History

The Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation has endowed the international Heinrich Wieland Prize (HWP) since 2011. In 2024, to mark the 60th anniversary of the prize, the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation raised the prize money to 250,000 euros. The award is the most prestigious prize of the foundation, which also endows the Boehringer Ingelheim Prize and awards for PhD students at the University of Mainz, Germany. The HWP is awarded for outstanding research on biologically active molecules and systems in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry, and physiology, as well as their clinical importance.

Before the Foundation endowed the prize, it was sponsored by the company Boehringer Ingelheim (2001 to 2010) because of the company's close ties to its namesake Heinrich Wieland. During its ten-year period, the company extended the scope of the prize and raised the prize money to 50,000 euros.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Heinrich Wieland Prize in 1989, a Heinrich Wieland “Medal in Gold” was initiated. So far it has been awarded four times.

The Heinrich Wieland Prize was first awarded in 1964 by the Margarine Institute, an organisation dedicated to the scientific information about lipids and nutrition. The prize originally honoured outstanding research on the chemistry, biochemistry, and physiology of lipids as well as their clinical relevance. The first laureate was Prof. Dr Erich Klenk of the University of Cologne, Germany. In 2014 Reinhard Jahn was the 65th Heinrich Wieland Laureate.