BAM honours those guest scientists who have distinguished themselves with an extraordinary scientific performance and special commitment towards BAM with the Wilhelm Ostwald Fellowship.
Through the name of the award, BAM acknowledges the achievements of the outstanding physicochemist and Nobel laureate Wilhelm Ostwald (* 1853 in Riga, † 1932 in Leipzig). Ostwald was professor of chemistry among others at the Riga Polytechnic Institute and the University of Leipzig. He obtained the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1909 “as an acknowledgment for his work on catalysis and his fundamental investigations into chemical equilibrium conditions and reaction rates”.
Ostwald considered international cooperation among scientists particularly important. He took part in establishing the International Association of Chemical Societies and became its first president in 1912. He gave substantial impetus to the foundation of the Chemical-Technical State Institute (Chemisch-Technische Reichsanstalt) in 1920, which was, apart from the Public Materials Testing Office (Staatliches Materialprüfungsamt), the second predecessor institute from which BAM emerged in 1954.
With this Fellowship, BAM maintains Ostwald’s dedication to an interdisciplinary cooperation among institutions. Since spring 2010, BAM has repeatedly distinguished guest scientists to recognise their outstanding co-operation.
