ Ceria Catalysts for CO Oxidation and Water-Gas-Shift Reaction was characterized by demanding investigations using operando spectroscopy. He used this method to investigate oxidation reactions over ceria-containing gold catalysts in order to draw conclusions about the mode of action of this catalyst and to improve properties such as activity, selectivity and long-term stability. His work stands out in particular for its high intellectual level and an unusual degree of creativity in the autonomous conception and realization of complex research projects.