GRADE Sustain

Frankfurt Prize for Environment and Sustainability 2025

The Frankfurt Prize for Environment and Sustainability 2025, endowed with a total of €5,000, was awarded to early-career researchers from various disciplines at Goethe University whose outstanding theses impressed the jury. Through their ambitious research, the award recipients address highly relevant and urgent topics, thereby contributing to new, interdisciplinary, and innovative approaches to solutions in the field of environment and sustainability. All submitted works were distinguished by a high level of academic excellence and socially relevant research questions.

The main prize was shared by two researchers whose work in sustainability research was honored:

  • Dr. Franziska von Verschuer (Department 03) for her dissertation “Conserving Seeds, Assembling Worlds: A Sociological Inquiry into Agrobiodiversity Conservation through the Svalbard Global Seed Vault”, and

  • Dr. Laura Müller (Department 11) for her dissertation “Developing Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in Local Water Management for an Uncertain Future – Assessing and Integrating Disciplinary, Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Knowledge and Methods.”

This year’s sponsorship prize was awarded to two researchers from Department 11 for their outstanding master’s theses:

  • Anna Breuninger for her study entitled “Investigating the Chemical Composition of Organic Aerosol and Contribution to the Oxidative Potential”, and

  • Lorenz Jackson for his thesis “Investigating the Potential Future Impacts of Climate Change on Water Resources: Comprehensive Hotspot Analysis Using WaterGAP2.2e and ISIMIP3b Data.”

The prizes, which were donated this year by the GRADE Center Sustain at Goethe University, will be formally presented during the Academic Ceremony of the Department of Geosciences.

Laudators: Prof. Dr. Petra Döll (Department 11) and Prof. Dr. Alexander Vogel (Department 11)