A visiting UCSB professor from Germany recently received the most prestigious research prize his country has to offer.

Frank Allgoewer, a visiting professor in the Dept. of Chemical Engineering, was awarded the Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz Prize on Dec. 11 by the German Research Foundation. The prize – which includes a monetary reward valued at $1.85 million and is often referred to as the “German Nobel Prize” – was established in 1906.

Allgoewer is currently working with faculty in the Center for Control Engineering and Computation, and the newly formed Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies. His research interests include nanosystems technology and systems biology, a field emerging from a combination of modern molecular biology and systems sciences. His work focuses on nonlinear systems with applications including chemical process control and electromechanical systems control.

“It is very rare for engineers to receive this award,” Allgoewer said in a statement, “so I am very proud and happy. It is not only nice for me but good for the field.”

Allgoewer, who will be at UCSB until March, is being hosted by Frank Doyle, professor of chemical engineering. Allgoewer hosted Doyle when he studied at the University of Stuttgart from 2001 to 2002.

“Frank’s research work is helping to define the most promising future directions in systems engineering, and is a nice blend of elegant mathematical theory combined with complex interdisciplinary applications,” Doyle said in a statement.