Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin
The Power List 2020 – Europe
Director of the Research Unit Analytical BioGeoChemistry at Helmholtz Zentreum Muenchen, Germany and Director of the Foodomics Platform at the Institute of Analytical Food Chemistry, Technical University of Munich, Germany
Reason for pursuing analytical science: Louis Pasteur. He was a scientific inspiration to me for his humanistic and integrative curiosity in the fields of microbiology and health, fermentation, molecular asymmetry, the emergence of life using up-to-date analytical sciences, and (still very relevant in 2020) his pioneering work with infectious diseases.
Greatest inspiration: Alexander von Humboldt. For his interest and input in both chemistry and biology, and as a pioneer of biodiversity and systematics in his various explorative expeditions. To this day, he inspires many in my field to apply systems chemical analytics in the highest analytical resolution for exploring chemodiversity in various health-related studies and geosciences.
Future of the field: A multidimensional, big-data world in the highest chemical resolution mined with the help of AI – but still reliant on human brains…
Nominator comment: For his outstanding achievements in the description of complexity, and complex chemistry, in systems subjected to biotic and abiotic transformations.
