Prof. Liv Hornekær of the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Aarhus University in Denmark has recently been awarded the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Prof. Hornekær studies the chemistry and physics of graphitic surfaces. Her discoveries include: 1) showing how to convert graphene to a 2D semiconductor with patterned surface hydrogenation, and 2) demonstrating that polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are capable of catalytically converting H-atoms to H2-molecules in the interstellar medium by forming super-hydrogenated polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). For more information see the webpage of her research group. Prof. Hornekær will collaborate with scientists in Germany to understand better the fundamentals of graphene surface chemistry.