Prof. Gurvan Michel received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Prize certificate from the President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

This week, Prof. Gurvan Michel, CNRS research director at the Laboratoire Biologique de Roscoff in Britanny, France, and currently guest professor at our Institute in Münster, received the certificate for the award of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, at the annual AvH Research Awards Winners Symposium held in Bamberg. He was among more than sixty prize winners from all academic disciplines and from all parts of the world, recognized for their leading contribution to international research. In his laudatio, AvH President Prof. Hans-Christian Pape (coincidentally also from our university) recognized Prof. Michel as an internationally renowned expert on the enzymatic modification and degradation of algal cell wall polysaccharides. The selection committee highlighted his important contributions to the understanding of the evolution of plant and algal cell walls. Representing one of the early playgrounds of evolution, algae are a molecular treasure trove which we are only beginning to understand, let alone exploit. In Münster, Prof. Michel collaborates with us in his quest for new modifying enzymes to be used as tools for the biotechnological exploitation of algal polysaccharides as precious functional biopolymers.