The Executive Board of the Pro Academia Prize has decided to confer the Pro Academia Prize 2021 on
Klaus Roth of Berlin, Germany,
as the hub of of a academic network, in recognition of his efforts, contributions, and achievements in science and academic life.
laus Roth has been instrumental in furthering the academic exchange and is being nominated in recognition of his efforts in fostering awareness and engagement in science by the academic and general public. The Prize proposal stresses in particular his directorate of the interdisciplinary Dahlem Conferences in Berlin in difficult times.
From 1964 until 1969 he studied chemistry at the Free University of Berlin and received his doctorate in chemistry (summa cum laude) in 1973. He stayed at the Free University for some years, then became a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London (1979-1980); he returned to Berlin, then stayed as a Visiting Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. He became Associate Professor at the Free University of Berlin in 1990, Full Professor at the Institute of Chemistry of the Free University of Berlin in 2000. From 1991 until 2000 he was the Director of the Dahlem Conferences in Berlin.
His decades-long pursuit describing and emphasizing the chemical background in many areas that at first glance are not associated with chemical science at all is another outstanding achievement in his academic life. The description of where and how chemistry meets with industrial or daily life offers a window onto chemical science and attracts interest to the natural sciences. His work of popularizing science in a wonderfully understandable and humorous way went beyond the usual style and content of lectures and textbooks. His papers were and are published in printed versions and, in particular their English rendition, on the internet. Some are included in three outstanding books for which he received the Writer’s Prize of Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (Society of German Chemists).
Dr. Roth is a clear example of one of those rare university professors who have gone beyond their professional interests and succeeded in encouraging the understanding of science and academia at a grander scale. By treading pathways outside the given scientific fences and networks he created interest in a wide range of interconnected fields. He is clearly an outstanding teacher, as evidenced by the numerous positive comments about his lectures, articles, books, and patents — motivating young scientists to pursue new avenues of research and teaching and opening the natural sciences to the public at large.
Due to restrictions caused by the pandemic, Dr. Roth received the Pro Academia Prize by proxy in Berlin.