Wolfgang Krätschmer (born 16 November 1942 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

) is a German physicist. Krätschmer studied physics in Berlin. After his Diplom he went to the

Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics The Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik ("MPI for Nuclear Physics" or MPIK for short) is a research institute in Heidelberg, Germany. The institute is one of the 80 institutes of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Max Planck Society), an independent, n ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

and earned his PhD there in 1971 with a thesis on artificially etched tracks of accelerated heavy ions in

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

. In his career, he has worked on cosmic-ray heavy-ion tracks in

lunar samples Lunar most commonly means "of or relating to the Moon". Lunar may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lunar'' (series), a series of video games * "Lunar" (song), by David Guetta * "Lunar", a song by Priestess from the 2009 album ''Prior t ...

, as well as infrared and UV spectra of

interstellar dust Cosmic dust, also called extraterrestrial dust, star dust or space dust, is dust which exists in outer space, or has fallen on Earth. Most cosmic dust particles measure between a few molecules and 0.1 mm (100 micrometers). Larger particles are c ...

. Together with his PhD student Konstantinos Fostiropoulos and with Donald Huffman from the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

he developed a procedure for the synthesis of

fullerene A fullerene is an allotrope of carbon whose molecule consists of carbon atoms connected by single and double bonds so as to form a closed or partially closed mesh, with fused rings of five to seven atoms. The molecule may be a hollow sphere, ...

s. This procedure was the first to produce fullerenes in large amounts for chemical experiments. Since 1993 he is an honorary professor ("Honorarprofessor") at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

Honors

* 1992 – Stern–Gerlach Medal * 1993 – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize * 1994 – Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize * 2002 – Carl Friedrich Gauss Medaille * 2008 –

Liebig Medal The Liebig Medal (German: ''Liebig-Denkmünze'') was established by the (''Verein Deutscher Chemiker'') in 1903 to celebrate the centenary of Justus von Liebig. Since 1946 it has been awarded by the Society of German Chemists (''Gesellschaft Deut ...

* 2008 – Honorary doctorate from the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

* 2010 –

European Inventor Award The European Inventor Award(formerly European Inventor of the Year Award, renamed in 2010), are presented annually by the European Patent Office, sometimes supported by the respective Presidency of the Council of the European Union and by the Eur ...

in the "Lifetime Achievement" categoryInvention: Process for working with new form of carbon
/ref> awarded by the

European Patent Office The European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg), the other being the Administrative Council. The EPO acts as executive body for the organisation

References

External links

Homepage at MPI for Nuclear Physics
20th-century German physicists Carbon scientists Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners 1942 births Living people European Inventor Award winners 21st-century German physicists {{Germany-physicist-stub