Press release: University honours associates for special activities and achievements

Nr. 53/2010 - 09.03.2010

Prizes of the Board of Trustees 2009 – Total value of 17,500 Euro

Each year the Board of Trustees of the Georg-August-University Göttingen Foundation under Public Law honours associates of the Georgia Augusta for outstanding University-related activities and achievements. Tonight the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Wilhelm Krull, will award the prizes of 2009 in an official ceremony. The awards are worth 2,500 Euro each and will this year be awarded in the categories “Science and the Public” and “Outstanding Young Talent Publication”. A special prize for outstanding engagement was already awarded in advance in January. Originally the award ceremony was planned for the 3rd of December 2009 as part of the Göttingen University Speech.

The prize category “Science and the Public” honours initiatives that bring scientific working processes and research results closer to the general public. The organisers of the physics show “Magical Physics – of Floating Ships and Smoking Rings” will be honoured. As leader of the project, Prof. Dr Arnulf Quadt will accept the certificates on behalf of the organising team. In the opinion of the Board of Trustees the physics show illustrates the fascination of learning through research and serves as an outstanding example of bringing scientific understanding closer to the general public.

The evolutionary psychologist Dr. Bernhard Fink will be honoured in the same category. He will be honoured for the successful introduction of his scientific findings on the subject of physical attractiveness and human mate selection to a broad general public. Dr. Fink heads an Emmy-Noether-Researcher group of young scientists at the Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach-Institute for Zoology and Anthropology of the University of Göttingen. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [German Research Association] presented the work of the group as part of a 10-part series on its website DFG Science TV.

Fours prizes of the Board of Trustees are granted for outstanding publications of young scientists. At the Institute for Microbiology and Genetics Dr. Özgür Bayram has decoded how light and darkness control different cellular processes in mould fungi, including the production of carcinogenic toxins. His research results were published in the summer of 2008 in the specialist publication “Science”.

In the same publication of “Science” Dr. Oliver Lange and Dr. Nils-Alexander Lakomek published the results of their research at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry Göttingen. The team of two young scientists gained new insights into the protein ubiquitin through a combination of different experiments and simulations. Ubiquitin is part of a sophisticated “recycling system” that disassembles damaged or worn-out proteins into their components and reassembles them.

A further young talent prize goes to the literature academic Dr. Sabine Zufelde. In her dissertation “Comment savoir? – Comment dire?“ she developed a typology of metafictional narrative techniques and researches their functions in three novels by the French writer Claude Simon. Her text analysis considerably complements the interpretation of the novels up to now and thus partially fills the gaps of French literary studies compared with English and German literary studies.

The Board of Trustees’ special prize was received by the Italian lecturer Dr. Ilva Fabiani for her outstanding engagement for the innovation and improvement of teaching at the department for Romanic Philology. Students suggested Dr. Fabiani for the special prize as she particularly championed the development and extension of the specialist areas of linguistic practice and regional studies in the Italian courses as well as campaigning for the improvement of the infrastructure.

Dr. Wilhelm Krull announced that the Board of Trustees will in future honour outstanding achievement in teaching in a separate category. He invited in particular the students of the Georg-August-University to submit suggestions.