Gerhard Ertl

Gerhard Ertl is a German physicist and a Professor emeritus at the Department of Physical Chemistry, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin, Germany. Ertl's research laid the foundation of modern surface chemistry, which has helped explain how fuel cells produce energy without pollution, how catalytic converters clean up car exhausts and even why iron rusts, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

10 October 1936

Born on the same birth day (10 October): Bernard Mayes • Fridolf Rhudin • Jay Sebring • Jessica Harper • Julius Shulman • Midge Ure • Nicolás Massú • Sami Niku • Thomas Rusch • William Kruskal

Born in the same month (October 1936): Charles Goodhart • Chitti Babu (musician) • James Bevel • Jovan Pavlović • Julius L. Chambers • Sathima Bea Benjamin