Oct 23, 2024
Award of the H.F. Mark Medal to Professor Dr. Gert Heinrich
Presentation of the H.F. Mark Medal in Vienna to Prof. Dr. Gert Heinrich; DI Udo Pappler (GF OFI), Prof. Dr. Gert Heinrich, KR Ing. Hubert Culik (President OFI), Prof. Dr. Sabine Seidler
Professor Dr. Gert Heinrich, former Head of the Chair of Polymer Materials at the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden e. V. (IPF), was awarded the H.F. Mark Medal of the Austrian Research Institute for Chemistry and Technology (OFI) in Vienna on October 1, 2024 for his outstanding achievements in the field of polymer research.
One of Gert Heinrich's core research areas is polymer materials, in particular the elastomer components of tires. With his holistic, physically oriented approach, he has significantly shaped tire research and the development of elastomers.
Tires are an amazingly complex subject of research. The three essential material parameters - abrasion, wet skid resistance and rolling friction, the so-called "magic triangle" - represent competing requirements for material design that are difficult to reconcile. Gert Heinrich has found his passion in this challenge. As a physicist with a pronounced curiosity, he strives to understand the fundamental physical relationships without losing sight of the practical relevance for innovative technical solutions.
Gert Heinrich initially researched and taught in the field of theoretical polymer physics at the former "Carl Schorlemmer" Technical University in Merseburg. In 1990, he moved to Continental AG, where he worked in the areas of tire research and strategic technology and later became head of materials research. During this time, he began to apply his expertise in polymer physics and theoretical physics to tire development.
When he moved to Dresden in 2002, he returned to academia, first as Head of the Institute of Polymer Materials at the IPF and, until September 2016, as Chair of Polymer Materials and Elastomer Technology at the TUD Dresden University of Technology. He continuously expanded his research topics and further developed the field of research. The result was one of the most renowned academic research groups in the field of elastomers in Europe, characterized by an interdisciplinary approach of Material Science, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. As a former Senior Professor at the Institute of Textile Machinery and High Performance Material Technology (ITM) at TU Dresden, he continues to be scientifically active as part of the Research Training Group 2430.
Gert Heinrich's scientific work has been honored with major awards in recent years, including the Colwyn Medal, the George Stafford Whitby Award, the Carl Dietrich Harries Medal and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Tire Technology International. The H.F. Mark Medal, which has been awarded since 1975 in memory of Hermann Franz Mark, the founder of modern polymer chemistry, has a special personal significance for Gert Heinrich:
"I am particularly pleased to receive this award from Vienna, as I have a concrete scientific thread connecting me to an early work on polymer statistics by the Viennese H. Mark (1934, together with Eugene Guth). It was one of the first papers on the idea of linking polymer statistics and chain entropy - the now firmly established foundation of any understanding of polymers."
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