3 / 2024 // LEOPOLDINA / NEWS 7
Honours for commitment and excellent achievements
Honours for Gunnar Berg , Roger Goody , and Georg Hochberg
The three prize winners Gunnar Berg , Roger Goody , and Georg Hochberg were honoured at the Annual Assembly .
Image : Markus Scholz | Leopoldina
At the Annual Assembly , three outstanding researchers were honoured for their scientific achievements and commitment . British chemist Roger Goody ML was awarded the Cothenius Medal , the long-standing Leopoldina Vice-President Gunnar Berg ML received the Academy ‘ s Medal of Merit , and the first ever “ ZukunftsWissen ” prize was awarded this year to the biochemist Georg Hochberg .
Gunnar Berg was awarded the German National Academy of Sciences ’ Medal of Merit for decades of voluntary work for the Leopoldina . After admission to the academy in 1999 , he took on many important roles : he was a Member of the Presidium from 2000 to 2010 and Vice-President from 2010 to 2020 . To this day , he is involved in promoting young talent and the programme for school students at the Annual Assemblies .
Roger Goody , Member of the Leopoldina since 2003 , has made important contributions to research into cancer , eye and brain diseases by decoding fundamental biological mechanisms in metabolic processes . Roger Goody , Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physio logy in Dortmund / Germany , was awarded the Cothenius Medal for his outstanding scientific achievement .
Georg Hochberg , Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg , studies how the structure and function of proteins that exist today have developed over the course of evolution . For his scientific achievements , which enable a deeper understanding of the origin of proteins and help improve our understanding of biochemical pro cesses , such as photosynthesis , and optimise them in the laboratory , the biochemist received the “ ZukunftsWissen ” prize , endowed with 50,000 euros and awarded by the Leopoldina and the Commerzbank Foundation for the first time this year .
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Medal of Merit Cothenius Medal “ ZukunftsWissen ” Prize
Senate election
Re-election of Vice- President Thomas Krieg
The Senate met as scheduled before the Annual Assembly . It represents the interests of Leopoldina Members and elects members of the Presidium in accordance with the statutes .
This year , Thomas Krieg ML was elected for a further five years as Vice-President . He has held
Thomas Krieg . the office since
Image : Markus Scholz | Leopoldina
2019 . Before that he served as senator from 2011 to 2015 and as spokesperson for Class III – Medicine from 2016 – 2019 . The term of office for Members of the Presidium is five years , with the possibility of a single re-election . Georg Schütte , Secretary General of the Volkswagen Foundation , was also re-elected as an ad personam senator .
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Programme for school students
Youth meets science
Selected students from all over Germany were invited to the Annual Assembly again this year . They followed the lectures , entered into discussions with speakers , and were able to talk to experts in depth about their own topics . The former Head of Science of NASA , Thomas Zurbuchen , made himself available for an exclusive meeting .
In addition , the 35 young people visited the archives of Leopoldina , the planetarium in Halle ( Saale )/ Germany , took part in a city rally , and attended the experiment day at the Institute of Physics at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg / Germany . The 2024 programme for school students was financed by the Friends of the Leopoldina Academy .
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