Staff News
Top left: Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Rajewsky (MDC), bottom left: Prof. Dr. Ulf Riebesell (GEOMAR), bottom right: Prof. Dr. Peter Sanders (KIT).
Leibniz Awards 2012
This year's Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award goes to eleven scientists, including three scientists from the Helmholtz Association. The awardees are free to invest the prize money of usually 2.5 million Euro respectively in their scientific work entirely according to their own judgement.
The "hermann" editorial staff inquired in how far this award changed matters for the Helmholtz awardees Prof. Dr Nikolaus Rajewsky (MDC), Prof. Dr Ulf Riebesell (GEOMAR) and Prof. Dr Peter Sanders (KIT):
What has changed in your life after being awarded the Leibniz Award?
Rajewsky: There was a wave of interviews, but fortunately this has subsided again. Otherwise, not much has changed, quite to my content.
Riebesell: My children now call me Leibniz Cookie.
Sanders: I write fewer project applications and instead am looking for "really hard nuts to crack".
How do you intend to use the prize money in your research?
Rajewsky: I am still working on a few ideas.
Riebesell: The prize money gives me the freedom to attempt research involving more risks, to develop new cooperation schemes and to advance into new fields of research.
Sanders: In particular for funding my staff. As regards content, I deal, roughly speaking, with the efficient processing of large amounts of data in applications, such as company databases, search engines, traffic, energy supply grids, bioinformatics ... In doing so, theory and practice are to be harmonised.
Can you capitalise on the attention the award brings with it towards achieving your research objectives?
Rajewsky: No.
Riebesell: The media attention contributes to bringing to the public's attention the problem of ocean acidification and warming and the potential consequences this has on marine organisms and ecosystems.
Sanders: I would imagine the Leibniz Award was a door opener in winning over cooperation partners.
