During the Chemistry Lecturers' Conference, the ADUC honours up to three young scientists (habilitation, junior professorship, fellowship or tenure track) who are aiming for a permanent position in the German scientific landscape with the ADUC Prize for establishing an independent field of research in chemistry. The award comes with a certificate, a book prize and prize money of 4000 euros each. Nominations as well as self-nominations should be made up to a maximum of eight years after the end of the doctorate and before taking up a permanent/indefinite professorship. The establishment of the independent field of research must be demonstrated by publications in relevant scientific journals.

The prize has not yet been announced.

Presentation of the ADUC awards on the occasion of the CDT 2025 on 17 March 2025 in Braunschweig by Prof Dr Hans-Dieter Arndt (ADUC Chair) to:

• Ass.Prof. Dr Nina Hartrampf "...in recognition of her stimulating approaches in the field of preparative peptide research, in particular the combination of modern flow-chemical synthesis methods with biosynthesis steps in the generation of lasso peptides."
• Dr John James Molloy "...in recognition of his pioneering research into the use of organoboron compounds to generate structural complexity using photocatalytic strategies."
• Jun.Prof. Dr Johannes Markus Wahl "...in recognition of his creative contributions to the development of stereoselective synthesis methods, especially through the skilful implementation of small-ring compounds with new catalytic processes."

Presentation of the ADUC awards at the CDT 2024 in Aachen by Prof Dr Hans-Dieter Arndt (ADUC Chair) to (Photos: Felix Garg):

• Dr Moritz Malischewski "...for his successes in the field of highly reactive and unusual coordination compounds, in particular through reactions in superacidic media and using highly fluorinated cyclopentadienide ligands."
• Dr. Jola Pospech"...for her creative contributions in the field of photoredox catalysis, in particular for the development of catalytically active pyrimidopteridines, their mechanistic investigation and their use in hydroamination and hydroacylation reactions."

Presentation of the ADUC awards at the CDT 2023 in Dresden by Prof Dr Nobert W. Mitzel (ADUC Chair) to (Photos: GDCh; Photographer: J. Lösel):

• Dr Terrance Hadlington "...for the implementation of the single-centre amphiphile concept, which enables sophisticated cooperative binding activations on transition metal complexes with low-valent, redox-active main group ligands and makes them usable for homogeneous catalytic processes, especially hydroamination."
• Jun.Prof. Dr Christoph Kerzig "...for the further development of photochemical energy conversion, especially in water, and for the development of novel two-photon processes for photocatalysis with visible light."
• Dr Golo Storch "...for the biomimetic development and investigation of substituted flavins as molecular redox catalysts in organic synthesis."

On the occasion of the CDT 2022 in Saarbrücken, Prof. Dr Nobert W. Mitzel (ADUC Chair; photos: left) awarded the ADUC Prizes 2022 (photos: Jean M. Laffitau) to:

• Jun. Prof. Dr Kai S. Exner "...for original and pioneering research in the field of theoretical electrocatalysis for the improvement of electrode materials for electrocatalytic processes or batteries."
• Jun.Prof. Dr. Max M. Hansmann "...for the development of synthetic approaches to unusual and highly reactive carbon compounds such as mesoionic N-heterocyclic olefins, diazoalkenes, triplet vinylidenes and electron-rich olefins and their comprehensive physical characterisation."
• Dr Christopher J. Teskey "...for the development of light-switchable transition metal catalysts using the example of cobalt-mediated hydroborations, which enable stereoselective aldol reaction cascades and exhibit switchable chemoselectivity."

• Dr. Robert Göstl "...for the development of molecular force sensors that open up new possibilities to characterise and manipulate the mechanical behaviour of polymeric materials and substances."
• Ass.Prof. Dr Vera Krewald "...for quantum chemical calculations to elucidate the reaction mechanisms and to better understand the catalytically relevant active centres in the activation of small molecules such as nitrogen or oxygen in the context of chemical energy conversion."
• Dr. Christian Sindlinger "...for the development of efficient syntheses of free boroles and the use of their dianions, the boroldiides, as cyclopentadienide-analogue ligands for the stabilisation of unprecedented sandwich complexes and cluster-like half-sandwich complexes of electropositive p-block elements."

• Dr Urs Gellrich "...for the development of the novel concept of inter- and intramolecular boron-ligand cooperation for bond activation and catalysis, including the first organocatalytic dehydrogenation of amine-borane."
• Dr. Jannika Lauth "...for the presentation of novel ultrathin 2D semiconductor materials and their characterisation using ultrafast spectroscopic methods. The materials possess innovative optoelectronic properties such as photoexcitable highly mobile charge carriers or bound excitons with strong emission."
• Dr. habil. Crispin Lichtenberg "...for his preparative work in the fields of low-valent, cationic and radical bismuth chemistry, including the isolation and characterisation of new substance classes, the design and optimisation of chemical properties using tailor-made ligands and the application of these compounds in the areas of CH activation, controlled radical reactions and activation of small, strongly bound molecules."

*Since 2016, the year of the award corresponds to the year of the award ceremony. Up to and including 2014, the year referred to the year of the call for entries.