The VDI (Association of German Engineers) has presented Professor Hopmann with the Richard-Vieweg honorary medal – the highest award in VDI's Plastics Technology department. The award has been made since 1978 to personalities who have acquired outstanding merit in the field of plastics technology, and are actively involved in the VDI.
Kurt Gebert, Chairman of the VDI Advisory Board for Plastics Technology, presented the award. Professor Rudolf Stauber, a member of the Board of Management of the VDI Materials Engineering Association, gave the laudatory speech and described Christian Hopmann as an outstanding personality and a "lighthouse in the plastics segment". In his thankyou speech, Hopmann emphasised that, for him, the award represented both the academic and the industrial side of plastics technology. He was, however, worried to observe that science and industry in the plastics segment were alienating themselves from each other, and appealed to both sides to commit themselves in future again more strongly to joint cooperation. The award was made during the course of the VDI Congress "PIAE – Plastics in Automotive Engineering" on June 21-23 in Mannheim.