This was the first time that a university instructor has been awarded for his accomplishments during his time as a junior professor. The prize is worth 5,000 Euro and was awarded in 2010 year for the 26th time.

Professor Wiese conducted further investigations into a relationship between geometry and number theory that was only recently proven, though it was first proposed in the 1970s: the “Serre Conjecture”. He found a solution to the unsolved problem of “multiplicity 1” for Galois representations of modular forms.

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The renowned chemist was accepted as a Fellow in the European Academy of Sciences and as a corresponding member in the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Until his retirement in 2002, Schmid held the Professorship for Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

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For his outstanding contributions in the continuing development of filter and membrane technologies, which make it possible to extensively remove particles during drinking water preparation, Professor Rolf Gimbel, Director of the Department of Process Engineering / Water Technology at the University of Duisburg-Essen, received the Willy Hager Medal in 2010.

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For his investigation of malignant melanoma, Professor Dirk Schadendorf of the University of Duisburg-Essen received the German Cancer Award in the category of “Clinical Practice”. Since 2008, he has directed the Clinic for Dermatology, Venereology and Allergology at the Essen University Clinic.

The German Cancer Society presents this renowned prize in the categories of clinical, experimental and translational practice for outstanding scientific achievement and current as well as forward-looking work in the field of oncology. The focus of Professor Schadendorf’s scientific and clinical work is black mole cancer, or melanoma.

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From the Himalayas to the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) to the skyscrapers of Manhattan: A native of Nepal, Dr. Giriraj Jnawali successfully completed his doctoral degree in the Ruhrgebiet and now, as the recipient of the Feodor Lynen Scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, this exceptional scientist will travel to New York City. Afterward he will continue his research at UDE. The 35-year-old received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Tribhuvan University Kathmandu in Nepal. For his master’s he ventured out on his first great journey and completed a degree in Nanoscience at the University of Hanover. In the past year, the physicist received his Ph.D. summa cum laude at UDE in the department of chaired by Prof. Dr. Michael Horn-von Hoegen, where he has worked since 2005. The research unit focuses on the physics of nanostructures on silicon surfaces.

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For his outstanding achievements related to analogue circuits and sensor systems, Professor Dr. Bedrich Hosticka, recently retired Professor for Microelectronic Systems and Microsystem Technology at the University of Duisburg-Essen, was honored by the professional association of engineers in the fields of electrical engineering and information technology with the honorable award of IEEE Fellow. With more than 375,000 members in over 160 countries, IEEE, headquartered in New York City, is one of the largest technical professional associations in the world. IEEE hosts conferences, publishes various journals and forms committees for the standardization of technologies, hardware and software.

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Image Source: Forschungszentrum Jülich

Professor Claus M. Schneider was honored with a special French-German science award which acknowledges the border-crossing exchange of ideas. In April 2010, he received the Gay Lussac Humboldt Prize in Paris in honor of his scientific work and accomplishments in French-German scientific cooperation. The €25,000 prize is awarded annually by the French Ministry of Education and Research and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to four or five German and French scientists from all research disciplines. Professor Schneider teaches the fundamentals of magnetism at the University of Duisburg-Essen and is also the director of the Institute for Solid State Research at the Forschungszentrum Jülich. .

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Synthetically manufactured and with hand-tailored properties, “meta-materials” have enormous potential. “The future belongs to them,” says Dr.-Ing. Andreas Rennings. Part of the Department of General and Theoretical Electrical Engineering at the University of Duisburg-Essen, this scientist is someone who would know. The young researcher participates in several projects that, with the help of meta-materials, promise improvements for radar sensor technology and medical technology. He has already received several awards for these projects and has now earned another one: Rennings was awarded the €3,000 Doctoral Dissertation Prize from the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies of North-Rhine Westphalia.

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For his outstanding contribution to aerosol research, Professor Heinz Fissan has been honored with the renowned Benjamin Y.H. Liu Award. The award was presented at the AAAR (American Association for Aerosol Research) 2009 Annual Conference on October 29th, 2009, in Portland, Oregon. The Benjamin Y.H. Liu Award recognizes outstanding contributions to aerosol instrumentation that have significantly advanced the science and technology of aerosols.

