Joachim Sauer is Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at Humboldt University in Berlin, and external scientific member of the Fritz Haber Institute (Max Planck Society). He is member of several Academies, including the Berlin-Brandenburg (formerly Prussian) Academy of Sciences and the German National Academy Leopoldina, and he holds an Honorary Doctorate (DSc), of University College London.

He applies quantum chemical methods to solve problems in chemistry, in particular in surface science, adsorption and catalysis. For twelve years he was chairman of a Collaborative Research Center dealing with aggregates of transition metal oxides as supported catalysts funded by German Research Foundation and he is co-founder and principal investigator of the Cluster of Excellence “Unifying concepts in catalysis”.

He has published 370 research papers, notably in the area of modeling the structure and reactivity of transition metal oxide catalysts, zeolites and metal-organic frameworks, and he has given 460 invited lectures. In recognition of his scientific achievements, he received the Liebig Medal from the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) and the Francis Gault Award from the European Federation of Catalysis Societies.