Heyrovsky-Ilkovic-Nernst Lecture

The Heyrovsky-Ilkovic-Nernst Lecture is the only lecture in trilateral cooperation to date. The German Chemical Society established the Heyrovsky - Ilkovic - Nernst Lecture in 2002 together with the Ceská Spolecnost Chemická and the Slovenská Chemická Spolocnost. The lecture took place for the first time in 2006.

The lecture was named after three important physical chemists from the three nations involved. The Czech professor Jaroslav Heyrovský developed polarography, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1959. Polarography is a method for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of ions in a solution using a mercury drop electrode. Heyrovský was also a member of the Leopoldina.

The Slovak chemist Professor Dionýz Ilkovič worked in Heyrovský's laboratory in 1930. In 1934 he published the Ilkovič equation named after him, which made it possible to calculate concentrations from the measured currents in polarography. The associated derivation was published in 1938. Until 1976, Ilkovič was a professor at the Comenius University in Bratislava.

In 1920, German professor Walther Hermann Nernst received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in the field of thermochemistry. Nobody who deals with chemistry can ignore Nernst. The Nernst equation named after him is part of the basic knowledge of every chemist. It describes the concentration dependence of the electrode potential of a redox couple. The third theorem of thermodynamics also goes back to Nernst.

Excellent people so far

2023 - Ján Híveš, Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava/Slovakia

Ján Híveš is a prominent expert in the field of inorganic technologies and materials. He is currently the Head of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Technology and Materials at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava (STU). His research focuses on electrochemical properties of electrolytes for aluminum production, production of strong iron-based oxidizing agents and their applications in the removal of micropollutants in the environment.

He will be visiting Darmstadt, Bochum and Hanover from 26 to 28 November.

More information about Ján Híveš

2022 - Christine Kranz, University of Ulm

Prof. Dr. Christine Kranz works at the Institute for Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (IABC) at the University of Ulm. There she heads the Surface Sciences group, where her research focuses on (electrochemical) scanning probe microscopy, miniaturized (bio)sensors for bioanalytical applications and the use of scanning probe microscopy in light-driven photocatalysis and in energy-related research of light-driven photocatalysis.

Their lecture titles were “Unraveling interfacial processes by scanning (electrochemical) probe microscopy”, “Miniaturized electrochemical (bio)sensors: applications from in vitro cell measurements to light-driven catalysis” and “Microscale electrochemistry to study processes at energy relevant materials”.

More information about Professor Kranz

Commission of the Heyrovsky - Ilkovic - Nernst Lecture

Prof. Dr. Fred Lisdat, Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau (lead management)
Prof. Dr. Katja Heinze, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Maison, University of Hamburg
Prof. Dr. Nicole Strittmatter, Technical University of Munich