Since 2010, the Working Group Separation Science of the GDCh Division of Analytical Chemistry has been awarding the Eberhard Gerstel Prize every two years for an outstanding publication in the field of analytical separation techniques in an internationally recognized, peer-reviewed journal. The prize is aimed at young scientists, is endowed with 3000 euros and decisive selection criteria for the award are originality, scientific, methodical or technical significance as well as the independence of the work. The award is presented at the analytica conference, which takes place in Munich in even-numbered years. The decision on the awarding of the prize is made by an international jury.

The prize money is donated by GERSTEL GmbH & Co. KG (Mülheim an der Ruhr), which was founded in 1967 by Eberhard Gerstel and has become a leading global provider of systems and solutions for automated sample preparation and sample application in GC/MS and LC /MS developed.

The Eberhard-Gerstel Award 2020 was awarded to Sebastian K. Piendl (University of Leipzig) as part of the virtual analytica conference 2020. His publication "2D in Seconds: Coupling of Chip-HPLC with Ion Mobility Spectrometry" in Analytical Chemistry 2019, 91, 7613?7620 was awarded.