Gerhard Ertl

Gerhard Ertl was born in Germany on 10 October 1936 and became a physicist studying something most chemists ignored: reactions happening not in flasks but on solid surfaces. Working at the Fritz-Haber-Institut in Berlin, he built the methodological foundation of modern surface chemistry, providing the first detailed descriptions of how chemical processes unfold when molecules collide with metal and crystal planes. The work had reach: it explained how fuel cells generate clean energy, how catalytic converters scrub car exhaust, why iron corrodes, and even how ozone destruction proceeds on ice crystals in the stratosphere. The Royal Swedish Academy awarded him the 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, calling his findings essential to both academic understanding and industrial application. In 2015, alongside 75 other laureates at the Lindau Meeting, he signed the Mainau Declaration on Climate Change, delivered to François Hollande ahead of the Paris summit.