Winner: Gunther Bonn
Professor Günther Bonn was awarded this medal for his sustained and important contribution to the promotion of separation science – reflected in his strong presence in peer-reviewed scientific literature, numerous patents, recognition as a speaker at national and international separation science meetings and his membership of numerous editorial boards. The breadth of his work spanning synthesis of novel chromatographic and enrichment supports coupled with his vast body of work across the genomic, proteomic, metabolomic and phytomic areas was recognised by the committee in this award.
Professor Bonn received his D.Phil from the University of Innsbruck in 1979 and continued to work there reaching the position of Assistant Professor in 1989. In 1988 he also spent time as a visiting professor at Yale University working with the 1994 Martin medal winner, Professor Csaba Horvath. In 1991 he moved to the University of Linz as Professor of Analytical Chemistry and then Head of the Department. His next move was to return to the University of Innsbruck in 1994 where he was Professor for Analytical Chemistry and then Head of the Institute of Analytical Chemistry and Radiochemistry where he still presides. Additionally, Professor Bonn was a member of the FWF (Austrian Science Fund), he served as Vice President of the Austrian Council for Science and Research Development, is the Vice President of the Board of the Innsbruck Medical University and is Head of the Austrian Chinese Biomarker Discovery Center in Beijing, China. Since 2012, he is also the Scientific Director of the newly founded Austrian Drug Screening Institute (ADSI) in Innsbruck.
Professor Bonn’s broad scientific expertise is well recognised by his peers. He is a member of the editorial boards for Chromatographia, the Journal of Chromatographic Science, LC-GC- Europe, Current Medicinal Chemistry, Current Analytical Chemistry and Bioanalytical Reviews. As an author, he has published in excess of 350 peer-reviewed papers, 3 books and is cited as an author on 29 patents
As well as his academic appointments in Austria, he is also on the Board of Bionorica (a phytopharmaceutical company focussed on the development of herbal therapeutic agents). During his distinguished career, Professor Bonn has won other accolades including the Halasz´ Award (2003), the ‘Ring of Honour’ of the Austrain Academy of Science (2009), EUSSS Nernst-Tswett Award (2010) and the Csaba Horváth Memorial Award (2011).
