Zachary Mathe, a young scientist in the Department of <link>Inorganic Spectroscopy (Prof. Serena DeBeer), received the GDCh Master Prize 2019 in December last year.

Every year, the <link https: en.gdch.de>German Chemical Society (GDCh) awards the GDCh Master Prize to a student with an excellent degree who has completed his or her previous bachelor studies at a foreign university.

This year, upon nomination by the Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Bochum University, the prize has been awarded to Zachary Mathe. Zachary completed his Bachelor degree in Chemistry at the Reed College in the United States of America, and then moved to Germany to continue his education and research at MPI CEC. In his research towards the Master degree, Zachary developed a new approach utilizing a so-called calcium valence-to-core X-ray emission spectroscopy (VtC XES) to investigate calcium-containing systems. Zac particularly focused on calcium-manganese synthetic systems that mimic the active site in the process of natural photosynthesis. This results might lead to future studies towards understanding the structure and function of this unique system. Moreover, Zachary conducted this research using the recently commissioned <link https: aip.scitation.org doi full>LabXES setup, an in-house dispersive spectrometer at MPI CEC.

Zachary Mathe continues his research after completing his master's degree in the department of Prof. Serena DeBeer, now as a doctoral student.

The editors of the Journal Inorganic Chemistry also recently recognized and honored the research of the young scientist: The publication based on his master thesis was highlighted as an supplementary cover. (> <link https: cec.mpg.de en news detail-view neue-technik-zur-untersuchung-kalziumhaltiger-systeme>News 5.12.2019)