The Otto Roelen Medal 2012 has been awarded to Prof. Javier Pérez-Ramírez from the ETH Zurich. With this award, DECHEMA recognise Professor Pérez-Ramírez’ outstanding contributions to the field of catalysis, which also have strong industrial relevance. The Otto Roelen Medal is particularly to recognise his work on the miniaturization of systems for the continuous synthesis of inorganic materials – mainly catalyst precursors – and his development of novel catalysts for the gas-phase hydrogen chloride oxidation (Deacon) process. The award ceremony was presented during the 15th International Congress on Catalysis in Munich.

Javier Pérez-Ramírez, born in 1974 in Benidorm, Spain, studied chemical engineering at the University of Alicante. In 2002 he completed his doctorate at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and worked from 2002 to 2005 in various positions at Norsk Hydro and Yara International, Norway. In 2005 he returned to academic research and at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), where he was appointed a research professor. After two research fellowships at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Caen (France), he was appointed a full professor at the ETH Zurich in 2010. Javier Pérez-Ramírez has received numerous awards including the Dow Energy Prize 2002 and the KNCV Prijs 2003. He is Associate Editor of Catalysis, Science and Technology and a member of the editorial boards of Applied Catalysis B, Advanced Functional Materials, Catalysis Communications and ACS Catalysis.