Presidium of the University of Paderborn honours 21 scientists with prizes and scholarships
The University of Paderborn regularly awards prizes and scholarships to promote the top research of its scientists, to advance innovative projects of its teachers and to support young scientists. In a small ceremony, the Presidential Board has now honoured 21 scientists for excellent research achievements, outstanding doctoral projects and pioneering teaching concepts. "Exceptional achievements and outstanding commitment deserve recognition," agreed Prof. Dr. Johannes Blömer, Vice President for Research and Young Scientists, and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Volker Schöppner, Vice President for Studies, Teaching and Quality Management, at the award ceremony. The majority of the honourees attended the ceremony in person in the Auditorium maximum, while some of them received their congratulations digitally.
Graduate scholarships for outstanding doctoral projects
The university management has awarded several scholarships to support particularly qualified young scientists who have achieved above-average performance in their studies and whose doctoral projects are expected to make an important contribution to research. Under the chairmanship of Prof. Dr. Johannes Blömer, the Research Commission recommended the sponsorship of seven applicants. All scholarship holders will thus receive a basic monthly grant of 2,000 euros each.
The two cultural scientists Alexander Reuter, who is working on the Hamburg open-mic scene as a place of creative networking and low-threshold stage access for artists, and Paula Schlüter, who is working on the topic "Analyzing Composers: Studies in Musical Analysis in the Context of the European Post-war Avant-Garde." Also receiving awards were Rundong Zhou, Faculty of Natural Sciences, who is studying "Immobilized Frustrated Lewis Couples and their Application in Hydrogenations and Organic Hydrogen Storage," and Lukas Wiechers, Faculty of Economics, for his paper "Analysing Asset Price Misevaluations and Bubbles - Theory and Empirical Detection." In addition, the President's Office awarded a three-year doctoral fellowship in gender studies to Farah Bouamar, Faculty of Cultural Studies, who is conducting research on the relationship between gender and religion in Maghrebi Francophone, South Asian Anglophone, and German-language novels and films. A final fellowship, which provides for a funding period of one year, was awarded to Julia Mühl-Sawatzki for her thesis "Individual and Community - A Social Ontological and Phenomenological Investigation of the Meaning of the Individual for the Social Community According to Gerda Walther" and to Nina Jaeschke, who is writing her doctoral thesis on German Punk Rock and Gender. Both are from the Department of Cultural Studies.
Awards for young scientists
In addition, the Executive Board honoured for the first time two scientists who lead a junior research group funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Through this award, the university management would like to pay special tribute to the achievements of its young scientists with strong research skills.
On the one hand, Dr.-Ing. Julia Timmermann, who heads the junior research group "Data-driven methods in control engineering" (DART) at the Heinz Nixdorf Institute of the University of Paderborn, was honoured. Together with her team, she investigates how artificial intelligence (AI) can be profitably applied in the field of control engineering. On the other hand, Dr. Christoph Vogelsang received the award for his junior research group "PERFORM-LA: Performance-oriented Professionalization in Teacher Training". Together with his colleagues, he is researching how teaching and examination procedures in teacher training can be made more action-oriented.
Prizes for innovation and quality in teaching
In addition, the Executive Board awarded several academics the "Promotion Prize for Innovation and Quality in Teaching" for their novel approaches to improving university teaching. With this award, the university management wants to encourage the testing and implementation of innovative concepts. Dr. Benjamin Inal from the Institute of Romance Languages and Literatures received the award and the associated funding of approximately 40,000 euros each for his project "Sprechen hoch³: fremdsprachlich sprechen - kompetent reflektieren - empirisch forschen. A university didactic concept for the development of video-supported reflection competence on orality in Spanish classes". Prof. Claudia Tenberge from the Department of Physics was also honoured for her project that focuses on digital education with learning robots in university teacher training, as well as Prof. Stefan Müller and Christopher Pietsch, both from the Department of Law in the Faculty of Business and Economics, for their joint project on visualising legal content and structures in the form of a digital three-dimensional map.
Funding for the digitalisation of university teaching
In order to promote digital teaching, learning and testing at universities and to adapt study programmes to a world of life and work that is increasingly shaped by digitalisation, the university management also awarded "Fellowships for Innovations in Digital University Teaching" (DigiFellows) and project funding in the funding line "Curriculum 4.0" for the first time. The Ministry of Culture and Science (MKW) of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Stifterverband provide funding for this. Under the chairmanship of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Volker Schöppner, the Commission for Studies, Teaching and Quality Management decided on three projects from the fields of mathematics, teacher training and nutrition, consumption and health.
The Executive Board awarded Prof. Dr. Lena Wessel and Dr. Birgit Griese, both from the Institute of Mathematics, as DigiFellows 2021. With their project, the researchers want to improve substantive, critical discussions in subject didactic online teaching for mathematics teaching studies. To this end, they will receive a one-year grant of approximately 50,000 euros. Two projects are receiving funding in the "Curriculum 4.0" programme, which promotes the reorientation and further development of study programmes: Prof. Dr. Rebekka Schmidt, Prof. Dr. Uta Häsel-Weide and Prof. Dr. Claudia Tenberge will receive funding of approximately 80,000 euros for the next two years for their project "Designing Education for the Digital World in the Paderborn Teaching Profession" (BigiLeg UPB). The overarching goal of the project is to meet the demands on teacher education that are changing due to increasing digitalisation. In addition, the Presidential Board is supporting the project "Nutrition and Home Economics 4.0 - Teacher:ing Education Digitally and Language-Educationally for Vocational Schools" (EHW 4.0) by Prof. Dr. Kirsten Schlegel-Matthies, Freya Dehn, Anja Meyer and Prof. Dr. Constanze Niederhaus with approx. 80,000 euros as well. In this project, the researchers are developing transdisciplinary online lessons to prepare students for digital, subject-specific and language teaching at vocational schools in the migration society.
