Joachim Sauer

File:Joachim Sauer.jpg

Joachim Sauer was born in Hosena, a small town in the marshy Lusatian countryside between Dresden and Cottbus. He grew up with his twin sister and an elder brother. His father, Richard Sauer, had trained as a confectioner, but worked as an insurance representative. Sauer excelled at school.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45168927.html |title=Das Phantom|magazine=Joachim Sauer ist der erste Kanzleringatte Deutschlands. In seinem Leben hat er sich immer Unabhängigkeit bewahrt, jetzt aber soll er eine Rolle spielen, die andere für ihn ausgesucht haben. Doch er wehrt sich gegen die Gesetze der modernen Mediendemokratie. |author=Marc Hujer |date=2 January 2006|volume=01/2006| publisher=Der Spiegel (online)|access-date=12 January 2017}}{{cite web| title=Kurzbiografie ... Zur Person von Joachim Sauer|url =https://www.bunte.de/starprofile/joachim-sauer.html|publisher=BUNTE Entertainment Verlag GmbH, München|access-date=12 January 2017}}

Sauer studied chemistry from 1967 to 1972 at the Humboldt University of Berlin and was awarded a doctorate in chemistry in 1974. He continued to do research there until 1977, when he joined the Academy of Sciences, Central Institute of Physical Chemistry in Berlin, one of the leading scientific institutes of the former GDR (East Germany).

For a brief time during and after the German reunification (1990–1991) he was the deputy technical director (catalysis and sorption) for BIOSYM Technologies in San Diego, California (now BIOVIA). He remained an advisor for BIOSYM until 2002.

In 1992, he joined the Max Planck Society as head of the Quantum Chemistry Group in Berlin. In 1993, he became full professor of physical and theoretical chemistry at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He retired from his chair in October 2017 and was succeeded by Martin Schütz, who died the following year. Sauer remains affiliated with the university as a senior research fellow.{{cite web|url=https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/wissen/interview-mit-joachim-sauer-nobelpreise-sind-nicht-alles-29338036|title=Interview mit Joachim Sauer: Nobelpreise sind nicht alles|first1=Juliane|last1=Meißner|first2=Torsten|last2=Harmsen|date=23 December 2017|website=Berliner Zeitung}}

He is an active research scientist in quantum chemistry and computational chemistry. His computational studies have allowed for a better understanding of the structures and activities of some catalysts such as zeolites, specifically their acid sites,{{cite journal|last=Sauer, J|first=Haase, F|title=Interaction of Methanol With Bronsted Acid Sites Of Zeolite Catalysts – An Ab-Initio Study|journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|date=5 April 1995|volume=117|issue=13|pages=3780–3789|doi=10.1021/Ja00118A014|bibcode=1995JAChS.117.3780H }} as well as the interpretation of solid state NMR spectra of nucleus Si-29, and quadrupolar nuclei such as Na-23,{{cite journal|author=Koller, H.|author2=Engelhardt, G. |author3=Kentgens, A.P.M. |author4=Sauer, J. |title=Na-23 Nmr-Spectroscopy of Solids – Interpretation of Quadrupole Interaction Parameters and Chemical-Shifts|journal=Journal of Physical Chemistry|date=1994|volume=98|issue=6|pages=1544–1551|doi=10.1021/j100057a004}} Al-27 and O-17.{{cite journal|last=Bull Lucy, M.|first=Dupree, R. |author2=Cheetham, AK |author3=Anupold, T |author4=Reinhold, A |author5=Samoson, A |author6=Sauer, J |author7=Bussemer, B |author8=Lee, Y |author9=Gann, S |author10=Shore, J |author11=Pines, A|title=A high-resolution(17)O NMR study of siliceous zeolite faujasite|journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|date= 1998|volume=120|issue=14|pages=3510–3511|doi=10.1021/ja9743001|bibcode=1998JAChS.120.3510B }}{{cite journal|last=Bull, Lucy M|first=Dupree, R|author2=Bussemer, B |author3=Anupold, T |author4=Reinhold, A |author5=Samoson, A |author6=Sauer, J |author7= Cheetham, AK |title=A high-resolution O-17 and Si-29 NMR study of zeolite siliceous ferrierite and ab initio calculations of NMR parameters|journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|date=2000|volume=122|issue=20|pages=4948–4958|doi=10.1021/ja993339y}}

• 1991: Chemistry Prize of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities
• 1995: Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
• 2006: External scientific member of the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society
• 2007: Member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• 2009: Member of the Academia Europaea
• 2010: Liebig Medal
• 2013: Honorary Doctor of Science, University College London{{Cite web|url = https://www.ucl.ac.uk/srs/governance-and-committees/honorary-degrees/list-honorary-graduates|title = List of Honorary Graduates|date = 30 January 2019|access-date = 19 April 2019|archive-date = 19 April 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190419091742/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/srs/governance-and-committees/honorary-degrees/list-honorary-graduates|url-status = dead}}
• 2018: Foreign Member of the Royal Society{{cite web|url=https://royalsociety.org/people/joachim-sauer-13840/|title=Joachim Sauer – Royal Society|website=royalsociety.org}}
• 2019: Schrödinger Medal{{Cite web|url=https://watoc.net/watoc.schroedinger.html|title=WATOC – Schroedinger|website=watoc.net|access-date=18 December 2019}}

From his previous marriage to a fellow chemist, Sauer has two sons: Daniel and Adrian. On 30 December 1998, he married Angela Merkel (herself a doctor of physics who had once worked in quantum chemistry research), who later became the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union. Due to the fact that Merkel became the first female chancellor of Germany on 22 November 2005, Sauer also assumed a role in diplomatic protocol as third-highest ranking spouse. In German order of precedence, the chancellor is the third-highest ranking office behind the President of Germany and the President of the Bundestag.

Image:Merkel-Bush-L.Bush-Sauer.jpg, George W. Bush and Laura Bush]]

Because of his wife's political career, Sauer has received far more media attention than is usual for a research scientist. On several occasions, he has stated that he is not fond of this publicity.

During the 2005 election campaign Sauer kept a very low profile, declining to give any interviews not related to his scientific work. He attended the Bayreuth Festival, an opera festival and a highly visible social event in Germany, with his wife.{{cite news | first=David | last=Crossland | title=Merkel's Phantom of the Opera | url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,386384,00.html | newspaper=Spiegel Online | date=22 November 2005 | access-date=4 April 2009}} Sauer is known as a great lover of Wagner's music.

Even during his wife's election in the Bundestag, her inauguration, and later her taking the oath of office, Sauer was not present but reportedly briefly followed the event on TV from his university chemistry lab.{{cite news | first=Craig | last=Whitlock | title=The Professor's Quantum Leap | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/07/AR2007060702139.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=8 June 2007 | access-date=4 April 2009}}

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{Google scholar id|uonszRgAAAAJ}}

{{FRS 2018}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sauer, Joachim}}

Category:1949 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Senftenberg

Category:20th-century German chemists

Category:Spouses of chancellors of Germany

Category:Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin

Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni

Category:Angela Merkel

Category:German computational chemists

Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society

Category:Spouses of prime ministers

Category:Schrödinger Medal recipients

Category:21st-century German chemists