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The Carl Hermann medal

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The establishment of the Carl Hermann Medal for outstanding contributions to the science of crystallography, was announced in August 1994 by the German Soc. for Crystallography (DGK). The name of the Medal was chosen to recognize Professor Hermann’s (1898-1961) significant contributions to the foundations of crystallography. After his studies at Göttingen (with Max Born and Werner Heisenberg) he became a lecturer at Stuttgart, where he together with Paul P. Ewald initiated the Strukturberichte, the famous reference series (with its successor Structure Reports) of every known crystal structure determination. Moreover, he developed, with Charles Mauguin (1878-1958), a systematic nomenclature for the 230 space groups, from which the symmetry can be derived at a glance (so called Hermann-Mauguin notation). Throughout much of the Second World War he and his wife were imprisoned for helping Jews. In 1947 he was appointed to the chair of crystallography at Marburg U. where he built up an internationally recognized research school.

The award consists of a medal and a certificate of recognition. It is presented every year during the Annual Conferences of the DGK. Proposals can be put forward by members of the DGK (for details visit www.kristall.erdw.ethz.ch/DGK). The previous medals have been awarded to Gerhard Bormann, Hartmut Bärnighausen, Siegfried Haussühl, George Sheldrick, Heinz Jagodzinski, Theo Hahn and Hans Wondratschek.

Peter Paufler
13 July 2009