In and outside Bremen – the Bremen Study Prize has become a firmly established institution in the regional science landscape. For 34 years now, the “unifreunde” [Friends of the University of Bremen] has been awarding this accolade for outstanding student theses submitted at the University of Bremen. On February 20 the time had come once again: At a presentation ceremony held in the upper rooms of the City Hall, the award was handed over to this year’s six winners. The Study Prize was awarded four times by “unifreunde”, and a further two special prizes were sponsored by the company Bruker Daltonik GmbH and Rotary Club Bremen-Roland.
Contra populism in the world
In her address, Eva Quante-Brandt, Bremen‘s Senator for Science, Health, and consumer Protection, said, “In these times, the world is in need of enlightened and persistent research academics”. She underlined academia’s duty to counter the spreading political populism. Professor Andreas Breiter, Vice President Research, picked up on this topic and stressed the exemplary role performed by this year’s prize winners, adding, “They are ambassadors for our University”. And Professor Bengt Beutler, Chairman of the “unifreunde” association praised the graduates’ outstanding theses. The prize winners were a living example of the ongoing excellent development at the University of Bremen.
The “unifreunde” prizes
Dr.-Ing. André Wilkening received the Bremen Study Prize in the natural sciences for his doctoral thesis on the topic “Assistive Control Concepts for Pneumatic Soft Robotic Rehabilitation Devices”. In the same category, the award went to Martina Hübner for her outstanding Diplom thesis titled “Characterization of adhesive joints with embedded capacitive sensors”. In the social sciences and the humanities, Dr. Friederike Gesing was awarded the prize for her doctoral thesis “Working with Nature: An Ethnography of Soft Coastal Protection Practices in Aotearoa / New Zealand”. The master’s thesis prize in this category went to Anda Nicolae Vladu for her thesis on the wool combing plant in Delmenhorst near Bremen “They demand to be treated the same as any other German worker. Resistant practices of migrant workers in the North German wool combing plant and worsted yarn spinning works”.
The special prizes
The company Bruker Daltonik GmbH bestowed the Bremen Study Prize on Dr. Patrick Schneider for his doctoral thesis titled “On the mathematical justification of the consistent-approximation approach and the derivation of a shear-correction-factor free refined beam theory”. And Dr. Hoang Minh Le received the prize sponsored by the Rotary Clubs Bremen-Roland for his thesis on the topic “Automated Techniques for Functional Verification at the Electronic System Level”.
