Steinlin Price 2024 awarded to two outstanding researchers
On Wednesday, October 16th, Professor Dr. Kerstin Krieglstein officially started the academic year 2024/2025 of the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg. In a festive ceremony, Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Andrea Schenker Wicki was the keynote speaker. As the Dean of the University of Basel, she outlined a framework of challenges that universities in Western countries face today.
Part of the ceremony was the annual award of prices for outstanding academic achievement.
Since over a decade, Danzer sponsors the Hansjürg Steinlin Price for the best Ph.D. thesis and best Master thesis at the faculty of Environment and Natural Resources.
Professor Dr. Hansjürg Steinlin was a teaching forest science in Freiburg from 1958 to 1986, interrupted by various assignments at international organizations. He also served as the Dean of Universität Freiburg. He was a true scientific role model: at time when mainstream discussions and NGO propaganda was discussing when the last tree will be cut on the planet, Professor Steinlin looked at facts and data. What he found in the data was politically not correct but proved to be factually correct: we have no shortage of timber in the Northern Hemisphere, but land conversion challenges timberland in the tropics. Forty years later, these facts start to become more and more part of the public discourse. With his steadfast insistence on facts and data he remains a role model to researchers to this day.
This year, we are glad to sponsor two outstanding students for their scientific achievement: Andrea Spinu for her Ph.D. thesis as well as Britta Hars for her Master thesis, the two winners of the Hansjürg Steinlin price of 2024.
We wish both of them all the best for their future.