LOEWE Research
LOEWE 2016-2018 Prize-winning excellence
Prizes and awards are always a special recognition for the work and dedication of researchers, regardless of whether they concern a single scientific discipline, a whole research initiative, awards for up-and-coming academics or for distinctive engagement in a field. In each case, they are recognition not only for the work of individuals but also for the surrounding circumstances that have made such individual achievements possible. From the multitude of different prizes that have been awarded since 2016 to researchers or their projects in connection with LOEWE, here is a representative sampling: For her excellent and innovative basic research and pioneering investigations, which were funded in connection with the LOEWE initiative iNAPO, Professor Annette Andrieu-Brunsen received an ERC Starter Grant from the European Research Council. For the current funding period, the European Research Council has provided approximately €1.5 million in grant money to Prof. Dr. Annette Andrieu-Brunsen (chemistry faculty) and her project „3D-FNP Writing – Unprecedented spatial control of porosity and functionality in nanoporous membranes through 3D printing and microscopy for polymer writing“. The Project deals with the transport of substances via nanopores and is thus a key step for many different technologies. The LOEWE research centre SAFE (Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe) in Frankfurt has also been honoured.
In 2018, it received the TOTAL E-QUALITY distinction for exemplary conduct in equal-opportunity personnel management. This award for the period 2018-2020 has been issued by TOTAL
E-QUALITY Deutschland and certifies a successful and sustainable commitment to equal opportunity for men and women in a professional setting. SAFE will receive the award on 31 October 2018 in Stuttgart. In December 2017, the economist Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, programme director for LOEWE research centre SAFE and professor for macroeconomics and development at Goethe University, received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize endowed with €2.5 million. Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln has played an outstanding role in the field of economics in Germany and can already look back on an impressive international career as well. With her innovative approach to research, she brings together aspects of macro and microeconomics and deals with topics and research subjects that one might not expect an economist to consider. Looking to another area, in the business plan competition Science4Life 2017, the aidCure team from the LOEWE research centre Translational Medicine and Pharmacology (TMP) was able to secure the first prize. The start-up team aidCURE from the TMP branch of the Fraunhofer IME in Frankfurt has developed a personalised immunotherapy for treating rheumatoid arthritis. In contrast to the medications currently available on the market, this therapy for the first time has been able to provide complete remission in patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Also in 2017, the cardiologist Michael Potente, project
director for the LOEWE research cluster Ub-Net and leader of the working group „Angionesis and Metabolism“ at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim, received one of the prestigious Consolidator Grants from the European Research Council (ERC). Over the next five years, the ERC will make €2 million available to the scientist for his research on blood vessels. Potente is particularly interested in how various organs affect the function of vascular wall cells located in them. His aim is to better understand the interactions between metabolic factors, epigenetic mechanisms and the specialisation of such cells. A particular focal point is possible changes in the vascular endothelium in connection with factors such as obesity or advancing age. Also worthy of note here is a very special honour for Professor Jürg Luterbacher, coordinator of the LOEWE research cluster
FACE2FACE (that received funding until 2017) and Managing director of the Institute for Geography at the Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU). In January 2016, Prof. Luterbacher was included in the list of the globally most frequently cited researchers in 2015 that is compiled by the Thomson Reuters Company.