Max Planck Research Award Winners 2008

Saturn-ähnliches Dekortationsbild

Contact

Kristina Güroff
Kerstin Schweichhart
Press, Communications
and Marketing
Tel.: +49 228 833-144/257
Fax: +49 228 833-441
presse[at]avh.de

Georg Scholl
Head of
Press, Communications and Marketing
Tel.: +49 228 833-258
Fax: +49 228 833-441
presse[at]avh.de

Robert Langer and Peter Fratzl

Biomimetic materials

Professor Dr. Robert Langer has been an Institute Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Medical Technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, USA, since 2005. Langer’s scientific research focuses on the transfer of biological functions to materials. His work on the controlled release of drugs in particular has pointed the way ahead in research in this field. Langer’s award should help promote the use of biologically composed materials in biotechnological and biomedical research.

Professor Dr. Peter Fratzl has been Director of the Department of Biomaterials at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces since 2003 and is a pioneer in the field of biological and biomimetic materials. As a biophysicist he tries to understand what makes bones and wood so extremely stable while still being deformable. His innovative work in the area of experimental physics and his interdisciplinary research, for which he has received many awards, have earned Fratzl the reputation of being one of the most outstanding representatives of biomimetic materials research. Recently, the scientist discovered how wild wheat is distributed by the motor and control mechanism of the awns. The award is intended to promote further research into the mechanical properties of biological and biomimetic materials as well as to focus greater attention on the role of biomimetic materials in science.

The Max Planck Research Award ceremony will take place on 26 June 2008 in Dresden. You will soon be able to download the brochure on the award winners as well as films here.