Richard Zsigmondy was an Austrian chemist who received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1925 for his basic and fundamental research on colloidal systems. Together with Heinrich Siedentopf he invented the ultramicroscope (1903), which was developed to investigate submicron particles. A few years later, Richard Zsigmondy constructed special types of membrane filters (1918-1922). With his new instruments Zsigmondy investigated gold nanoparticles and first defined the term "protective colloid". Beside these instrumental developments he was also investigating fundamental theoretical processes as light scattering or the Brownian motion. The scientific work of Richard Zsigmondy has nowadays many applications in colloid science but even more in biochemistry and bacteriology.
Nowadays, the Colloid Society can honor young German scientists with the Richard-Zsigmondy-Scholarship. Scholarship holders must prove their excellent scientific qualification and should intent to continue their work in the area of the colloid chemistry or similar disciplines. The scholarship consists of a document and a bursary of about 1500 €. The scholarship holder has free disposal over the total amount of money.
Laureates 1961 – 2007
