Dedication for Melanie Schnell, recipient of Bjørn H. Wiik Prize 2020

The Bjørn H. Wiik Prize 2020 was awarded to Prof. Dr. Melanie Schnell on 2 December 2020. The Professor of Physical Chemistry received DESY's most highly endowed science prize for her pioneering work on molecular microwave spectroscopy and for her leadership in establishing the Centre for Molecular Water Science (CMWS) at DESY. By introducing Chirped Pulse Fourier Transform Microwave (CPFTMW) spectroscopy in 2013, she opened up the new research field of chiral spectroscopy.

The spectroscopic investigation of molecular properties by photons is one of the central research topics in the Photon Science research area at DESY, which has been expanded by an important method through Schnell's work. A molecule with a single chiral centre can exist in two mirror-symmetric forms, so-called enantiomers, which have chemically different properties but are normally indistinguishable spectroscopically. The new technique is now able to distinguish such chiral molecules.

Since the first final discovery of the measurement principle, Melanie Schnell has significantly developed the method in her working group at DESY and applied it to a wide variety of scientific questions. One focus of Melanie Schnell's work is the investigation of the interaction of water with other molecules. This work is of great relevance for the planned Center for Molecular Water Science at DESY, which Prof. Schnell is co-coordinating.