DFG awards most important prize for researchers in early career phases / Prize en-dowed with €200,000 for the first time / Award ceremony to be held on 16 October 2023 in Berlin

DFG awards most important prize for researchers in early career phases / Prize en-dowed with €200,000 for the first time / Award ceremony to be held on 16 October 2023 in Berlin

Seven female and three male researchers are to receive the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize this year – the most important award in Germany for researchers in the start-up phase of their career. This was decided by the Joint Committee of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) on the recommendation of a selection committee appointed by it. For the first time, the award winners will each receive a significantly increased amount of €200,000 instead of the previous amount of €20,000; this they can use for further research work for a period of up to three years. There is also a 22 percent programme allowance for indirect costs. At this round of awards, the DFG has incorporated the prize firmly in its own funding portfolio, having previously awarded it jointly with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The award ceremony will be held in Berlin on 16 October 2023.

The Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prizes 2023 go to:

• Junior Professor Dr. Isabelle Dolezalek, Art History, University of Greifswald
• Junior Professor Dr. Elina Fuchs, Particle and Atomic Physics, Leibnitz University Hannover and Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Braunschweig.
• Private Lecturer Dr. Michael Homberg, Modern History, Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam
• Dr. Dr. Leif Ludwig, Functional Genome Research, Berlin Institute of Health and Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin
• Dr.-Ing. Giulio Malavolta, Cryptography, Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy, Bochum
• Dr. Bonnie J. Murphy, Structural Biology, Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, Frankfurt/Main
• Dr. Sabine Richert, Physical Chemistry, University of Freiburg
• Junior Professor Dr.-Ing. Clarissa Schönecker, Fluid Mechanics, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau
• Junior Professor Dr. Vera Traub, Discrete Mathematics, University of Bonn
• Junior Professor Dr. Marcella Woud, Clinical Psychology, University of Bochum

Since 1977, the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize has been awarded annually to outstanding researchers who are at an early stage in their scientific career. The award seeks to support and encourage the prizewinners, who do not yet hold a tenured professorship, to continue to pursue their academic career. It is not only their dissertation that is recognised, but in particular whether they have subsequently developed an independent research profile and have produced research results that have enriched their subject-specialist community, giving rise to the expectation that they will be capable of top-level research achievements in the future.

Established in 1980, the prize is named after nuclear physicist and former DFG President Heinz Maier-Leibnitz, during whose term of office (1974-1979) it was first awarded. A total of 171 researchers across all disciplines were nominated this year. The winners were selected by the committee responsible chaired by DFG Vice President and biochemist Professor Dr. Peter H. Seeberger.

The prizewinners in detail:

Junior Professor Dr. Isabelle Dolezalek, Art History, University of Greifswald

Isabelle Dolezalek is a researcher whose work has expanded the field of art history to include the global art history of the Middle Ages. In her dissertation “Arabic Script on Christian Kings”, for example, she provides fundamental new insights into the political, religious and cultural relations in a Middle Ages which is seen as having no national categories or divisions such as “East” and “West“. Dolezalek draws attention to what at first seems to be a minor detail: the Arabic characters on robes worn at the Sicilian court. Via which trade routes and cultural pathways did they get there? Starting from this question, she deciphers the complex political power constellations within which the Sicilian court struggled for its independence. In her more recent projects, Dolezalek has also succeeded in combining work at the university and in museums so as to derive maximum benefits for research as well as for contemporary presentation and communication concepts.

Junior Professor Dr. Elina Fuchs, Particle and Atomic Physics, Leibnitz University Hannover and Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Braunschweig

Through her research work to date, Elina Fuchs has made relevant contributions to two very different but equally highly specialised areas of theoretical physics: firstly theoretical high-energy physics and accelerator-driven elementary particle physics, and secondly the complementary field of high-precision physics of atomic transitions. At the same time, her work has revealed unexpected intersections between the two fields. She does not conduct her research solely at the theoretical level, but always tries to align her results as closely as possible with experimental data or propose experiments herself which can be used to test her theoretical ideas. During her postdoctoral period, for example, Fuchs recommended isotope shift spectroscopy as a highly sensitive measurement in the search for new physics beyond the Standard Model. Based on her achievements, Fuchs was appointed theory coordinator at the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative (QTI) in 2022.

Private Lecturer Dr. Michael Homberg, Modern History, Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam

In his doctoral thesis Reporter-Streifzüge. Metropolitane Nachrichtenkultur und die Wahrnehmung der Welt 1870-1918 [Reporter forays. Metropolitan news culture and the perception of the world 1870-1918], in which he undertakes a comparative analysis of the genesis of a new literary journalism in North America and Western Europe, Michael Homberg already demonstrated his skill for transnational and intercultural issues. He further developed this expertise with his research into the globalisation of working environments in the computer industry in India, the USA and Germany. Here, India’s role – for example in the successful training of programmers and IT experts – is explained based on a combination of political decisions and cultural dispositions, thereby viewing the development of modern information technology from the perspective of the Global South for the first time. With his novel combination of IT history as a prehistory of our present and as a transnational history of interconnectedness, Homberg sets international standards for future research.

