Gerhard Ertl#Research

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Gerhard Ertl

| image = Prof Ertl-Portrait.jpg

| caption = Ertl in 2007

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1936|10|10}}

| birth_place = Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

| nationality = German

| work_institution = {{Nowrap|Technical University of Munich
Leibniz University Hannover
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Fritz Haber Institute of the MPG}}

| alma_mater = University of Stuttgart
Technical University of Munich

| doctoral_advisor = Heinz Gerischer

| doctoral_students = Martin Wolf

| known_for = Surface chemistry

| prizes = EPS Europhysics Prize (1992)
Japan Prize (1992)[http://www.japanprize.jp/en/laureates_by_year1990.html Laureates of the Japan Prize]. japanprize.jp
Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1998)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2007)
Otto Hahn Prize (2007)
Faraday Lectureship Prize (2007)

| footnotes =

}}

Gerhard Ertl ({{IPA|de|ˈɡeːɐ̯haʁt ˈʔɛʁtl̩|-|De-Gerhard Ertl.ogg}}; born 10 October 1936) is a German physicist and a Professor emeritus at the Department of Physical Chemistry, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin, Germany. Ertl's research laid the foundation of modern surface chemistry, which has helped explain how fuel cells produce energy without pollution, how catalytic converters clean up car exhausts and even why iron rusts, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

His work has paved the way for development of cleaner energy sources and will guide the development of fuel cells, said Astrid Graslund, secretary of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

He was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces. The Nobel academy said Ertl provided a detailed description of how chemical reactions take place on surfaces. His findings applied in both academic studies and industrial development, the academy said. “Surface chemistry can even explain the destruction of the ozone layer, as vital steps in the reaction actually take place on the surfaces of small crystals of ice in the stratosphere,” the award citation reads.

In 2015, Ertl signed the Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change on the final day of the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. The declaration was signed by a total of 76 Nobel Laureates and handed to then-President of the French Republic, François Hollande, as part of the COP21 climate summit in Paris.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mainaudeclaration.org/|title=Mainau Declaration|website=www.mainaudeclaration.org|access-date=11 January 2018}}

Biography

Ertl was born in Stuttgart, Germany, where he studied physics from 1955 to 1957 at the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart and then at the University of Paris (1957–1958) and Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich (1958–1959). He completed his Diplom in Physics at the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart in 1961, followed his thesis advisor Heinz Gerischer from the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart to Munich and received his PhD degree from the Technische Hochschule München in 1965.

=Academic career=

After completing his PhD, he became an assistant and lecturer at Technische Hochschule München (1965–1968).{{Cite web|title=Prof. Dr. Gerhard Ertl|url=http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/pc/ertl/#CV|access-date=21 October 2020|website=Max Planck Society}} From 1968 to 1973, he was professor and director at Technische Hochschule Hannover; then, he became a professor at Institute for Physical Chemistry, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (1973–1986). During the 1970s and 80s, he was also a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology (1976–1977), the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (1979) and the University of California, Berkeley (1981–82).

He became the director at the Fritz Haber Institute of the MPG from 1986 till his retirement in 2004.{{cite journal|author1=Freund, H.-J.|author2=Knözinger, H.|year=2004|title=Foreword for the Gerhard Ertl Festschrift|url=https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jp049239i|journal=J. Phys. Chem. B|volume=108|issue=38|pages=14183–14186|doi=10.1021/jp049239i|access-date=5 June 2008}} In 1986, as honors, he was named "Honorary Professor" at the Free University of Berlin and at the Technische Universität Berlin, and in 1996 at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

From 2008 to 2016, Ertl served as a member of the university council of Technische Universität Darmstadt.{{cite web | title=Chemie-Nobelpreisträger Ertl und Uni-Rektor Winckler neu im Hochschulrat der TU Darmstadt | website=idw | url=https://idw-online.de/de/news246718 | language=de | access-date=15 October 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.tu-darmstadt.de/media/daa_responsives_design/01_die_universitaet_medien/aktuelles_6/publikationen_km/hoch3/pdf/hoch3_2016_2.pdf|title=TU Darmstadt magazine, hoch3 2016, p. 17|accessdate=15 October 2021}}

=Research=

Gerhard Ertl is known for determining the detailed molecular mechanisms of the catalytic synthesis of ammonia over iron (Haber Bosch process) and the catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide over platinum (catalytic converter). During his research he discovered the important phenomenon of oscillatory reactions on platinum surfaces and, using photoelectron microscopy, was able to image for the first time, the oscillating changes in surface structure and coverage that occur during reaction.

