Sandmeyer Award
CHF 10,000 for individuals or CHF 20,000 for groups
The Sandmeyer Award is presented to a team or an individual for outstanding work in the field of industrial or applied chemistry. The work must have been carried out in Switzerland or abroad by a team including Swiss nationals. The award may be presented to an individual – Swiss or foreign national – if the work was carried out in Switzerland. The award may be presented to an individual for work carried out abroad if the person is Swiss.Tenured professors will not be considered for the award as individuals. In the case of foreign teams, the Swiss member must have made a substantial contribution to the work. There is no age restriction.
The prize is awarded annually.
Nominations are invited from organizations and individuals. Self-nominations are admitted.
A nomination must include:
Brief curriculum vitae/s (max 2 pages/person).
A detailed description of the work including publications if available.
A nomination letter.
Not more than two seconding nomination letters.
The documents (language E/D/F) listed under 1-3 should be sent electronically as a single pdf file to (e.g. nominee name-sandmeyer.pdf). Seconding letters should also be submitted electronically.
The deadline for all documents to reach the Swiss Chemical Society is September 30, 2025.
2025:
Dr. Stephan Bachmann, Dr. Raphael Bigler, Dr. Dainis Kaldre, Dr. Dominique Kummli, Dr. René Lebl, Dr. David Linder, Dr. Ugo Orcel, Dr. Isabelle Prévot and Dr. Jörg Sedelmeier from F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd
...in recognition of the team’s outstanding achievements to enable the commercial manufacturing process of Divarasib.
2024:
Prof. Urs von Gunten, EPFL Lausanne/Eawag, Prof. Juliane Hollender, ETH Zurich, Dr. Christa McArdell, Dr. Adriano Joss, Marc Böhler and Dr. Christian Abegglen, Eawag, and Prof. em. Hansruedi Siegrist, ETH Zurich, building the Eawag working group “Advanced wastewater treatment”
...for the team’s outstanding achievements in using chemistry to address a challenge of large societal im-portance: securing clean water.
2023:
Dr. Agnes Bombrun, Dr. Boris Schilling, Dr. Eric Eichhorn and Dr. Fridtjof Schröder from Givaudan Schweiz AG
...for their outstanding research contributions that led to the development of an innovative and even more importantly an industrially viable and sustainable process for AmbrofixTM ((-)-ambrox) using green chemistry and biotechnology.
2022:
Alain Vaucher, Daniel Probst, Philippe Schwaller, Theophile Gaudin, Teodoro Laino, Matteo Manica, Alessandra Toniato, Federico Zipoli, Antonio Cardinale, Alessandro Castrogiovanni, Heiko Wolf, Aleksandros Sobczyk, Joppe Geluykens, from the RXN for Chemistry Project Team from IBM Research
...for their important scientific breakthrough in the digitalization of synthetic organic chemistry that helps to improve digital workflows with state-of-the-art machine learning technologies.
2021:
Dr. Pierdomenico Biasi, Mr. John D' Alessandri, Mr. Ermanno Fillippi, Mr. Sergio Panza, Casale SA and
Dr. René Eckert, Dr. Marvin Estenfelder, Dr. Stephan Reitmeier, Dr. Andreas Reitzmann from Clariant AG
...for their achievements obtained in the field of catalysis and reaction engineering, especially for the development and implementation of the AmoMax®-Casale, a new catalyst for a greener and less energy consuming process for industrial large scale ammonia synthesis.
2020:
Dr. Andreas Schuster, Dr. Caroline Maierhofer, Dr. Stephan Bachmann, Dr. Hans Iding, Dr. Christian Lautz, Dr. Régis Mondière, Dr. Philipp Schmidt, Dr. Isabelle Thomé, from the Ipatasertib Team at F. Hoffmann La-Roche, and
Dr. Christoph Strasser from Dottikon Exclusive Synthesis AG
...for the development of an economical, scalable and sustainable process to produce Ipatasertib, an Akt kinase inhibitor currently tested in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and triple negative metastatic breast cancer.
