Yolanda Salinas and Richard Küng were presented with the 2022 Natural Sciences Awards.

As part of a ceremony at the Archbishop's Palace in Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn presented Assoz. Univ. Prof. Dr Richard Küng (Institute for Integrated Circuits) and Priv.-Doz. Dr. Yolanda Salinas (Institute of Polymer Chemistry) with the distinguished award.

The award, endowed with €2,000 in prize money, is presented annually to outstanding young Austrian scholars under the age of 40 in support of advancing science.

Every year, the "Austrian Chemical Society" (GÖCH) and the "Austrian Academy of Sciences" (ÖAW) honour a habilitation in the field of chemistry distinguished by special interdisciplinary work. This year, Priv.-Doz. Dr. Yolanda Salinas Soler was awarded this Habilitation Prize for Chemistry 2022 for her work on "Hybrid functional organic-inorganic materials for nanomedicine and optoelectronics".

Yolanda Salinas habilitated in October 2021 at the Institute of Polymer Chemistry (ICP) in the group of Prof. Oliver Brüggemann in the subject Polymer Chemistry and Materials Chemistry.

The prize is endowed with 2,000 euros. The award ceremony took place at the GÖCH General Assembly during the "Austrian Chemistry Days 2022" in Vienna. The meeting was held under the motto "Green Chemistry for Sustainable Europe" and was chaired by GÖCH President Prof. Peter Gärtner.