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Awards for Climate Change Projects

“Forum Junge Spitzenforscher”: finalists and organizers.

“Forum Junge Spitzenforscher”: finalists and organizers.
Image Credit: Alexander Rentsch

Early-career researchers from Freie Universität, Humboldt-Universität, and Technische Universität have been awarded prizes for their innovative application ideas in the “Forum Junge Spitzenforscher” competition.

News from Nov 22, 2019

Six teams of early-career researchers from Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Technische Universität Berlin have been honored in the “Forum Junge Spitzenforscher” ideas competition. This year the focus was on climate change. The central question was: What possibilities are there to slow down or even stop climate change and how can already existing consequences of climate change be overcome by application-oriented approaches? The three winning projects deal with sustainable vegetable cultivation, CO2 binding and conversion, and an Open Access textbook. They each received prize money of 10,000 euros. Three other teams each received 2,000 euros for their research projects.

The “Forum Junge Spitzenforscher” competition is organized by Stiftung Industrieforschung and Humboldt-Innovation GmbH, and is aimed at outstanding young researchers in Berlin. For the second time, the competition was organized in cooperation with Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin – partners in the Berlin University Alliance.

The following research projects received awards for their application ideas:

  1. First: Sustainable vegetable production with nitrified urine (Mareike Mauerer, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
  2. Second: CO2 binding and conversion by sunlight (Dr. Oliver Dumele and Niklas Grabicki, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
  3. Third: Open Access Textbook: quality improvement in vegetable production (Dr. Christoph-Martin Geilfus, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Fourth place was awarded to each of the following:

  • Early-warning indicators for tipping points (Prof. Dr. Nikki Vercauteren, Amandine Kaiser, and Davide Franda, Freie Universität Berlin)
  • Electric production of fine chemicals (Dr. Lars Lauterbach, Ammar Al-Shameri, and Dr. Bettina Nestl, Technische Universität Berlin)
  • PHABIO-up (Björn Gutschmann and Dr. Sebastian Lothar Riedel, Technical University Berlin)