Charlotte Uetrecht is the 2022 recipient of the Mattauch-Herzog Award
On 27 April 2022, CSSB group leader Charlotte Uetrecht (Uni Siegen, HPI and DESY) was granted the Mattauch-Herzog Award for her development of mass spectrometry methods and technologies. The award is presented by the German Mass Spectrometry Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Massenspektrometrie, DGMS) and considered one of the most prestigious scientific awards in analytical science. This is only the second time since its establishment in 1988, that the Mattauch-Herzog Award goes to a woman; Prof. Andrea Sinz received the award in 2004.
The jury of the Mattauch-Herzog Prize noted that Uetrecht’s research represents important advances in mass spectrometric science, especially in the area of further development of native mass spectrometry and the coupling of mass spectrometry and X-ray diffraction. Since the end of her PhD thesis, Uetrecht has been interested in working to adapt native mass spectrometry for sample delivery to X-ray sources. In 2017, she was awarded an ERC Starting Grant to investigate the sampling of protein complex’ conformational space using native mass spectrometry. She also received funding for a Horizon 2020 Project called MS SPIDOC which has focused on developing mass spectrometry for single particle imaging with XFELs.
“I am honored to have received the Mattauch-Herzog Award,” notes Uetrecht “The new technology that my group is developing will enable precise structural investigations of intermediates and transition states in order to understand, for example, the formation of large protein complexes such as virus particles and enzymatic reactions,” explains Uetrecht. Uetrecht recently received funding from the Röntgen-Ångström Cluster (RÅC) for her SAXFELS project, which builds upon her previous projects by combining native mass spectrometry and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS).
“Charlotte not only develops cutting-edge mass spectrometry methods and technologies but she also uses these to understand highly relevant issues such as the supramolecular structure of coronavirus protein complexes,” explains CSSB Scientific Director Kay Gruenewald “Charlotte is an exceptional scientist and I am happy that she has received this recognition for her work.”