Dr. Dr. Leif Ludwig, Functional Genome Research, Berlin Institute of Health and Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin

Leif Ludwig holds a doctorate in biochemistry and medicine and is already influencing a broad field of investigation with his research: he and his lab are developing single-cell sequencing technologies to answer key questions in the area of stem cell biology and mitochondrial genome biology. As a postdoctoral researcher, he worked on so-called cellular heterogeneity and the relatedness of cells. Heterogeneity arises from variations in the genome of cells as they evolve from a less specialised to a more specialised state during differentiation. Ludwig succeeded in answering questions of cellular heterogeneity by adopting new approaches, thereby contributing significantly to the further development of personalised medicine. His work is also helping to advance the mapping of human cell properties such as in the “Human Cell Atlas”.

Dr.-Ing. Giulio Malavolta, Cryptography, Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy, Bochum

Security and privacy are fundamental civil rights in democratic societies, so they are key requirements of modern IT systems, too. Giulio Malavolta’s work has already had a lasting impact on the field of cryptography, which deals with the scientific foundations of information security. He devotes himself to three highly topical, technically demanding and dynamic areas: firstly, he researches into privacy-preserving techniques that are also used in blockchains and cryptocurrencies; secondly, he develops encryption methods that make it possible to calculate functions on encrypted data with a high level of efficiency. Finally, Malavolta is working on digital signatures that can also withstand attacks with quantum computers. In all these areas, he makes theoretically sound contributions while at the same time building bridges to practical applications.

Dr. Bonnie J. Murphy, Structural Biology, Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, Frankfurt/Main

Bonnie Murphy obtained her doctorate in the field of inorganic biochemistry and spectroscopy of complex metalloenzymes that require metal-containing cofactors for the reactions they catalyse. During her time as a postdoctoral researcher, she used cryo-electron microscopy to describe the first structure of the intact mitochondrial enzyme “ATP synthase” at molecular resolution. This is a transmembrane protein that plays an important role in the cellular energy balance and therefore in almost all processes in the organism. With her working group, Murphy was also able to identify other important structures: that of a large enzyme complex that converts CO2 into methane, and the structure of an enzyme that produces hydrogen. Both works are not least significant from the point of view of society since they provide insights for the biotechnological production of chemical energy storage systems and for tackling climate change.

Dr. Sabine Richert, Physical Chemistry, University of Freiburg

Sabine Richert works in the field of molecular spintronics between biophysics and chemistry. The spin or electron angular momentum is an invariable internal particle property and essentially determines the structure of matter. In her research, Richert puts electrons in molecules into different spin states by exciting them with light, and then manipulates them. In this way, she explores the physical and chemical properties of such multi-spin systems. In doing so, she is laying the foundations in the field of spintronics, which will significantly advance quantum technology. Richert uses a special approach here that combines various electron spin resonance methods with fast optical spectroscopy and theoretical calculations. The change of spin states is also of great technical interest because it enables information to be stored and read out in molecules.

Junior Professor Dr.-Ing. Clarissa Schönecker, Fluid Mechanics, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau

Clarissa Schönecker deals with questions of fluid mechanics in miniaturised systems. At this micro level, different physical laws prevail than on a macro scale. To measure the speed of bodies close to the surface, she uses a very sensitive optical measurement method, namely fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. In this way, she has been able to show that the deformability of the surface of a solid has significant effects on the flow around it and on resistance. She also demonstrated that bodies with elastic surfaces accelerate when dropping due to their deformability, instead of reaching a constant speed as is the case with rigid bodies. Even very small deformations change the speed significantly. Her work is relevant to a whole range of technical applications, including catalysis and circuit cooling.

Junior Professor Dr. Vera Traub, Discrete Mathematics, University of Bonn

Vera Traub conducts research at the interface between discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science in the field of combinatorial optimisation. This deals with issues where a particularly good solution is to be found from a large number of individually possible variants. In her dissertation, Traub worked on so-called approximation algorithms to solve the travelling salesman problem, a well-known problem in mathematics in which the shortest circular route between several cities is to be determined without trying out all the variants individually. This usually involves the use of certain algorithms. Traub found a new approach for this based on dynamic programming: her algorithm comes up with significantly better solutions in the same amount of time than previous algorithms are able to. In more recent work, she also deals with the design of networks. In this area, too, Traub has been able to develop new methods which are superior to all previously known methods.

Junior Professor Dr. Marcella Woud, Clinical Psychology, University of Bochum

Trained as a psychological psychotherapist, Marcella Woud’s research explores the extent to which cognitive distortions are crucial to the development of mental disorders. For example, patients suffering from an anxiety disorder tend to evaluate ambiguous situations negatively, which in turn can increase anxiety. Woud consistently pursues a translational research approach. This enables her to translate the mechanisms identified in basic research into appropriate psychological interventions aimed at preventing or treating mental disorders. Through her research, Woud has already greatly influenced the field of research into cognitive distortions, especially interpretive distortions and their inclusion in psychotherapy. She has also contributed to the optimisation of psychotherapy for anxiety disorders, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Further information

The award ceremony for the 2023 Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prizes will take place at the silent green Kulturquartier in Berlin on 16 October. Representatives of the media will receive further details prior to the event.

Information on the 2023 prizewinners will be available shortly at:

• www.dfg.de/maier-leibnitz-preis

Contact:

• DFG Press and Public Relations
  Tel. +49 228 885-2109
  presse@dfg.de

Contact at DFG Head Office:

• Dr. Christina Elger
  Academic Awards
  Tel. +49 228 885-3117
  christina.elger@dfg.de

All press releases relating to the 2023 annual meeting are also available in a digital press folder which is supplemented on an ongoing basis at:

• www.dfg.de/service/presse/jahresversammlung_2023