Since the award was introduced in 1985, up to ten outstanding researchers have been honored each year. As an expression of confidence in their future reseaarch, the award winners each receive 2.5 million euros in research funding for their work – and thus “unlimited freedom” for their research.

"We see the Leibniz Prizes as a very strong sign of cutting-edge research in Berlin. We are proud that two outstanding researchers from Berlin University Alliance, Prof. Barbara Vetter and Prof. Klaus Robert Müller, have been honored and congratulate them on this award," said Prof. Dr. Günter M. Ziegler, spokesperson for the Berlin University Alliance, president of Freie Universität Berlin, and himself a Leibniz Prize winner.

• Prof. Dr. Barbara Vetter (Freie Universität Berlin, Philosophy)

Barbara Vetter has been Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin since 2017. She works primarily in analytical metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of language, with a particular focus on abilities and potentialities as the basis of modality. After studying at Oxford and completing her doctorate in 2010, she held positions in Duisburg-Essen, at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and in Erlangen-Nuremberg before returning to Berlin. There, she took over as head of the Institute of Philosophy, among other things. She is co-spokesperson for the research group “Human Abilities,” has participated in several third-party funded projects, and received the Stegmüller Prize in 2015. In the same year, she published her monograph “Potentiality: From Dispositions to Modalities”.

• Prof. Dr. Klaus-Robert Müller (Technische Universität Berlin, Computer Science)

Klaus-Robert Müller is a pioneer in artificial intelligence who has specialized in AI in the sciences (including digital pathology and quantum chemistry) for 30 years and enjoys a very high international reputation. In order to gain new insights in the sciences through AI, he has established a new field—explainable AI—which allows us to look inside so-called deep neural networks and understand how they solve problems. Among other things, this ensures that they do not “cheat.” Together with Prof. Dr. Volker Markl, he is director of The Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD) research center at Technische Universität Berlin and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. He is also one of the project leaders of the Berlin Cluster of Excellence “MATH+” and a member of the Leopoldina, the German National Academy of Sciences, as well as the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

The Berlin University Alliance

The Berlin University Alliance—a network of excellence comprising Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin—is positioning Berlin as one of the world’s leading knowledge and innovation hubs for integrated collaboration across various disciplines and sectors of society. Together, this ecosystem contributes to the sustainable success of major transformations. The Berlin University Alliance is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMFTR) and the State of Berlin as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments.

Contact

• Suhana Reddy, Head of Communication of Berlin University Alliance, Email: suhana.reddy@berlin-university-alliance.de