Prof. Dr. Stephan Andreas Schunk

Academic Education and Degrees

Academic education

1988 – 1994   Studies of Chemistry at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Diploma thesis with Profs. Klaus Unger and Prof. Ferdi Schüth

1994 – 1998   Doctoral studies at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt with Prof. Ferdi Schüth, graduated as Dr. phil. nat., November 1998

2014 – 2021   Lecturer at Leipzig University, courses in Catalysis and Material synthesis, Department of Chemistry, Institute for Technical Chemistry. 

2021 – present           Honorary Professor at Leipzig University, for Digitalization in Catalysis and Materials Sciences, Department of Chemistry

Present Professional Position

2019 - present Vice President – Executive Expert within BASF SE and hte GmbH.

Special Remarks (if you like to make any, e.g. main field(s) of activity)

Service in professional organizations

2014 – present           Member of the appointed expert commission of the German Catalysis Society

2018 – present           Member of the board of the “Solid State Chemistry and Materials Science” Division, German Chemical Society

2019 – present           Member of the board of NFDI4cat, core initiator of NFDI4cat in 2017 (http://gecats.org/NFDI4Cat.html).

2020 – present           Speaker of the Industrial Advisory Board of the German Data Science Initiative for catalysis NFDI4Cat.

2022 – present           Member of the „Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate Advisory Committee”, Pacific Norwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, USA (https://www.pnnl.gov/).

2022 – present           Member of the SwissCAT+ Advisory Board of ETH Zürich

Awards and recognitions

2023→”Applied Catalysis Award 2024” from the Association of European Catalysis Societies

2021    Honorary Professor, Leipzig University

2014    BASF Award, Department “Process Research and Engineering” for the Definition of an Internal Innovation Program

2005    Best Oral Presentation Award, 5th World Conference on Oxidation Catalysis

2001    Science Award of the "Stifterverbandes für die Deutsche Wissenschaft".

2000    Jochen-Block-Award, German Catalysis Society

1997    Financial Support of the PhD work by the Hermann Willkomm-Foundation

1998 – 1990   Scholarship of the "Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes"

Nominations and recognition linked to hte and BASF

2019    Best Process Innovation Award for Linde´s DryRef Process and BASF´s Synspire Catalyst.

2012    Nomination of hte Aktiengesellschaft for the “Innovation Award of German Economy”

2011    Winner of the “Step Award 2011” for innovative and growth-oriented Enterprises.

2010    Nomination of hte Aktiengesellschaft for “German Future Price 2010”.