The German Chemical Society (GDCh) honors Professor Dr. Sigrid Peyerimhoff with the Erich Hückel Award . The scientist receives the award, which is endowed with 7,500 euros, for the fundamental development of quantum chemical methods for calculating molecular properties, for clarifying chemical reactions and for analyzing molecular spectra. The award ceremony will take place during the 58th Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry, which will take place from September 18 to 22, 2022 in Heidelberg.
Sigrid Peyerimhoff is one of the most important and deserving theoretical chemists and did pioneering work in quantum chemistry, which not least led to the world-leading positioning of German theoretical chemistry. In addition to the fundamental development of quantum chemical methods, the GDCh particularly appreciates her development of the multi-reference approach in the configuration interaction method (MRD-CI) with selection and energy extrapolation including the spin-orbit interaction. Thanks to this method, pioneering investigations of molecules and ions in atmospheric chemistry, in the field of electron-molecule scattering and the calculation of the stability of atomic and molecular clusters became possible.
The MRDI-CI method was initially applied to very small model systems. As a "theoretical spectrometer" it exceeded the experimental accuracy and thus made a decisive contribution to the recognition and establishment of theoretical chemistry as an indispensable fundamental subject of chemistry.
Sigrid Peyerimhoff was born in Rottweil in 1937. After graduating from high school in 1956, she physics at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen and graduated in 1961 with a diploma. She then did her doctorate in Gießen in theoretical physics on quantum chemical calculations of the hydrogen fluoride molecule. After research stays in the USA, including at the University of Chicago, the University of Washington and Princeton University, she habilitated in theoretical physics at the University of Gießen in 1967. From 1970 she was a professor of theoretical chemistry at the University of Mainz and from 1972 at the University of Bonn, where she headed the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry. In 2002 she became emeritus.
Sigrid Peyerimhoff published a total of around 500 studies in scientific journals and anthologies. She has received numerous renowned prizes and awards, such as the Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation (1988), the Cothenius Medal of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2007), the Great Federal Cross of Merit (2008) and the Alexander von Humboldt Medal of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians (2018).
In addition to her academic work, Peyerimhoff took on important tasks and functions in scientific societies and committees. In 1987 she was a founding member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin and from 1990 to 1996 Vice President of the German Research Foundation. In 1999 she was appointed a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina. Peyerimhoff is also a member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering, the Academia Europaea and the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts. From 2006 to 2009 she was President of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.
Sigrid Peyerimhoff has been a GDCh member since 1973. In her honor, the Working Group Theoretical Chemistry has been awarding the Sigrid Peyerimhoff PhD Award Prize to outstanding doctoral theses in the field of theoretical chemistry since 2021.
Further information on the award winner can be found in the current issue of the GDCh membership magazine ' journal Nachrichten aus der Chemie in the article " Outstanding: The Hückel awardee Sigrid Peyerimhoff and Gernot Frenking ".
With around 30,000 members, the German Chemical Society (GDCh) is one of the largest chemical science societies in the world. In addition to 27 Divisions , seven working groups are based under its roof, including the Theoretical Chemistry working group, which is supported jointly by the German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry and the German Physical Society. The Theoretical Chemistry group organizes annual symposia for theoretical chemistry.
Press release from the GDCh