Prof. Dr. Largus Angenent - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prizewinner 2023
Bioengineering, University of Tübingen
The Leibniz Prize is awarded to Largus Angenent for his outstanding work in the field of environmental biotechnology through which he has made key contributions to microbial electrochemistry. Angenent is one of the worldwide founders of this field of research and co-founder of the International Society for Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology, established in 2011, which he also chaired as president. His work is highly topical in view of climate change and the resulting need for a sustainable food, chemical and energy economy. For example, Angenent uses the combination of microbial fermentation processes with electrochemistry and synthetic biology to convert organic waste and industrial waste gases into valuable organic products. Angenent has also successfully put his academic accomplishments into practical application through two start-up companies.
Largus Angenent studied environmental science at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, before obtaining his doctorate in environmental engineering at Iowa State University, USA, in 1998. After postdoctoral stays in Illinois and Colorado, he was appointed assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis in 2002. in 2008, Angenent moved to Cornell University, first as an associate professor, and from 2015 as Professor of Biological and Environmental Engineering. The University of Tübingen brought him to Germany as a Humboldt Professor in 2017; he has also been a Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen since 2019.