Joachim Sauer Biography

Joachim Sauer, a German quantum chemist and professor emeritus of physical and theoretical chemistry at the Humboldt University of Berlin is the husband of the chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. Also, Sauer is an external scientific member of the Fritz Haber Institute (Max Planck Society) and a member of several Academies, including the Berlin-Brandenburg (formerly Prussian) Academy of Sciences and the German National Academy Leopoldina. 

He holds an Honorary Doctorate of University College London. Joachim is one of the seven members of the board of trustees of the Friede Springer Foundation, together with former German president Horst Köhler and others.

Joachim Sauer Age/Nationality

He was born on 19 April 1949 and is therefore currently 70 years old as of 2019. Being born in Hosena, Brandenburg, Germany, Saucer is of British nationality. His Zodiac sign is Aries.

Joachim Sauer Spouse/ Divorced

On 30 December 1998, Joachim Sauer and his wife, Angela Merkel got married. Professor Sauer had been previously married just like his wife. The two do not have any children together, but Sauer does have two sons, Daniel and Adrian, from a previous marriage.

Since 1998, Sauer and Merkel have been married and living together. According to Bild, their marriage was so secretive that neither brought their parents or friends. The paper reports that even some of Merkel’s closest confidants learned about the wedding from a newspaper.

Joachim Sauer and his wife Angela

Joachim Sauer Family

He was born to Richard Sauer(father) and his mother’s name is not yet known. Sauer was born in Hosena in a small town in the marshy Lusatian countryside between Dresden and Cottbus.

He grew up with his twin sister and an elder brother. His father had trained as a baker in Konditor but worked as an insurance representative.

Joachim Sauer Education

from 1967 to 1972, he studied chemistry from at the Humboldt University of Berlin and, in 1974 was awarded a doctorate in chemistry. Sauer continued to do research there until 1977, when he joined the Academy of Sciences, Central Institute of Physical Chemistry in Berlin, one of the leading scientific institutes of the former GDR (East Germany).

Joachim applies quantum chemical methods to solve problems in chemistry, in particular in surface science, adsorption and catalysis. He was chairman for twelve years 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”.

Sauer 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.

Sauer received the Liebig Medal from the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) and the Francis Gault Award from the European Federation of Catalysis Societies all in recognition of his scientific achievements.

Joachim Sauer Net worth

As of 2019, his estimated net worth is approximately $ 100 K- $ 1 Million. Detailed information about his property, luxuries, cars he owns, houses, the monthly/yearly salary are also not yet known and will be updated as soon as we get to hear from him or from other sources.

Joachim Sauer Trivia

From 1990 to 1991, for a brief time during and after the German reunification, Sauer was the deputy technical director (catalysis and sorption) for BIOSYM Technologies, San Diego/USA (now Accelrys). Until 2002, he remained an advisor for BIOSYM.

Joachim joined the Max Planck Society as head of the Quantum Chemistry Group in Berlin in 1992. He became a full professor of physical and theoretical chemistry at the Humboldt University of Berlin in 1993. In October 2017, he retired from his chair and was succeeded by Martin Schütz, who died the following year. He remains affiliated with the university as a senior research fellow.

Joachim is an active research scientist in quantum chemistry and computational chemistry. Sauer’s computational studies have allowed for a better understanding of the structures and activities of some catalysts such as zeolites, specifically their acid sites, as well as the interpretation of solid-state NMR spectra of nucleus Si-29, and quadrupolar nuclei such as Na-23, Al-27, and O-17.

Among many other honors, he has received the Liebig Medal from the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society) in 2010, the Schrödinger Medal 2019 from the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists (WATOC), and multiple honorary doctorates.

Also, Joachim is a Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Academia Europaea, and the European Academy of Sciences, an Honorary Member of the Israel Chemical Society (ICS), and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, London, UK.