Dies Academicus 2021

The Faculty of Management and Technology awards an honorary doctorate to Professor Deniz S. Ones.

With the award of an honorary doctorate to Professor Deniz Ones, PhD, the Faculty of Business and Economics recognises her scientific work in the field of Organisational Psychology and her other outstanding contributions to research.

Highlights of Professor Ones' career also include pioneering contributions on the role of social desirability in testing, measuring personality through ratings by informed others, exploring occupational interest profiles, the role of human capital in environmental sustainability initiatives, and the use of unobtrusive, permanent mobile sensors to measure the dynamics of employee personality, job performance and well-being. She has analysed extensive data on these issues - from mechanics to doctors to managers. Her work has direct implications for individuals, organisations and society.

The Faculty of Management and Technology awards an honorary doctorate to Professor Doktor-Ing. Matthias Kleiner.

By conferring an honorary doctorate on Professor Doktor-Ing Matthias Kleiner, the Faculty of Management and Technology recognises his scientific work in the field of engineering and his other outstanding contributions to research and science management.

Matthias Kleiner is a visionary and an outstanding communicator, and he succeeds in bringing people from different fields together and inspiring them to achieve great goals. Matthias Kleiner continues to make enormous contributions to science and society at all levels. Not least, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class by the Federal President. He is a member of numerous national and international academies and advisory boards and is frequently active as a juror and reviewer for research programmes as well as for bilateral and multilateral cooperations.

Leuphana University Lüneburg awards the prize for voluntary commitment by students to the student project Arbeitskreis Campusgeschichte.

The prize honours the outstanding voluntary commitment and the critical, differentiated, enlightening and, above all, self-reflective approach of the project, which succeeds in transforming the matter-of-factness with which we move about the campus and its buildings into something that can no longer be taken for granted. The committed members of the working group promote in an exemplary manner the conscious and multi-faceted exchange on the history of the university location through various event formats and publications, as well as through the permanent installation of various elements to strengthen and preserve the culture of remembrance on the campus of Leuphana University.

Award winners representing the project are: Lisa Bolten, Anna Dingler, Silja Geest, Sasha Helen Lehmann, Maite Quensel, Lena Trilsbeek and Adrian Wulf.

Leuphana University Lüneburg honours Prof. Dr. Benjamin Klusemann for his outstanding scientific achievements and for obtaining a European Excellence Award.

Benjamin Klusemann belongs to a circle of scientists with forward-looking research projects that contribute significantly to innovative basic research. The aim of his work is to better understand the physical mechanisms in material behaviour in order to contribute to the further development of materials and processes.

His outstanding research achievements at Leuphana University and at the Helmholtz Centre Hereon form the basis of his acquisition of the world-renowned Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

Leuphana University Lüneburg honours outstanding achievements in the research of Prof. Dr. Marcus Pietsch, who has successfully acquired excellent funding formats through his trend-setting scientific work.

His top-class research achievements are in the fields of educational management, primary school pedagogy and quality development, and he is equally committed to teacher training and school development. Marcus Pietsch's work, which is also characterised by a broad, nationally and internationally recognised publication activity, finds special expression in the acquisition of a renowned Heisenberg Professorship from the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Leuphana University of Lüneburg honours outstanding achievements in research by Prof. Dr. Lynn Rother, whose pioneering academic accomplishments have included the successful acquisition of excellent funding formats.

As an art historian, Lynn Rother has developed a progressive research approach that combines art history and data science, thus expanding the field of the humanities by means of computer-based methods. Her innovative research approaches are one of the foundations on which she was awarded the prestigious Lichtenberg Professorship by the Volkswagen Foundation.

Leuphana University Lüneburg honours outstanding achievements in the research of Prof. Dr. Sebastian Wallot, who has successfully acquired excellent funding formats, among other things, through his trend-setting scientific work.

Sebastian Wallot's research programme on reading-learning processes or the coordination of people's actions in group tasks is characterised by an unusually innovative approach. His nationally and internationally outstanding research in the field of psychology received an excellent seal of approval when he was awarded the prestigious Heisenberg Professorship by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Leuphana University Lüneburg awards the Leuphana Young Researcher Award to Dr. Jan Hanspach for his outstanding scientific achievements and the acquisition of a professionally groundbreaking excellence profile.

