The Faculty of Political Science awards Ulrike Malmendier an honorary doctorate.
Prof. Dr. Dr. Ulrike Malmendier is Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance at the University of California at Berkeley, Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics and Professor of Finance at the Haas School of Business. She has been a member of the German Council of Economic Experts since September 2022.
Previously, she worked at the Department of Economics at the University of California at Berkeley. Since 2016, she has also been Visiting Professor at the Institute on Behaviour and Inequality in Bonn. From 2013 to 2015, she was Director of the American Finance Association and Director of the Committee on the Status of Women. Until 2006, she was Assistant Professor of Finance at Stanford University.
Research stays have taken her to Princeton University, the University of Chicago, the Max Planck Institute in Bonn and Oxford University. Her research focuses on corporate finance, behavioural economics, behavioural finance, organisational economics and contract theory.
Ulrike Malmendier studied economics and law at the University of Bonn, where she received her doctorate in law (summa cum laude). She earned a second doctorate in economics at Harvard University.
Prof. Dr Oliver Genschow is being honoured with the research award for his pioneering scientific achievements, which have led to the successful acquisition of an excellent funding format.
Oliver Genschow's work on perception and reactions in interaction patterns and on imitation processes is at the interface of social and cognitive psychology. They make an important contribution to the question of the effectiveness of group dynamics and norms in controlling sustainable behaviour.
Oliver Genschow's work, which is 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).
DFG Research Group "A Social-Ecological Systems Approach to Ecosystem Restoration in Rural Africa": Jörn Fischer, Professor of Sustainable Land Use, Vicky Temperton, Professor of Ecosystem Functioning and Services, Berta Martín-López, Professor of International Sustainable Development and Planning, and Jacqueline Loos, Professor of Sustainable Natural Resource Management.
The DFG Research Group "A Social-Ecological Systems Approach to Ecosystem Restoration in Rural Africa" will be awarded the Joint Prize for its outstanding scientific achievements, which have led to the acquisition of an excellent funding format.
In response to progressive biodiversity loss, degradation and climate change, ecosystem restoration has become a global priority. However, despite increasing international attention, little knowledge exists on the ecological, social and socio-ecological consequences of restoration activities. Building on the extensive research achievements of stakeholders, the research group will apply a social-ecological systems perspective to better understand the mechanisms that lead to different ecosystem restoration outcomes. It is breaking new scientific ground here, generating both a deep understanding of a selected landscape and, at the same time, valuable transferable knowledge for the restoration of degraded ecosystems around the world.
Within the framework of a renowned DFG research group, joint research is being conducted under the coordination of Leuphana University Lüneburg with the University of Göttingen, Humboldt University Berlin and a Leibniz Institute.
Prof. Dr. David Abson is awarded the Leuphana Young Researcher Award for his outstanding scientific achievements, which have led to the acquisition of an excellent funding format.
The focus of David Abson's research is the problem that global production and consumption patterns are fundamentally unsustainable and thus threaten important processes on our planet that are essential for maintaining ecological functioning and the long-term survival of humanity. Under the question "What is enough?", a novel approach of socio-ecological sufficiency is developed, which aims at securing a socially satisfactory standard of living while using natural resources in an ecologically sustainable way.
His outstanding achievements, in particular his internationally widely recognised publication activity, led to the acquisition of the globally renowned Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council (ERC).
Special Award Gender and Diversity Research
Prof. Dr. Jordan Troeller is awarded the Leuphana Special Prize for Gender and Diversity Research for her outstanding academic achievements, which have led to the acquisition of an excellent funding format.
In her academic work, Jordan Troeller critically examines mythologies of motherhood. As an art historian, she uses works of art to question the dominant narratives of motherhood as the flip side of the innovative, future-oriented subject within the creative imperative of Western societies.
Her innovative research approaches, which move between established fields of research, are one of the foundations for her being awarded the prestigious Freigeist Fellowship of the Volkswagen Foundation.
Future Centre for Teacher Education (ZZL): Timo Ehmke, Professor of Educational Science, especially empirical educational research, Dominik Leiß, Professor of empirical educational research in the didactics of mathematics and Torben Schmidt, Professor of the Didactics of English.
Professors Timo Ehmke, Dominik Leiß and Torben Schmidt, together with research assistants and associate professors, are being honoured with the Leuphana Transfer Prize for the development of the exemplary network with school and non-school partner organisations in a theory-practice network in teacher education that has attracted attention throughout Germany in the ZZL Network project.
With the ZZL Network, an innovative space for thought and discourse has been created at the Future Centre for Teacher Education (ZZL) at Leuphana University Lüneburg between 2016 and 2023, in which different organisational cultures, social actors and diverse perspectives on teacher training and further education interact on the basis of scientific research and practice-oriented commitment to the development of teacher education. The ZZL Network project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the joint quality offensive for teacher education by the federal and state governments.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Schaltegger was honoured for his services to the part-time MBA programme Sustainability Management. Twenty years ago, as an academic entrepreneur, he launched the world's first MBA programme in sustainability management. To this day, the part-time programme is considered the largest and leading of its kind. It empowers individuals to effectively implement sustainability with and in companies and provides support after graduation with a strong alumni network.
The jury honours the student initiative "UniKino" for its outstanding voluntary commitment.
This year, the students Clara Dembowski, Giselle Kaz, Jonas Kühne, Carlotta Linden, Ruben Schmidt and Anna Zimmerer, who are involved in the "UniKino" project on a voluntary basis, were recognised and awarded the prize for outstanding voluntary student commitment. The students plan, coordinate and organise weekly film screenings on the campus of Leuphana University, creating a cultural offering that consciously addresses socially relevant topics, genres and diversity. The regular screenings are complemented by a range of lectures, discussions or question-and-answer formats and a place for networking exchange and cultural encounters is created.
The students' commitment convinced the jury with the creative and multifaceted design of what often appears to be a very classical and less innovative cinema offer. In exemplary cooperation with cultural workers, university teachers, university institutions, student working groups and Germany-wide networks, the organisers of the UniKino take up important, current and socially relevant topics and make possible an appealing and courageous cultural programme with great appeal and high value for the university and the city of Lüneburg. With their events, the students create an inviting and inspiring space for networking and a stimulating framework for exchange on the content presented. They counter the currently rather difficult and seemingly declining development of cinema in general with an offer that breaks with old structures, surprises, inspires and is able to trigger diverse forms of follow-up communication.
It is particularly noteworthy that the committed students of the UniKino department of the General Student Committee take great responsibility and courageous selection decisions independently and in a highly professional manner, and bring them to fruition without initially having to rely on professional, personal support.
"The UniKino has existed for many years and has recently developed into an important meeting place and a significant place of exchange about social discourse," said the jury, explaining the award. "Through the far-reaching accompanying measures to communicate the offer, the students help the UniKino itself as well as the addressed topics to achieve a high visibility on campus and beyond. Both the choice of venues, whether in the lecture hall or in an open-air format in the open air on campus, as well as the diversity in terms of genre, linguistic style and cinematic origin reveal a creative, open and intellectually boundless design process on the part of the students with great continuity and over what is now many years since the unit was founded."