2019:
Dr. Michael Berg, Dr. Stephan Hug, Dr. Annette Johnson (in memoriam), Dr. Andreas Voegelin and Prof. Lenny Winkel, from the Eawag, Dübendorf,
...for their experimental and modelling studies on drinking water contamination by arsenic and other geogenic elements with an enormous impact not only in Switzerland but around the globe.
2018:
Dr. Raymonde Fonné-Pfister, Dr. Claudio Screpanti and Dr. Alain De Mesmaeker, all Syngenta Crop Protection AG as well as Dr. Harro Bouwmeester, University of Amsterdam
...for their pioneering work on Strigolactones that can be considered a collaboration masterpiece between Industry and Academia to explore novel area of this phytohormonal family.
2017:
Dr. Stefan Hildbrand, Dr. Gösta Rimmler, Dr. Daniel Fishlock, Dr. Pankaj Rege, Dr. Carsten Peters, Dr. Christian Mössner, Dr. Ralph Diodone and Dr. Markus Schantz, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG
...for the development of an efficient industrial synthesis of Idasanutlin (a MDM2 antagonist for treatment of cancer) via a Cu(I)-catalyzed [3+2] Asymmetric Cycloaddition.
2016:
Dr. Martin Weibel, Sika Technology AG, Dr. Thomas Müller, Sika Deutschland GmbH, Dr. Ratan K. Mishra, ETH Zürich, Prof. Robert J. Flatt, ETH Zürich, Prof. Hendrik Heinz, University of Colorado Boulder
...for their experimental and modelling studies of new commercial organic additives for the grinding of inorganic solids.
2015
Dr. Stefan Abele, Dr. Jacques-Alexis Funel and Dr. Gunther Schmidt from Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Prof. Roger Marti, Hochschule für Technik und Architektur Fribourg, Dr. Christian Mössner, Mischa Schwaninger, Swissi Process Safety, a member of TÜV SÜD Group
...for the conception and successful scale-up of Diels–Alder reactions and organocatalysis leading to enantiomerically pure 5-phenylbicyclo[2.2.2]oct-5-en-2-one, a key intermediate for the production of an L/T calcium channel antagonist.
2014
Dr. Harald Walter, Dr. Hans Tobler, Dr. Camilla Corsi, Dr. Denis V. Gribkov
from Syngenta Crop Protection Münchwilen AG,
... for their successful and innovative efforts in discovering, developing, and producing new broad-spectrum agrochemical fungicides.
2013
Dr. Ralf Duempelmann, Dr. Pascal Steffanut, Dr. Samuel Dagorne, Dr. Stephane Bellemin
Clariant Group R&D and CNRS-Université de Strasbourg
... in recognition of their work on N-heterocyclic carbene based zirconium complexes for use in ring opening polymerization.
2012
Dr. Dirk Spielvogel, Dr. Dietmar Flubacher, Dr. Andreas Boudier, Markus Müller and Dr. Pierre Martin
Solvias AG
...in recognition of the development of an innovative, efficient and fully synthetic process for protoporphyrin IX, a precursor of hemoglobin.
2011
PD Dr. Peter Nesvadba, Dr. Clemens Auschra, Dr. Andreas Mühlebach, Dr. Andreas Kramer, Dr. Frank Pirrung, Dr. Michael Roth und Dr. Ralf Knischka
BASF
...in Anerkennung ihrer Forschung über kontrollierte Polymerisation und neuartige Spezialpolymere.
2010
Dr. Dominique Roberge, Michael Gottsponer, Markus Eyholzer und Dr. Norbert Kockmann
Lonza AG
...in Anerkennung ihrer wegweisenden Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet der Mikroreaktortechnik.
2009
Dr. Lukas Emmenegger, Dr. Norbert Heeb und Dr. Andrea Ulrich
Empa Dübendorf
...in Anerkennung ihrer Forschung über chemische Prozesse in Dieselpartikelfiltern.
