Dr. Eric Richter has received the Ernst Meumann Award by the Working Group for Empirical Educational Research (Arbeitsgruppe für Empirische Pädagogische Forschung). This annual award recognizes outstanding research in the field of empirical educational studies by early career researchers.

In his study, Eric Richter and colleagues from the University of Potsdam and the University of Florida investigated the career entry phase of lateral entry teachers. The results show that for lateral entrants, there is a positive connection between, in particular, social support from colleagues at the school and their job satisfaction and intention to remain in the profession. These findings are relevant when it comes to targeted measures to improve the situation of lateral entry teachers and contribute to overcoming the teaching staff shortage.

Eric Richter has been working at the University of Potsdam since 2017 and currently stands in for the Professor for Adult Education, Continuing Education, and Media Education. His research focuses on the professionalization of teachers and the use of virtual reality in teacher training.

Dr. Matthias Hartlieb has received the Reimund Stadler Award of the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker). The habilitation award by the Macromolecular Chemistry Division honors Matthias Hartlieb’s thesis and its presentation at the GDCh Young Talent Workshop. The award, endowed with 5,000 euros, will be officially presented to Hartlieb at the symposium in Dresden in September 2024.

His Emmy Noether Group “Polymeric Biomaterials” at the University of Potsdam’s Institute of Chemistry is working on the development of antimicrobial polymers as an alternative to antibiotics. In contrast to conventional antibacterial treatments, such polymers are not affected by drug resistance and can therefore also be used against multi-resistant pathogens. The research focuses on the precise control of the structure of such macromolecules and the understanding of the structure-property relationship. The aim is for these materials to be used in the future to treat infections and thus solve the ever-growing problem of antimicrobial resistance.

Dr. Corinna Klingler has received the Academy of Ethics in Medicine’s (AEM) Young Investigator Award 2023 for her paper “Five Coffin Nails to Informed Consent: An Autoethnography of Battling Complications in Breastfeeding”. The research assistant at the Junior Professorship for Medical Ethics with a Focus on Digitalization at the Faculty of Health Sciences Brandenburg shares the award with Dr. Katharina Fürholzer from the University of Rostock.

The award-winning paper names and analyzes the five coffin nails preventing patients from freely making informed decisions. The article is especially noteworthy for the method that was used: the autoethnography. It is based on the author’s own experience and uses the example of breastfeeding to illustrate what it means when, for example, relevant information is withheld or the moralizing discourse surrounding breastfeeding leaves mothers with little freedom of choice. Personal experience acts as the foundation for a general ethical analysis.
The AEM is an interdisciplinary and interprofessional specialist society for medical ethics. Every year, the AEM honors outstanding scientific work by early career researchers dedicated to issues of medical ethics with the Young Investigator Award, which is endowed with 2,500 euros.

Dr. Stefano Mazzanti was honored with the 2023 Publication Award of the Leibniz-Kolleg Potsdam for his research on CO2-neutral fuels. In his doctoral thesis, he investigated innovative photocatalytic processes using a multidisciplinary approach. He succeeded in developing the first photocatalyst with cumulative proton-electron storage in order to increase the photo-induced reduction performance – a mechanism that otherwise only occurs in nature. This is an important step towards artificial photosynthesis as a technology of the future. His outstanding work resulted in five publications as first author.

Stefano Mazzanti studied Chemistry at the University of Bologna and completed his Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and the University of Potsdam. His outstanding scientific work during his Ph.D. enabled breakthrough advancements in the area of materials science, heterogeneous photocatalysis, and organic chemistry and resulted in the five internationally renowned publications as first author mentioned above. He is currently working for McPhy Energy Germany, developing electrolyzers for hydrogen production.

Dr. Isabell Böhm received the 2023 Environmental Energy Law Dissertation Award from the Environmental Energy Law Foundation for her dissertation on state climate liability.

After receiving the Wolf Rüdiger Bub Faculty Award 2022 and the Berlin-Brandenburg Judiciary Award – Carl Gottlieb Svarez 2022, this is the third major award for her outstanding dissertation entitled “State Climate Liability – The Responsibility of Germany and the EU under Climate Law” (“Staatsklimahaftung – Die klimarechtliche Verantwortlichkeit Deutschlands und der EU“). She shares the prize money of 5,000 euros with Dr. Felix Kaiser, who was also honored for his doctoral thesis “Environmentally Compatible Mining Law – Lines of Conflict and Possible Solutions” („Umweltverträgliches Bergrecht – Konfliktlinien und Lösungsansätze“).

Prof. Dr. Sabine Schlacke, member of the award jury and the board of trustees of the Environmental Energy Law Foundation, praised the dissertation for its special significance for the law, interdisciplinary approaches, innovation and originality as well as legal brilliance. On behalf of the jury, she expressed her appreciation for the innovative topic and the creative, independent way in which it was tackled and structured. “It seemed entirely conceivable to us that the ECJ would reconsider its negative stance on the liability of member states for air pollution after reading this thesis,” said the professor from the University of Greifswald.