Professor Klaus-Dieter Becker von der
Slowakischen Akademie der Wissenschaften ausgezeichnt.

Professor Klaus-Dieter Becker wurde am 15. Februar mit dem Preis für Internationale Kooperation der Slowakischen Akademie der Wissenschaften ausgezeichnt .

On February 15, 2010, in Bratislava, the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) awarded Professor Klaus-Dieter Becker (Technische Universität Braunschweig) its highest honor, The SAS Prize for International Cooperation, see Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Professor Jaromír Pastorek, President of the SAS, presents Professor Klaus-Dieter Becker withThe SAS Prize for International Cooperation.

The cooperation of Prof. Becker with scientists from the Slovak Academy of Sciences started in 1993, when Prof. Vladimir Šepelák (SAS, Košice), as a DAAD Fellow, visited the Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry at the University Hannover, see Fig. 2. From 1994 to 1997, cooperation took place within the framework of two bilateral German-Slovak research projects funded by the DFG. The project dealt with the preparation of nanomaterials by non-conventional mechanochemical routes as well as with the modification of the reactivity of nanocrystalline complex oxides.

In the period 1998-2003, the cooperation between Prof. Becker’s Solid State Chemistry Group at the Technische Universität Braunschweig and Slovak scientists was funded within programs of the Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Foundation. The research results obtained during this period are of special interest to solid state nanoscience and nanotechnology and led to the understanding of the structure, properties, and thermal stability of nanoscale spinel oxides. To promote the mutual cooperation, in 2000, the AvH Foundation donated experimental equipment in the entire sum of 40 000 DM to the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Košice.

Fig. 2. Professors Becker, Šepelák, and Schmalzried (first and second from left in first row, and third from left in back row) and Group in front of the Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, University of Hannover, in 1993.

The cooperation of Slovak scientists with Prof. Becker got a new stimulus in 2004, when Prof. Šepelák was appointed a Mercator Professorship by the DFG and joined the research group of Prof. Heitjans in the Center for Solid State Chemistry and New Materials (ZFM) at the Leibniz University Hannover - the Center of Excellence in solid state chemistry in the State of Lower Saxony and one of the main centers for chemically oriented solid state research in Germany. Since that time, the cooperation has been funded within the framework of DFG projects and in a DFG Priority Program (Schwerpunktprogramm). Most notably, however, DAAD-funded research visits of young Slovak scientists at the Technische Universität Braunschweig contributed to intense German-Slovak cooperation: since 2005, seven Slovak scientists, mostly PhD students and postdocs, joined Prof. Becker’s group in Braunschweig for extended periods of up to 3 months. The cooperation was mainly focused on the investigation of homogeneous and heterogeneous mechanochemical reactions, dynamic and kinetic processes in solids as well as on the study of the local atomic and electronic structures in nanocrystalline materials. The high quality of the scientific results of the cooperation (more than 50 papers in renowned Journals of international reputation), their attractiveness and acceptance by the international scientific community are documented by the fact that in the last 5 years, the work has been cited more than 600 times in publications indexed in Science Citation Index.

The innovative research of both cooperating sides on room-temperature mechanochemical reduction processes and mechanosynthesis of solids has had a significant impact on the international mechanochemical community. In recognition of Prof. Becker’s scientific achievements in the field, the International Mechanochemical Association under the auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) appointed him to be one of the chairmen of the International Conference on Mechanochemistry and Mechanical Alloying (INCOME 2003, Braunschweig), see Fig. 3. It should be emphasized that the event of mechanically induced redox and formation reactions presents novel opportunities for the non-thermal manipulation of materials and provides a promising field for future fundamental as well as applied research. Prof. Becker’s expertise in the field is also documented by the fact that he has served as a Specialist Editor of a Special Issue of the Journal of Materials Science devoted to mechanochemistry. Moreover, since 2006, Prof. Becker acts as Vice-President of the International Mechanochemical Association under IUPAC.

Fig. 3. Participants (210 from 40 countries) of the 4th International Conference on Mechanochemistry and Mechanical Alloying (INCOME ‘03) in Braunschweig, in 2003.

As pointed out by Prof. Juraj Lapin (Vice-President of the Slovak Academy of Sciences) in his Laudatio during The SAS Prize ceremony, the cooperation between SAS and Technische Universität Braunschweig is the most intensive and fruitful amongst all German and Slovak research institutions.

Fig. 4. Professor Becker with Slovak scientists during The SAS Prize ceremony in Bratislava.

March, 2010
Bratislava, Braunschweig

Juraj Lapin, Vice-President of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
Vladimir Šepelák, KIT Karlsruhe

erstellt am: 8. März 2010