Minneapolis, August 1, 2023 – Prof Rolf Müller, the Founding and Scientific Director of the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) and Professor of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at Saarland University, has been honoured with the prestigious Charles Thom Award. This award, given by the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (SIMB) and named after industrial microbiology and mycology pioneer Charles Thom, honours researchers for their exceptional merit in industrial microbiology and biotechnology, and their independence of thought and originality that added appreciably to scientific knowledge. The HIPS is a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in collaboration with Saarland University.
The award ceremony took place during the Annual SIMB Meeting in Minneapolis, recognizing Prof Müller's exceptional contributions to the scientific community. The Charles Thom Award not only recognizes Müller's remarkable achievements but also emphasizes the importance of original research in advancing industrial microbiology and biotechnology. His pioneering work continues to shape scientific exploration and innovation. “I am very honoured to receive the Charles Thom Award 2023. It is a great recognition of not only the achievements of my team at HIPS in collaboration with Saarland University but also of natural products research at the HZI, HIPS and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) in general. We will certainly continue our translational efforts aiming antibiotic discovery and development towards clinical application” says Müller.Rolf Müller studied pharmacy in Bonn, where he also obtained his PhD in 1994. After a two-year research scholarship at the University of Washington in Seattle, he became junior group leader at the Gesellschaft für Biotechnologische Forschung, now the HZI, in Braunschweig. In 2000, he completed his habilitation thesis at the Technische Universität Braunschweig on the biosynthesis of antibiotics in actinomycetes and myxobacteria. He became a professor of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at Saarland University in 2003. Since 2009, he is Founding and Scientific Director of HIPS. Prof Müller's accomplishments include his 2016 appointment to the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and receiving the prestigious Leibniz Prize from the German Research Foundation (DFG) in 2021.
