Heinrich Wieland Prize

The Heinrich Wieland Prize is awarded annually by the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation for outstanding research on biologically active molecules and systems in the areas of chemistry, biochemistry and physiology as well as their clinical importance.

In 1963, the Margarine Institute established the Heinrich Wieland Prize to support research in the field of lipids. In 2000, the Margarine Institute ended its sponsorship of the Prize and the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim became the new sponsor. In 2011, the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation took over the prize.

The awardee is selected by a scientific board of trustees. The prize is named after the Nobel Prize Laureate in chemistry Professor Heinrich Wieland (1877-1957), one of the leading lipid chemists of the first half of the 20th century. To mark its 50th anniversary in 2014, the prize money was raised to 100,000 euros.

Four of its awardees have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize: Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein (1974), Bengt Samuelsson (1981) and James E. Rothman 1990.