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Physicist Professor Hans Werner Diehl of the University of Duisburg-Essen has been honored with the title of Fellow of the American Physical Society. The certificate of appointment recognizes, in particular, his fruitful and long-lasting contributions to the understanding of the universal critical behavior related to surfaces and interfaces. The renowned American Physical Society (APS) represents the interests of its 46,000 members. Professor Diehl has investigated, among other things, forces caused by fluctuations: “Casimir” forces. These kinds of forces appear between components in nanotechnology. Through targeted changes in geometry and by introducing fluids, these tiny components, which previously stuck together, could be become usable in future.

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Dr. Manuel Blickle, a mathematician at the University of Duisburg-Essen, has received the €5,000 Gottschalk Diederich Baedeker Prize, which was presented for the 25th time in 2009. In his distinguished professorial dissertation (Habilitation), the award winner investigates the singularities of algebraic spaces in positive characteristic. A singularity is a place where a mathematical object displays some kind of anomaly. He investigates these anomalies with the help of the p-ten power transformation, which is very important in positive characteristic.

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The Sievert Award is one of the highest awards presented in the field of radiation protection research. Former rector Professor Christian Streffer has been honored by the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA) for his life’s work. He is the second German to receive this prize. The retired scientist from the University of Duisburg-Essen conducted important investigations into the effects and risks of radiation. His research also focused on the experimental foundation for radiation therapy.

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The €5,000 Gottschalk Diederich Baedeker Prize was presented this year to physicist Dr. Cedrik Meier (34) of the University of Duisburg-Essen. The Lord Mayor of Essen, Dr. Wolfgang Reiniger, presented the prize on May 30, 2008 in the library of the university. In his distinguished professorial dissertation (Habilitation) “Novel Photonic Materials,” the award winner shows how light can be confined to a very small space, in wavelength format, with the help of semiconductors. This requires specially developed periodic structures that can also be used as a new kind of laser with nanometer-size dimensions. The article’s findings could contribute to the more efficient design of electronic components in the future.

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Dr. Ulrich Goertz, 35, researches in the field of arithmetic algebraic geometry.

DFG

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Professor Joachim Herbertz, ultrasound and acoustics expert at the University of Duisburg-Essen, received the Rudolf Martin Honorary Certificate at the 34th German Annual Conference for Acoustics (DAGA) in Dresden. The German Institute for Standardization (DIN) and the Association of German Engineers (VDI) expert committee honored Herbertz’s extraordinary achievements in standardization in the field of acoustics, noise reduction and vibration engineering.

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Professor Gerhard Frey of the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Duisburg-Essen, has been presented with an honorary doctorate from the University of Tübingen for his groundbreaking discoveries in the number theory of elliptical curves and for his decisive contributions to the solution of the “problem of the century”: Fermat’s Last Theorem. Impressive understanding of his field, high creativity and mathematical ideas that range from the solution of a fundamental mathematical problem to applications in safety engineering are all characteristic of the mathematician, according to the speech in his honor, as is his forward-looking influence on the landscape of German science..

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Other Awards and Honors:

1998 Acceptance into the Academy of Sciences
Awarded the Gauß Medal

For his groundbreaking contributions to the study of ozone depletion, chemist Prof. Dr. Reinhard Zellner has received an honorary doctorate in the Department of Physics from the National and Kapodistrian University in Athens. Professor Zellner is Chairman of the Board of the Center for Microscale Environmental Systems (CME) at the University of Duisburg-Essen and coordinates the German Research Foundation focus program for research into the effects of nanoparticles. The scientist has also made a name for himself in publications on the microphysics and chemistry of atmospheric aerosols. The honor from the Athenian university underscores the Zellner’s international importance and also enhances the scientific work at CME.

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The €5,000 Euro Gottschalk Diederich Baedeker Prize in 2007 went to chemist and assistant professor Dr. Nils Hartmann for his professorial dissertation at the University of Duisburg-Essen. In his work, the nano-researcher developed new laser procedures that enable the creation of functional structures that are a multiple smaller than the current laws of optics allow. This makes it possible to build microscopic structures from components that are no larger than a few millionths of a millimeter.

