The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) honors researchers with its highest prizes.
The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) has awarded its highest prizes: Mathematician László Erdős and quantum physicist Markus Arndt share the Erwin Schrödinger Prize. The Wilhelm Hartel Prize goes to the historian Deborah Klimburg-Salter and the Elisabeth Lutz Prize goes to the biologist Karoline Kollmann. The awards, each endowed with 15,000 euros, will be presented virtually along with other prizes for young scientists on Thursday.
Foundations created
The Erwin Schrödinger Prize goes equally to the Hungarian mathematician László Erdős and the quantum physicist Markus Arndt. Erdős, who with a proof of the so-called “Wigner Hypothesis” from the 1950s created a mathematical basis for dealing with very different scientific and technical questions, has been working at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria in Klosterneuburg (Lower Austria) since 2013 . Arndt, who has explored experimentally in the field of quantum nanophysics how matter wave interferometry can be developed into a highly sensitive measurement method, completed his habilitation in 2002 at the University of Vienna, where he has been professor of quantum nanophysics since 2004.
Enzyme research
For her research work on the role of special enzymes (CDK6 cell cycle kinase) in disorders of blood formation, Karoline Kollmann receives the Elisabeth Lutz Prize, which is awarded to young researchers in the life sciences. Kollmann has been a postdoc at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna since 2016.
Klimburg-Salter receives the Wilhelm Hartel Prize “in recognition of her outstanding achievements in the field of Asian art history,” announced the OeAW on Tuesday. She is particularly interested in the cultural exchange on the “Silk Road” and in the Himalayas.
As a professor for non-European art history at the University of Vienna, Klimburg-Salter had “made her subject” world-wide and committed to the preservation and communication of the cultural heritage “. She curated numerous exhibitions and was instrumental in revitalizing the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul.
Further prizes from the academy go to 23 young researchers. The winners will present their work in short videos on the OeAW's YouTube channel.
