07-11-2012

Honeywell UOP honors Johannes Lercher at invitational lecture in catalysis

UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced today that Professor Johannes Lercher was honored for his creativity and contributions to the field of chemistry at the Vladimir Haensel Honeywell UOP Invitational Lecture in Catalysis.

The event was the first in what will be an annual invitational lecture focused on catalysis and part of a larger series of lectures hosted by Honeywell’s UOP recognizing achievement in a range of fields in chemistry. The lecture series on catalysis honors the work of noted inventor and former UOP Vice President of Science and Technology Vladimir Haensel, whose achievements in catalysis research using platinum revolutionized the refining and petrochemicals industries.

“Professor Lercher is internationally recognized for his range of advancements benefiting the global refining and petrochemical industries, especially in the area of zeolite structure-function relationships,” said Rajeev Gautam, president and CEO of Honeywell’s UOP. “It is only appropriate that we honor him at a series named for Vladimir Haensel, who was himself a renowned inventor whose work contributed to the establishment of modern refining and petrochemical processes. We are honored to host Professor Lercher, and we look forward to continuing to celebrate achievements and advances in the field of chemistry and catalysis research through this lecture series.”

Lercher is a chemistry professor at Technical University of Munich, Germany, and is director of the Institute for Integrated Catalysis at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash. He is internationally renowned for his work on industrially relevant catalyzed reactions, and his research in the field of heterogeneous catalysis is documented in more than 370 publications.

Lercher presented a lecture entitled “Catalytic Alkane Activation and Catalytic Transformation” at the event, which was held at Honeywell’s UOP Research Center on Nov. 2.

Honeywell’s UOP created the series to honor Haensel, known primarily for his breakthrough discoveries in Platforming, which made it possible to convert oil into much higher octane fuels more efficiently and with significantly fewer byproducts, reducing air pollution and smog. He authored more than 120 scientific and technical papers, and was granted 145 U.S. patents and 450 foreign patents before his passing in 2002. His research and discoveries are vital to many processes in the refining and petrochemical industries and have made a lasting impact on society as a whole.

For more information, please visit www.uop.com