2008
Dr. Werner Bonrath, Dr. Reinhard Karge, Dr. Thomas Netscher, Dr. Felix Roessler und Dr. Felix Spindler
DSM Nutritional Products und Solvias
...in Anerkennung der bahnbrechenden Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet der chiralen katalytischen Reduktion zyklischer Anhydride, welche zu einer industriellen Synthese des Biotins führten.
2007
Dr. Souad Boulmaaz, Dr. Jens Geier, Prof. Hansjörg Grützmacher, Dr. Peter Murer, Dr. Hartmut Schönberg, Dr. Reinhard H. Sommerlade, Dr. Daniel Stein, Dr. Thomas Ulrich und Dr. Jean-Pierre Wolf
ETH Zurich and Ciba Speciality Chemicals
...in Anerkennung der Entwicklung neuer umweltfreundlicher und wirtschaftlicher Methoden zur Synthese von Acylphosphanoxiden als Photoinitiatoren.
2006
Dr. Stefan Abrecht, Muriel Cordon Federspiel, Dr. Heinrich Estermann, Dr. Rolf Fischer, PD Dr. Martin Karpf, Dr. Hans-Jürgen Mair, Dr. Thomas Oberhauser, Dr. Gösta Rimmler, René Trussardi und Dr. Ulrich Zutter
F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG
...in Anerkennung ihrer entscheidenden Forschungs- und Entwicklungsarbeiten für die Herstellung von TamifluTM.
2005
Myriam Kuppinger, Iris Obermüller und Bruno Peterhans
DSM Nutritional Products
...in Anerkennung ihrer Arbeiten zur Entwicklung des Sichergheitskonzepts für eine Oxidationsreaktion in reinem Sauerstoff.
2004
Dr. Bernd Herzog, Dr. Dietmar Hüglin, Dr. Helmut Luther, Elek Borsos und Albert Stehlin
Ciba SC
...in Anerkennung ihrer Arbeiten zur Entwicklung neuer UV-Absorber für den kosmetischen Sonnenschutz.
2003
Dr. Peter Moritz, Dr. Lars Götze, Dr. Claudia con Scala, Kurt Breu und Petra Fässler
Sulzer Chemtech
2002
Dr. Jürg Zimmermann, Novartis Pharma, Basel
2001
Prof. U. Spichiger, CCS, ETH Zürich
Dr. Ch. Ludin, Pentapharm, Basel
Dipl.Phys. A.J. Hensel, Bosch-Telecom, D-Ottobrunn
2000
Prof. H. Mimoun
Firmenich
1999
Dr. H.U. Blaser, Dr. H.P. Buser, K. Coers, Dr. R. Hanreich, H.P. Jalett, E. Jelsch, Dr. B. Pugin, Dr. H.D. Schneider, Dr. F. Spindler und A. Wegmann
Novartis Services und Novartis Crop Protection
1998
Dr. J. Gosteli, P. Grogg, Dr. M. Mergler, Dr. R. Nyfeler, R. Tanner
Bachem und Dr. N. Bühler, Dr. H.P. Haerri, Dr. M. Hofmann, Ch. Irrgang, Dr. A. Mühlebach, Dr. B. Müller und F. Stockinger
Ciba Spezialitätenchemie and Ciba Vision
1997
Dres. W. Göhring, S. Gokhale, H. Hilpert, F. Roessier, M. Schlageter und P. Vogt
F. Hoffmann-La Roche
1996
P. Baumeister, W. Meyer, Dr. K. Oertle, G. Seifert und H. Steiner
Ciba-Geigy
1995
Dres. U. Beutler, J. Mazacek, G. Penn, B. Schenkel und D. Wasmuth
Sandoz Pharma
1994
U. Huber, J. Jeisy und Dr. H. Wiederkehr
F. Hoffmann-La Roche