From the laudation: “The German Mineralogical Society awarded the Abraham Gottlob Werner Silver Medal to Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Friedrich Seifert in recognition of his outstanding scientific contributions to experimental and theoretical petrology, as well as his work on the spectroscopy of minerals and silicate melts. (...) Friedrich Seifert began his career with fundamental experimental and phase-petrological studies of pelitic model systems under pressure and temperature conditions corresponding to rock metamorphism. For this purpose, he designed innovative gas autoclaves and piston-cylinder presses. During research stays at the Geophysical Laboratory in Washington, D.C., he began to investigate the kinetic processes of mineral and rock formation using Mössbauer spectroscopy. (...) In 1986, Friedrich Seifert was appointed the first Director of the newly established Bavarian Geoinstitute in Bayreuth. Supported by the additional award of the Leibniz Prize from the German Research Foundation, Friedrich Seifert developed the institute into one of Germany's leading geoscientific research centers.”