Karl Gademann, Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Basel, will be awarded the National Latsis Prize for 2011.

The Prize is awarded on an annual basis by the Swiss National Science Foundation in Bern, on behalf of the Fondation Latsis Internationale, which is headquartered in Geneva, to researchers aged up to 40 years old as a recognition of their excellent contribution to the development of sciences in Switzerland. The Prize is valued at 100,000 Swiss francs, and the award ceremony will take place on 12 January 2012 at the Town Hall (Rathaus) of Bern.

The main driving force behind Karl Gademann’s research is interdisciplinarity. He focuses on combining chemistry and biology as well as on isolating and synthesising chemical substances from natural sources. His main field of knowledge is organic chemistry, while he often draws on chemistry and materials science or pharmacology and biology. In this way, he has repeatedly discovered unexpected affinities, which have, in some cases, opened up new fields of research.

Nature is his main source of inspiration since he is interested in natural bioactive molecules that come from animals or plants. He endeavours to understand these molecules, i.e. their function, their effect and their structure. Their ecological role is also particularly interesting, i.e. why do organisms produce them in the first place.

More information is available here.