For the third time in four years, students of the HIGHSEA program were awarded with the Dr. Hans Riegel Award. The award ceremony took place on November 2, 2022, at the University of Bremen. The students received prize money of a total of 1000 euros as well as a lot of praise and great recognition for their outstanding work.
Together with the Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation, the University of Bremen annually awards the Dr. Hans Riegel Award to students for particularly good project work. A jury of scientists selects the three best works from the subjects of biology, chemistry, geography, computer science, mathematics, and physics. The aim of the awards is to promote young talent and enable them to get in contact with academia. The prizes are worth a total of 6.800 euros, and in addition to the financial award, the winners also receive access to sponsorship in the form of free seminars and conferences.
This year, HIGHSEA students received the second prize in the biology category, which is endowed with 400 euros. In this category, Frederike Palme, Lars Heckel and Bartosz Dworzysnki were honored for their research with AWI-scientists Jasmin Stimpfle and Matthias Wietz on the question of what effect climate change has on polar microorganisms. In chemistry, Sophia Reim, Lennart Stührenberg and Monia Mahnken even received the first prize, which comes with 600 euros in prize money. In their project, the students dealt with the dating of a historical find from Lower Saxony. They were supervised by AWI researcher Torben Genz, who worked with them on MICADAS, a small 14C accelerator mass spectrometer for determining the age of sample material.
The repeated award for HIGHSEA students also recognizes the HIGHSEA program itself as a successful project: The program designates a cooperation between the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the upper secondary school of the Schulzentrum Carl von Ossietzky in Bremerhaven. Two days a week, students are prepared for their final exams in biology, chemistry, mathematics and English directly at the AWI and are introduced to polar and marine research by AWI scientists.