EFC Award Winners

Michael Rohwerder is head of the corrosion research group at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH (MPIE) in Düsseldorf (Germany). He studied Physics at the University of Hamburg and obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Düsseldorf. Postdoctoral stays followed at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Erlangen. In 2000, he joined MPIE, where he mainly works on electrochemical reactions on surfaces and at interfaces, corrosion and self-healing coatings. He was awarded a Christian Doppler Laboratory (CDL for Diffusion and Segregation, 2008–2014), where he developed novel Kelvin probe-based methods for highly sensitive and spatially resolved hydrogen detection and studying electrochemical reactions buried interfaces.

Michael is member-at-large of the Corrosion Division of the Electrochemical Society and editor of Materials & Corrosion. His corrosion research at MPIE is covering a wide range from novel zinc alloy coatings, self-healing organic coatings, hydrogen in metals to high-temperature grain boundary oxidation. Key to his research are dedicated model experiments and the development of new experimental techniques, which extend also towards fundamental electrochemistry. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and has an h-index of 40.

Wolfram Fürbeth is a proven expert in research and teaching in the field of aqueous corrosion and corrosion protection. The EFC members want to underline his positive and long-term devotion to the EFC, especially his active involvement in a wide range of EFC activities for more than 10 years with the aim to serve its members and the corrosion community, in particular as Chair of WP 14 (Coatings), but also as STAC Chair during six years through one of the most challenging times Europe has faced during the last few decades and helping establishing a new format like the virtual EUROCORR and his contribution as co-organiser of EFC conferences like EUROCORR 2022 in Berlin and AETOC 2017 in Billerbeck near Münster (Germany).

Beside many other contributions to the field of corrosion science and engineering, EFC especially recognised his outstanding accomplishment with his contribution to various standards and industry publications such as ISO 17781 “Quality control of duplex stainless steels”, EEMUA 218 “Quality of duplex stainless steels”, Energy Institute guidelines for corrosion management and external corrosion protection, and EEMUA 194 “Subsea materials & corrosion control”.

EFC would also like to underline his positive and long‐term devotion to the EFC, especially his active involvement in a wide range of EFC activities, particularly as Chair of the Working Party 13 on “Oil and Gas” from 2013 to 2017, Chair of the EFC Task Force “Corrosion in green and low carbon energy technologies” since its inception in 2019, significant contribution to EFC initiatives and events, including the EFC Position Paper on “Corrosion challenges towards a sustainable society", the collaboration with China in organising the International Conference on Corrosion Protection and Application in 2022, and participation in the EFC Summer School in 2022.