Klaus Keil was awarded the Abraham Gottlob Werner Silver Medal in recognition of his extensive research on the mineralogy and geochemistry of extraterrestrial materials. Professor Keil is one of the outstanding petrologists who combined petrography with high-resolution analytical techniques and is among the world's leading cosmochemists. Together with Kurt Fredriksson, Professor Keil pioneered the application and further development of the electron microprobe for the chemical investigation of extraterrestrial samples. As early as the beginning of the 1960s, he carried out systematic studies on the mineral chemistry of chondritic meteorites. These investigations formed the basis for parts of the classification of chondritic meteorites. The quality of the data he produced was so exceptional that they continue to serve as reference data today.

Professor Keil was also one of the leading scientists involved in the study of lunar samples returned by the Apollo missions. His work contributed significantly to the understanding of the Moon's magmatic history. In addition, he served as a participating scientist in the Viking mission to Mars, where he investigated questions related to the Martian regolith. Furthermore, the revolutionary concept that early partial melts of planetesimals could escape through explosive volcanism driven by the expansion of dissolved gases during decompression is based on the work of Professor Keil. Through his research, Professor Keil has contributed more than almost any other scientist to the continuous growth and increasing importance of extraterrestrial mineralogy.