LAUDATIO

Dedicated to Professor Gerd Meyer on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday

Gerd Meyer, professor at the Universität zu Köln, Germany,celebrated his 60th birthday on June 1st, 2009.

The editors, the publisher, his friends and colleagues congratulate himon this occasion and dedicate this “Festheft” in friendship and in recognition

of his scientific achievements.

Z. Anorg. Allg. Chem. 2009, 635, 809�810 © 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 809

LAUDATIO

Gerd Meyer was born in Schadeck, a small villageclose to Limburg in the state of Hesse, Germany, onJune 1st, 1949. After visiting a single-class elementaryschool in Schadeck and later the GymnasiumPhilippinum in Weilburg, he studied chemistry at theJustus-Liebig-Universität in Gießen obtaining hisdiploma in 1972. Four years later, in 1976, he receivedhis doctoral degree from the same university witha thesis entitled “Beiträge zur Chemie ternärerOxide der Alkalimetalle mit leichten und schwerenÜbergangsmetallen” (“Contributions to the chemis-try of ternary alkali metal oxides with light andheavy transition metals”) under the supervision ofProf. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Rudolf Hoppe. He continuedto work at Gießen as a permanent staff scientist(Akademischer Rat) but his personal research inter-ests in metal halide chemistry took him several timesto the group of Prof. Dr. John D. Corbett, Iowa StateUniversity Ames Laboratory, Ames, IA, USA. Untiltoday Gerd Meyer, enjoying the scientifically stimul-ating atmosphere in the reclusion of Ames, has beenreturning frequently to this place. In 1982, GerdMeyer received the venia legendi at the Justus-Liebig-Universität with a habilitation thesis on the synthesisand crystal chemistry of complex metal halides, andhe started teaching at his alma mater as a Privat-dozent. In 1988 he received offers from the Universityof Groningen and the Leibniz-Universität Hannoverfor chairs in inorganic chemistry. He decided to go toHannover; in 1996 he moved to Cologne where heholds the chair of solid state and coordination chem-istry at the Universität zu Köln. He has servedacademia in various positions and is currently chair-ing the “Mathematisch-NaturwissenschaftlicherFakultätentag”.

Martin Jansen Christian Limberg Thomas Klapötke

www.zaac.wiley-vch.de © 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Z. Anorg. Allg. Chem. 2009, 809�810810

Gerd Meyer is an internationally renowned scientistin the field of rare earth metal chemistry. He hasreceived numerous awards � most recently the GoldMedal of the University Wroclaw and the “TerraeRarae award”. Research activities in the field ofreduced lanthanide halides have led to the discoveryof quite unexpected solid state structures of f-elementcompounds, for example the first trigonal-bipyrami-dal cluster of a rare earth element, and a T4 super-tetrahedron in the system Sc-C-I. He has publishedmore than 550 original papers as well as severalvaluable reviews, and he has both written and editedquite a few books. His broad interest in chemistry ismirrored by his manifold collaboration partnersaround the world, including not only solid statechemists and physicists but also coordination andorganometallic chemists. Students enjoy his graphicand pedagogic way of teaching chemistry. He haseducated more than 60 graduate students, hosted asignificant number of post-docs, and mentored theHabilitation of seven young emerging scientists; mostof them now hold professor positions in Germanyand the US. He has organized several conferences,and particularly likes the annual “Tage der SeltenenErden / Terrae Rarae”, which he has hardly evermissed; this year he is going to host the “InternationalConference on f-Elements” in Cologne.

Gerd Meyer is a member of the InternationalAdvisory Board of our journal, where he haspublished most of his excellent results. We gratefullyacknowledge his steady support, and we join hiscolleagues, students, and friends in wishing himmany more good and successful years of scientificcreativeness and success.