Preface

Excerpt

This volume of Topics in Catalysis entitled “Catalyst Characterization by Vibrational Spectroscopy” is dedicated to the memory of Helmut Knözinger, a passionate catalysis researcher and surface spectroscopist, who made significant contributions in several areas of catalysis by developing and by applying characterization methods. Helmut Knözinger passed away in January 2014, after a long and successful career as university professor in Physical Chemistry, as detailed by Che, Ertl, Hadjiivanov and Gates in Advances in Catalysis 57 (2015) xi. He began his higher education with studies in Physics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, where he obtained his doctoral degree in 1961 and completed his habilitation in 1967. He continued his career at LMU and became Professor in 1980. While Helmut Knözinger engaged in numerous collaborations near and far and visited many research laboratories around the world, he stayed true to his Alma Mater throughout his active career and even past retirement. …