Vanessa Bukas recognized at Mülheim Institutes
Young researcher from Berlin receives the Ernst Haage Prize 2026
Vanessa Bukas wins the prestigious Ernst Haage Prize 2026 for groundbreaking research in heterogeneous thermal processes.
Everyone in the world of chemistry is familiar with heterogeneous thermal processes such as the Haber-Bosch process or the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. But how do these processes actually work? Dr. Vanessa Jane Bukas, group leader at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, and her team want to know exactly how they work, and are therefore investigating the theory behind these and similar processes. Now, the young scientist is being honored for her work with the Ernst Haage Prize, which the Ernst Haage Foundation awards annually to outstanding early-career scientists. The foundation is supported by the two Max Planck Institutes in Mülheim: the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI CEC) and the Max Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung (MPI KOFO).
Vanessa Bukas studied applied mathematics and physics in Athens, then went on to pursue a master’s degree at LMU Munich. She earned her Ph.D. summa cum laude at the Technical University of Munich under Prof. Karsten Reuter. This was followed by postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford University and the Catalysis Theory Center in Denmark. Since 2025, Vanessa Bukas has been working toward her habilitation at Humboldt University in Berlin.
In addition to the national award recipients, the two Max Planck Institutes in Mülheim also honor researchers from their own ranks each year. This is because Ernst Haage always placed particular importance on young scientists—and the campus remains committed to supporting these very same young researchers to this day.
Dr. Subhabrata Dutta, a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Dr. Siegfried Waldvogel’s group at MPI CEC, will receive the award for postdoctoral researchers and doctoral candidates. Sabrina Brunner (MPI KOFO) and Joe Hoffmann (MPI CEC), who both completed training as chemical laboratory technicians, will be awarded the Ernst Haage Prize for Trainees.
The public awards ceremony will take place on Friday, November 13, in the Grand Lecture Hall of the MPI KOFO, Lembkestraße 7, 45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr. The event begins at 10 a.m. Matthew Gaunt from Cambridge University will give the Keynote Lecture. Registration is possible via this link.
About the Ernst Haage Prize
The Ernst Haage Prize is awarded in honor of the Mülheim entrepreneur Ernst Haage (1901–1968) and comes with a cash prize of 7,500 euros. In addition, prizes are awarded annually for particularly outstanding doctoral dissertations as well as for exceptional apprentices on the Mülheim campus.
Haage’s daughter, Ursula Bonnen, established the Ernst Haage Foundation in 2006 in collaboration with the MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion. Her father, who had been head of precision mechanics at the Max Planck Campus in Mülheim before founding his own company, remained closely connected to the institutes throughout his life.