Arndt Simon
# Arndt Simon

Arndt Simon (born 14 January 1940) is a German inorganic chemist. He was a director at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart.

## Life

Simon studied Chemistry at the University of Münster from 1960-1964. He worked on his doctoral thesis in the group of Harald Schäfer from 1964-1966 and finished his habilitation in 1971. In 1972, he was appointed as an associate professor at the University of Münster. Starting in 1974, he was a member of the Max-Planck Society and one of the directors at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart. Since 1975, he was a honorary professor at the University of Stuttgart. Since 2010, he has been an emeritus.

## Research

Simon worked on a wide range of topics in inorganic chemistry:

* Alkali Metal Suboxides
* Subnitrides of Alkaline Earth Metals
* Metal-rich Halides and Oxides of Heavy d-Metals
* Condensed Clusters
* Interstitial Atoms in Metal Clusters
* Metalrich Binary and Ternary Halides of Lanthanides
* Thorium Cluster Compounds
* Intermetallic Compounds (Pauling-Simon Rule)
* Structures and Phase Transitions in Molecular Crystals
* Structure Property Relations (Photo Cathodes, Amorphous Metals, Magnetic Order and Frustration, Spin Crossover, Spin Glasses)
* Superconductivity
* Apparatus Development (Guinier-Simon Camera, Area Detector Diffractometer)

## Awards

Simon was awarded a number of awards and honorary doctorates:

* 1972 Chemistry Award of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities
* 1985 Wilhelm Klemm Award of the Society of German Chemists
* 1987 Otto Bayer Award
* 1990 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
* 1998 Dr. rer.nat. h.c. of Technical University Dresden
* 1998 Dr. rer.nat. h.c. of University (TH) Karlsruhe
* 1998 Centenary Prize, Royal Society of Chemistry
* 2001 Dr. phil. h.c. of Stockholm University
* 2002 Dr. h.c. of Université de Rennes I
* 2004 Sir Nevill Mott Lecture, University of Loughborough
* 2004 Liebig-Denkmünze of the Society of German Chemists
* 2011 Terrae Rarae Award

He is also a member of several academies of sciences:

* 1989 Member of the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz (Corresponding Member since 1994)
* 1990 Member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
* 1990 Member of the Academia Europaea
* 1992 Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
* 1998 Member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
* 1998 Foreign Member of the French Academy of Sciences
* 2003 Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Research Society of India
