Honoring distinguished personalities and academic achievements at FAU
In the run up to the University’s Dies Academicus anniversary celebrations in 2025, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) has once more recognized extraordinary people for their services at and for FAU with the “FAU Awards”. These are this year’s winners of the FAU Awards.
This year, the FAU Awards were presented on October 28, one week before the Dies Academicus. Further information about FAU’s anniversary is available at www.fau.de
Honorary Senator
The title of Honorary Senator is the highest accolade from the University. This year it has been awarded to Peter Kurz and Xue Hong Dong-Geis.
The entrepreneur Peter Kurz is an outstanding partner of FAU. From 2015 to 2023, he was a member of the University Council and was also strongly involved in the University Association. He has long been a supporter of FAU’s Schlossgartenfest and has helped students of chemistry and biological engineering with Deutschlandstipendium scholarships for many years now, facilitating their entry into a career. His contribution to the faculties is also noteworthy. For example, he played a role in the ongoing development of degree programs in materials science and chemical engineering.
Social responsibility is a matter that is close to the heart of the successful entrepreneur Xue Hong Dong-Geis. She has provided generous donations to Uniklinikum Erlangen and FAU for medical applications for 19 years now. She supports cancer research at the Department of Pediatrics and supports talented business and economics students with numerous Deutschlandstipendium scholarships. She is also involved in the high-tech incubator Zollhof.
FAU Ambassadors
This year, the title of FAU Ambassador was awarded to Prof. Harald Haas, Van Eck Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Born in Franconia, Prof. Haas will represent FAU within Germany and abroad at various conferences and presentations. His specialty is data transfer using light. In his current research, he is developing energy-efficient and powerful wireless networks with extremely high data transfer rates. His work is therefore the ideal basis for strengthening connections between FAU and the University of Cambridge.
Renate Wittern Sterzel Prize
The Renate Wittern Sterzel Prize is awarded by FAU in recognition of ideas and projects for promoting equality of opportunity for both women and men and for promoting diversity at the University. This year, the prize has been awarded to the project “From theory to practice: Raising the visibility of our maternity protection lab and strengthening equal opportunities” and the project seminar “Taking a racism-critical approach to deconstructing comics”.
The project “From theory to practice:
Raising the visibility of our maternity protection lab and strengthening equal opportunities”
Dr. Sabrina Gensberger-Reigl and Dr. Hannah Zenker have set up the maternity protection lab at the Chair of Food Chemistry, a room where pregnant and nursing female researchers can be a mother and still continue their research under safe conditions. With this award, FAU would like to underline the crucial role people play in science and acknowledge that science can only succeed in the long term if it protects people.
Project seminar “Taking a racism-critical approach to deconstructing comics”
Together with students of teaching politics and society and current “Lucky Luke” comic artists, Dr. Dominik Herzner has developed new teaching concepts for teaching at schools. This project is unique in its approach combining academic work and popular culture. The teaching materials are not only educationally effective, they also have direct relevance to school students’ real-life experiences. Following the principle of the Renate Wittern Sterzel Prize, the project seminar is making a major contribution to racist-critical and democracy-oriented school education.
Prizes from the Hans-Wilhelm and Helga Schüßler Foundation and the DAAD
International students at FAU who have made a lasting impression whilst studying in Germany thanks to their outstanding academic achievements and commitment to social or intercultural projects are awarded the Hans-Wilhelm and Helga Schüßler prize and the prize from the German Academic Exchange Service (the DAAD prize). This year, the Schüßler prize was awarded to Yifan Bo and the DAAD prize to Ali Elkholey.
The prize from the Hans-Wilhelm and Helga Schüßler Foundation was awarded to the Chinese doctoral candidate Yifan Bo. She has been at FAU since 2019 and is completing her doctoral degree at the Chair of Physical Chemistry I. She has an above-average H-index of 9 – most doctoral candidates would be expected to have an H-index of 4. The H-index measures academic productivity and is calculated on the basis of previous publications and number of citations. Over and above her academic work, she is actively involved in encouraging cultural exchange between Germany and China in Erlangen.
The DAAD prize was awarded to the Egyptian student Ali Elkholey. After completing his Bachelor’s degree in nanotechnology with top grades, he is currently working on his Master’s thesis at the age of just 21. Particularly impressive: before he came to Germany, the Goethe-Institut in Alexandria was able to certify proficiency in Germany of C1.2 within just eight months. As he is so good at German, he helps other international students with visits to authorities or translates documents.
FAU’s Distinguished Service Medal
This year, the University has awarded Distinguished Service Medals to two people: Prof. Dr. Renate Wittern-Sterzel and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Schüttler.
In 1985, Prof. Dr. Renate Wittern-Sterzel was appointed professor of History of Medicine at FAU and remained a true figurehead of the University until she was appointed professor emeritus in 2008. Renate Wittern-Sterzel is also a leading figure in the academic landscape in Germany beyond FAU. She was a specialist reviewer for the German Research Foundation and received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2008. As the first women’s representative of FAU from 1989 to 1991, she set standards and initiated FAU’s equality prize, that is named after her. She donated the first prize money of 10,000 euros from her own funds.
With boundless energy, a clear vision and progressive actions, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Schüttler has had a lasting impact on medicine in Northern Bavaria. It is thanks to his dedication that medical students can now enjoy a top class education in a unique campus covering FAU, Uniklinikum Erlangen, Klinikum Bayreuth and the University of Bayreuth. He is also responsible for initiating the leading edge cluster Medical Valley EMN that now distributes more than 150 million euros in the local health sector and has more than 200 members.
Habilitation prizes
Each year, the University Association donates prizes for postdoctoral theses. The following early career researchers received an award in 2025:
Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology
Faculty of Business, Economics, and Law
Faculty of Medicine – Thiersch Prize
Faculty of Sciences – Emmy-Noether Prize
Faculty of Engineering
FAU Teaching Award for early career researchers
FAU awards the annual Teaching Award to early career researchers from all faculties in recognition of excellent achievements in teaching.
Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology
Faculty of Business, Economics, and Law
Faculty of Medicine
Faculty of Sciences
Faculty of Engineering
Sustainability award
The sustainability award goes to individuals and teams who use innovative approaches for a more sustainable future.
Education category
Introduction of the new Bachelor’s degree program in “Geo Sustainability: Earth Systems, Resources, Biodiversity“ (PD Dr. Anette Regelous and the team from GeoZentrum Nordbayern)
Outreach category
Project “Strengthening local alliances – hands-on and connected in Erlangen (Katrin Simon from FAU’s Botanical Garden, Weltladen Erlangen, ESD Team of Middle Franconia, Environmental Education department of the City of Stadt Erlangen)
People category
The team of the student café “Der Trichter”
Research category
Project “GreenThread: made to measure enzymes and microbes for organic textile recycling (Prof. Dr. Kathrin Castiglione, Matthias Tobler, Stefanie Fritzsche)
Campus & operations category
Project on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from anesthetic gases at Universitätsklinikum Erlangen (Dr. Christopher Schmitt, Dr. Axel Scholler, Dr. Frederick Krischke. Stefanie Hettkamp, Felix Hahn, Tobias Buschhaus)
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24/24Further information:
FAU Press Office
presse@fau.de