Biography of Peyerimhoff
Sigrid Peyerimhoff studied physics, but was already working on quantum chemical calculations for her doctoral thesis. In 1972, she became Professor of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Bonn. For a long time, she was the only woman to hold a chair of this kind.
Sigrid Peyerimhoff was born on 12 January 1937 in Rottweil, the oldest town in Baden-Württemberg. She grew up in Heidenheim an der Brenz, where she completed her Abitur in 1956. She then decided to study physics at Justus Liebig University Gießen, graduating with a diploma in 1961. Among her academic teachers was the renowned physicist Wilhelm Hanle (1901–1993), a student of James Franck (1882–1964). In 1925, Franck shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Gustav Hertz.
For her doctoral thesis at the University of Gießen, Peyerimhoff worked under the supervision of Bernhard Kockel (1909–1987), Professor of Theoretical Physics, on quantum chemical calculations of the hydrogen fluoride molecule. She received her doctorate in 1963.
Peyerimhoff conducted postdoctoral research in the USA until 1967. As a Volkswagen Foundation scholarship holder, she first worked at the University of Chicago with Clemens Roothaan (1918–2019) and Robert Mulliken (1896–1986). In 1966, Mulliken received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his fundamental contributions to the electronic structure of molecules and the chemical bond. Further research visits took Peyerimhoff to Washington State University in Seattle and then—on leave from her position in Gießen—to Princeton University in New Jersey and Michigan State University.
In 1967, she completed her habilitation in theoretical physics at the University of Gießen. She then taught in Gießen for a further two years as a lecturer before moving to Mainz as a senior academic adviser and professor. During this time, she made several visiting stays in the USA at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in Lincoln. There, she and US chemist Robert Buenker (born 1942) had access to a high-performance computer for their complex calculations. Peyerimhoff had a long-standing collaboration with Buenker, who had previously spent time as a visiting professor in Gießen and Mainz. In 1972, in her mid-thirties, Peyerimhoff accepted the chair of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Bonn. For a long time, she remained the only woman in Germany to hold such a chair.
Peyerimhoff made fundamental contributions to ab initio calculations in quantum chemistry. These are methods for solving the Schrödinger equation using only natural constants. This work was also important for environmentally relevant reactions in the atmosphere, such as those involving ozone. In total, Peyerimhoff published around 500 studies in scientific journals and edited volumes. In 1988, she received the Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation, one of Germany’s most prestigious research awards. She became professor emerita at the University of Bonn in 2002.
Peyerimhoff also took on important responsibilities and roles in scientific societies and committees. In 1987, she was a founding member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and from 1990 to 1996 she was Vice-President of the German Research Foundation. In 1999, she was appointed a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, which awarded her the Cothenius Medal in 2007 in recognition of her life’s work. Peyerimhoff is also a member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering, Academia Europaea and the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts. From 2006 to 2009, she was President of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, to which she was elected in 1986.
In 2008, Peyerimhoff was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. The oldest German scientific society, the German Society of Natural Scientists and Physicians, founded in 1822, awarded her the Alexander von Humboldt Medal in 2018.
Since 2020, the Bonn University Foundation has awarded the Sigrid Peyerimhoff Young Scientist Award and the Sigrid Peyerimhoff Research Award. The award recognises not only outstanding research, Peyerimhoff, the founder, explained when the endowment fund was established: “It is also a sign of encouragement, of inspiring people to find the courage to choose a career in science and to dare to pursue it. A path that has given me so much.” Since 2021, the Working Group Theoretical Chemistry of the German Chemical Society has also awarded the Sigrid Peyerimhoff PhD Award for outstanding doctoral theses in theoretical chemistry.
Latest: In 2022, the GDCh awarded Sigrid Peyerimhoff the Erich Hückel Award. Read the interview with the award winner (published in 'Nachrichten aus der Chemie', April 2022).
September 2022: Prof. Sigrid Peyerimhoff (centre) at the awards ceremony with GDCh Past President Prof. Peter R. Schreiner and laudator Prof. Dr. Christel Marian.
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