Michael Harmata, Norman Rabjohn Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, has received the Liebig Professorship award from the Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, Germany.
Harmata and his students invent the tools needed to combine atoms in different ways to create new molecules, focusing on a process called pericyclic reactions. Harmata, who worked in Germany from 1998–99 and in 2008, said that the students who learn this research can advance developments in the pharmaceutical and petroleum industries.
The award connects Harmata to Justus von Liebig, one of the greatest organic chemists in the 19th century and considered the founder of the modern chemistry curriculum.