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Reint de Boer was Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering at the former University of Essen until his retirement in the spring of 2001. He has now been honored by the University of Stuttgart with the honorary title of Dr.-Ing. The university recognizes de Boer’s outstanding service in his field, above all his work related to the “Theory of Porous Media”, which was significantly shaped by de Boer and his students. Using this theory, flow and diffusion processes in fluid- and gas-saturated, elastic-plastic deformable solids with porous microstructures can be analyzed mathematically and described numerically. This makes it possible to solve a multitude of complex problems whose scope extends from the consolidation problems of geotechnics to the biomechanics of soft tissue. Reint de Boers has cultivated close contact with the engineers at the University of Stuttgart and has significantly influenced their work on “porous media”. With the honorary doctorate, the University of Stuttgart honored this relationship as well as de Boer’s work on the history of mechanical engineering.

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The Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) presented one of the coveted NanoFuture prizes to physicist Dr. Cedrik Meier. The young researcher persevered for the second time in the national competition with his project “NanoPhOx - Nanophotonics with Oxides”. With the help of nanotechnology and zinc oxide, Meier wants to change the properties of light to make it possible to produce new building blocks for optoelectronics. For a period of five years, the BMBF will fund NanoPhOx with approximately €1.7 million Euro. The money goes toward developing a group of young researchers and financing positions for one postdoc position and two doctoral candidates. “This project deals with two current and relevant topics that have caused much sensation in the past few years: nanophotonics and the transparent oxide semiconductor zinc oxide (ZnO),” says Meier, “Nanophotonics means being able to control and tailor the properties of light using nanotechnology”.

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The €150,000 Heisenberg Scholarship from the German Research Foundation (DFG) has been presented to political scientist Dr. Claudia Derichs of the University of Duisburg-Essen. In addition to recognizing outstanding scientific service, the three years of funding go to help the recipient prepare for a leadership position. The 41-year-old expert on Asia wants to research a highly-relevant social topic: the role of women in changing Islamic society. With a special look at Muslim women, Dr. Derichs’s research project investigates how elites and civil society can change politics.

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On September 5th, 2006 in the presence of University Rector Prof. Dr. Lothar Zechlin, Premier Jürgen Rüttgers presented Professor Carl Friedrich Gethmann with the Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Professor Gethmann is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Duisburg-Essen and Director of the European Academy for the Study of the Consequences of Scientific and Technological Advance Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH. The award recognizes his outstanding and continuing service for the general good. The focus of his scientific work is applied philosophy, in particular in the fields of technology, environment and medical ethics.

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The $10,000 Fissan Pui TSI Award, presented in 2006 for the first time at the International Aerosol Conference in Minneapolis, went to an outstanding international team of scientists. The award endowed by the measurement technology firm TSI recognizes the exemplary international research work of particle researcher Professor Heinz Fissan of the University of Duisburg-Essen, who for three decades engaged in fruitful academic collaboration with his American colleague Professor David Pui of the University of Minnesota.

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This year the most coveted award in pediatric oncology in the German-speaking world, the Kind-Philipp Prize, went to Dr. Alexander Schramm of the University of Duisburg-Essen. Each year, the Kind-Philipp Foundation for Research on Leukemia awards the best scientific work in the field of pediatric oncology research. The researcher contributed with his work to the improved understanding of the development of neuroblastoma, the second most common tumor in children. His research findings are expected to aid the development of new therapies for diseased patients.

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In 2006, the €5,000 Euro Gottschalk Diederich Baedeker Prize went to mathematician Dr. Phùng Hô Hai for his dissertation at the University of Duisburg-Essen. In his work, Dr. Hai investigates the representation theory of quantum groups - an extension of the term “group”, which, in mathematics, stands for the concept of symmetry. The Gottschalk Diederich Baedeker Prize recognizes outstanding doctoral or professorial dissertations in the fields of natural science or engineering. The G. D. Baedeker Foundation, located in Essen, promotes cultural and scientific projects and is funded by the Sutter-Group.

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In 2004, 368 thousand people in Germany died from heart disease, the country’s leading cause of death. That number would be even higher if the body didn’t have the means to protect the heart when it receives too little oxygen. A previously unknown mechanism was discovered by Prof. Dr. Bodo Levkau of the University of Duisburg-Essen along with his associates: high-density lipoproteins that circulate in the blood and can initiate the dilation of blood-vessels act as “guardian angels” for the heart. The 40-year-old medical scientist has been presented with the €25,000 Paul Martini Prize for his research. The Paul Martini Foundation, located in Berlin, presents the award each year for outstanding service in clinical and therapeutic pharmaceutical research.

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