18 academics at the University of Paderborn honoured with prizes and scholarships
Exceptional research topics and teaching, above-average academic performance or exemplary social commitment: the University of Paderborn recognises the outstanding achievements of its academics every year by awarding various prizes and scholarships. In 2020, a total of 18 academics were able to enjoy an award. However, due to the corona pandemic, the award ceremony could not take place as usual during the University's New Year's Reception, so it has now been made up for.
"It is a special concern of ours to honour the achievements of the scientists appropriately," explains Prof. Dr. Johannes Blömer, Vice President for Research and Young Scientists at the University of Paderborn. For this reason, those responsible organised a small ceremony in the Auditorium maximum in accordance with the currently valid hygiene regulations. Most of the award winners were present on site, some of them were digitally connected via video.
Exceptional and excellent research honoured
Musicologist Prof. Dr. Rebecca Grotjahn was awarded the University's Research Prize, which supports exceptional projects and bold scientific ideas. Her project "Edition Phonographic Music" (Edition of Phonographic Music), which aims to enable a source-critical examination of pop music, will thus receive prize money of 150,000 euros.
The Commission for Research and Young Academics (FK), chaired by Prof. Dr. Johannes Blömer, honoured a total of five academics from various disciplines for their outstanding dissertations. The following were pleased to receive prize money of 2,000 euros each: computer scientist Dr. Lisa Nguyen Quang Do with her work on data flow analysis, cultural scientist Dr. Catalina Hamacher, who researched the cooperation between day care centres for children and early intervention centres, mechanical engineer Dr. Anatolii Andreiev with her work on "Short-time austenitisation of ultra-high-strength steels - a time-efficient method for manufacturing safety-relevant components with improved properties", chemist Dr Charlotte Kielar with her research in the field of DNA nanotechnology, and economist Dr Thomas Hoppe, whose dissertation was written as part of a collaborative project on "control complexity" between LMU Munich and the University of Paderborn.
The German scholar Dr Isabelle Leitloff and the two chemists Dr Ramya Kormath Madam Raghupathy and Dr Bingru Zhang each received a postdoctoral scholarship from the FK. The research projects of the scholarship holders will thus be supported for a period of one and a half years with 2,400 euros each per month.
Prizes for special theses, social commitment and international students
On behalf of the University Society of Paderborn, Chairwoman Heike Käferle presented congratulations and certificates to three students for their special final theses. Anna Hoppe in the category "Engineering and Natural Sciences" and Michelle Müller and Tim Sienert in the category "Humanities and Social Sciences including Economics" were each awarded 1,300 euros.
As a research assistant in the subjects of art and media studies, Yana Lebedeva also stood out due to her intercultural competences and her internal university as well as social and societal commitment. The Russian-born academic received the University Society's Award for International Students, which is endowed with 500 euros.
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) also awards an annual sponsorship prize for international students per university. The commission headed by Prof. Dr. Torsten Meier, Vice President for International Relations, chose the Brazilian Rômulo Luzia de Araújo as the award winner. Thanks to his academic achievements and his extraordinary volunteer work, including in the Rotaract Club and as a member of Eurobiz e.V., he can look forward to prize money of 1,000 euros.
Outstanding commitment to teaching honoured
Finally, the awarding of the Teaching Prize 2020, which normally takes place at the University of Paderborn's "Teaching Day", was made up for at the substitute event in the Auditorium maximum. This award recognises outstanding commitment in teaching as well as in advising and supervising students. Under the chairmanship of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Volker Schöppner, Vice President for Studies, Teaching and Quality Management, the commission decided on three projects from the fields of physics, business education and mathematics didactics. Anna Bauer and Dr. Katharina Brassat are happy about the award and a total of 15,000 euros for their course "Presentation of Subject Content in Physics", Dr. Juliane Fuge with the course "Self-Experience and Self-Reflection to Promote Pedagogical Professionalism" and Max Hoffmann, who presented the course "SiMpLe-Geo: Interfaces in Mathematics Courses for Professional Teacher Training - Geometry".