Jan Hanspach's work at the interface of sustainable land use, biodiversity and food security is reflected not only in increasing publication activity, but also in the transfer of results into practice and their active communication. To consolidate his research career, he succeeded in obtaining a large-volume junior research group within the framework of the Social-Ecological Research Programme of the Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF).

Leuphana University Lüneburg confers the Leuphana Young Researcher Award on Dr. Lars Holstenkamp for his outstanding scientific achievements and the acquisition of a professionally groundbreaking excellence profile.

Lars Holstenkamp's socio-ecological research interests focus on the socially important issues of managing the energy transition, its financing and governance. His successful work in national and international research networks laid the foundation for the acquisition of a large-volume junior research group within the framework of the Social-Ecological Research Programme of the Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF).

Leuphana University Lüneburg awards the Leuphana Doctoral Prize to Dr Cathleen Heil for her excellent dissertation entitled "The Impact of Scale on Children's Spatial Thought - A Quantitative Study for Two Settings in Geometry Education".

Cathleen Heil's work on primary school children's spatial thinking is extremely innovative and original in both theoretical and empirical terms, with a consistently precise approach. The relevance of Cathleen Heil's findings goes far beyond mathematics didactics, as she has succeeded not least in transferring her research results to regional educational networks and in maintaining a dialogue with the interested public.

Leuphana University Lüneburg confers the Leuphana Doctoral Award on Dr. Christian Voller for his outstanding dissertation entitled "Returning to Marx. Studies on the Pre- and Early History of Critical Theory".

By looking at the history of the formation of critical theory, Christian Voller closes a research gap in intellectual history. His work is convincing in its analysis, which is rich in material and sources, and is exemplary for how the history of ideas and knowledge can be written, which not only provides new insights into the topicality and relevance of critical theory today, but at the same time is able to make a contribution to the history of the formation of cultural studies.

Leuphana University Lüneburg awards the Leuphana Doctoral Prize to Dr. Aisa Manlosa for her dissertation entitled "Leveraging Livelihoods For a Food Secure Future: Smallholder Farming and Social Institutions in Southwest Ethiopia".

Aisa Manlosa's dissertation is characterised by an intelligent and visionary approach to the topic of food security. With her focus on food security and gender issues, Ms Manlosa addresses some of the most important questions of our time, impressing with intellectual precision and clarity. Her research has already been published in international journals, some of them renowned, and is cited to a groundbreaking extent.

Leuphana University Lüneburg confers the Leuphana Doctoral Prize on Dr. Stefanie Habersang for her excellent dissertation entitled "Taking Stock and Moving Forward in Process-Research: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations for Studying Process Phenomena in Organization & Management Studies".

With her dissertation, Stefanie Habersang presents an exceptional work on organisational process research that deals with phenomena, explanatory approaches and new methodological approaches. She convinces with a theoretical breadth, methodological rigour and a sustainable scientific contribution, with which she has successfully joined the international top group in her field.

The teaching award in the category Student Proposal goes to Dr.in Camilla Cassidy, research assistant and coordinator in the major Studium Individuale, Faculty of Sustainability.

In their nomination for the 2020 teaching award, the student representatives of the Studium Individuale section particularly emphasised the advising services developed and implemented by Camilla Cassidy. These went far beyond the classic office hours. In her constant feedback, Camilla Cassidy shows that she dedicates herself to the learning process of each individual with expertise and openness, instead of taking the easy path of "'one fits all' solutions". The teaching award is conferred for Camilla Cassidy's outstanding commitment to Studium Individuale and her innovative and research-oriented teaching in the sense of self-responsible and self-directed but at the same time optimally guided education.

The award for knowledge transfer and cooperation is awarded to Prof. Dr. Anthimos Georgiadis and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Heger for outstanding achievements.

In their inter- and transdisciplinary research and transfer projects, the award winners sustainably strengthen the profile of Leuphana and the Lüneburg region at the interface between science and practice. They establish forward-looking topics in process measurement technology and sensor technology as well as modelling and simulation for the optimised design of intelligent technical systems, machine learning in production systems, robotics and optimisation of robot-based hybrid manufacturing (3D printing) in strategic cooperations with regional companies, organisations, foundations and associations. These cooperations are practised as integral components of teaching and research. Coupled with this is their dedicated commitment to the qualification and promotion of future skilled workers and scientific career development in the STEM field. Their commitment to cooperative research and knowledge transfer is groundbreaking for the development of the science and innovation region of Lüneburg.