05.05.22 – Professor Gabor Laurenczy at EPFL’s School of Basic Sciences has been elected as an External Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and has won the 2021 Rudolf Fabinyi Memorial Prize from the Hungarian Chemical Society.

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) was founded in 1825 and today is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. It operates a research network with over 3000 full-time research personnel, carrying out “nation-wide missions related to the implementation, promotion and representation of science.” The MTA is made up of over seventeen thousand public members and eight hundred academics, two hundred of which are external (non-domestic) members.

The MTA has now elected Professor Gabor Laurenczy among its External Members. Laurenczy is Professor Emeritus with EPFL’s School of Basic Sciences, where he directed the Group of Catalysis for Energy and Environment. His research focused on chemical reactions in gaseous and liquid phases, and he spent many years in charge of European projects developing innovative methods and techniques for chemical transformations, as well using high pressure to optimize chemical and biochemical processes.

In 2008, he and his co-workers published a seminal paper on the discovery of a homogeneous water-soluble ruthenium catalyst for the selective dehydrogenation of formic acid to hydrogen and carbon dioxide. A series of publications followed, elaborating on the mechanism followed, describing other catalysts, and the reverse reaction.

Professor Laurenczy’s work led to patents for storage and production of hydrogen from formic acid. His development of a catalyst and viable production system for hydrogen, considered revolutionary by his peers, has led to licensed commercial use.

Professor Laurenczy has also just received another honor: the Rudolf Fabinyi Memorial Prize from the Hungarian Chemical Society (MKE). Founded in 1907, the Society is a voluntary organization with more than 2,000 members, and aims “to provide a forum for those interested in chemistry and promote chemistry in Hungary.”

The Rudolf Fabinyi Memorial Prize is given to scientists outside Hungary “whose outstanding scientific accomplishments have contributed to the reputation of the MKE”. The award was established in 2007 at the MKE’s 100th anniversary and is named after its founder, Dr Rudolf Fabinyi.

“This is an exceptional week,” says Gabor Laurenczy.