We are delighted to announce that Professor Gerhard Ertl, of the Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin, has accepted our invitation to join the PCCP Honorary Board.  Professor Ertl has a long history of involvement with PCCP and served on the Advisory Board from 1999 to 2002. Prior to that he was a member of the Faraday Transactions  Editorial Board  and has been a regular contributor to  Faraday Discussions. This included delivering the Spiers Memorial Lecture at Faraday Discussion  121 in 2002 when he was the RSC Spiers lecture and prize winner.

Professor Ertl won the 2007 Nobel Prize for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces.  His groundbreaking research showed chemists it was possible to understand the fine details of what gas molecules do at the solid surfaces of metals. He worked out the role of metal catalysts in industrial reactions such as the making of artificial fertilizer. But he also pioneered the study of surfaces in many chemical processes: from ozone destruction in the atmosphere and cars' exhaust-cleaning catalytic converters, to the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, and materials for the electronics industry.

Professor Ertl is the seventh member of the Board, joining Professors Eigen, Ernst, Jortner, Kroto, Miller and Zare, and we are delighted to have his support.