He always used new observation techniques like low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) at the beginning of his career, later ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and scanning tunneling microscope (STM) yielding ground breaking results.

He won the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1998 along with Gabor A. Somorjai of the University of California, Berkeley for "their outstanding contributions to the field of the surface science in general and for their elucidation of fundamental mechanisms of heterogeneous catalytic reactions at single crystal surface in particular."{{cite web|publisher=Wolf Foundation |title=The 2008 Wolf Foundation Prize in Chemistry |url=http://www.wolffund.org.il/cat.asp?id=15&cat_title=CHEMISTRY |access-date=5 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070517203044/http://www.wolffund.org.il/cat.asp?id=15&cat_title=CHEMISTRY |archive-date=17 May 2007 }}

Gerhard Ertl was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces. The award, worth SEK 10 million (US$1.7 million, £1.15 million), was announced on Ertl's 71st birthday.{{cite press release|date=10 October 2007|publisher=Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences|title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2007|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2007/press.html}}{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/10/10/nobel.chemistry.ap/index.html |title=Nobel for ozone layer scientist |date=11 October 2007 |agency=Associated Press |work=CNN |access-date=5 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080309072346/http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/10/10/nobel.chemistry.ap/index.html |archive-date=9 March 2008 |url-status=dead }} "I am speechless", Ertl told Associated Press from his office in Berlin. "I was not counting on this."{{cite news|author=Karl Ritter|title=German receives chemistry Nobel|work=Worcester Telegram|url=http://www.telegram.com/article/20071011/NEWS/710110562/1052|date=11 October 2007|access-date=5 June 2008}}

{{As of|November 2022}}, Ertl has an h-index of 124 according to Scopus.{{Cite web|url=https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=7102931078|title=Scopus preview – Hartl, Franz Ulrich – Author details – Scopus|website=www.scopus.com|accessdate=15 October 2021}}

=Personal life=

Ertl and his wife Barbara have two children and several grandchildren. His hobbies include playing the piano and also playing with his cats when he is not doing experiments. He identifies as Christian.{{cite news|author=Till Weishaupt|title=Glauben Sie an Gott?|url=http://www.cicero.de/kapital/glauben-sie-gott/38343|work=Cicero|date=December 2007|quote=Translated from German: Oh, yes, I believe in God. (...) I am a Christian and I try to live as a Christian (...) I read the Bible very often and I try to understand it.|access-date=3 September 2014}}

Publications

{{cite book | last=Ertl | first=Gerhard | title=My Life with Science | publisher=GNT-Verlag | publication-place=Berlin | year=2023 | isbn=978-3-86225-131-5}}

Ertl is one of the editors of the Handbook of Heterogeneous Catalysis. ({{ISBN|978-3-527-31241-2}})

Ertl is the co-editor of Engineering Of Chemical Complexity. 2013, World Scientific Publishing. ({{ISBN|978-981-4390-45-3}})

References

External links

{{DNB portal|106105507}}
[http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/pc/ertl/welcome.html Homepage and list of publications]
{{Nobelprize}} with the Nobel lecture Reactions at Surfaces: From Atoms to Complexity
[http://www.wolffund.org.il/index.php?dir=site&page=winners&cs=31 The Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1998]

Category:1936 births

Category:Living people

Category:German physical chemists

Category:German Nobel laureates

Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry

Category:Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners

Category:Scientists from Stuttgart

Category:German Christians

Category:University of Hanover alumni

Category:Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni

Category:Technical University of Munich alumni

Category:Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich