Press releases
Findings support injury prevention and highlight the physical demands of the profession
Goethe University Study Reveals Injury Risks in Professional Dance
Professional dance is a high-performance discipline that carries significant risks of injury and physical wear. Researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt have now provided the first precise measurements of strain on the musculoskeletal system. The study involved 28 professional dancers wearing sensor-equipped suits during ballet training. The data revealed high levels of strain across all phases of training. The findings support the development of injury prevention measures and highlight the high physical demands of the profession.
FRANKFURT. Ballet is an art of illusion: dancers seem to float across the stage and, in their leaps, appear to defy gravity for a moment. The effort behind this lightness and grace usually remains invisible to audiences. “Professional dance is a high-performance sport," says Professor Eileen Wanke of the Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine at Goethe University Frankfurt. “It requires exceptional physical control and athleticism, developed through many years of intensive training."
Wanke brings personal experience to this research, having previously performed as a professional dancer. Today, she examines her former field from a medical perspective. The physical demands of training, rehearsals, and performances take a clear toll: around half of all dancers experience at least one occupational accident each year. Common injuries include strains and sprains affecting the legs, ankles, and feet, as well as lower back problems. Many continue working despite pain, driven by their commitment to the profession. By their late twenties, 25 percent have already developed osteoarthritis – a high number compared to well below 5 percent in the general population.
Sensor-equipped suits
Objective measurements of the physical demands of professional dance have so far been scarce. The new study addresses this gap and was conducted in collaboration with the German Dance Film Institute Bremen and the accident insurance institutions of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, and Lower Saxony. For data collection, Wanke and her team – together with Austrian physicist and biomechanist Dr. Christian Maurer-Grubinger – used an innovative method: 16 female and 12 male dancers from Oldenburg State Theater and Theater Kiel wore sensor-equipped suits during training. These recorded acceleration and body positioning for the head, torso, arms, wrists, legs, and feet at a rate of 240 measurements per second. The data were transmitted wirelessly to a computer for analysis.
“We used a system widely applied in occupational medicine to assess physical strain," Wanke explains. “Typically, trained observers evaluate characteristic movements in specific professions, for example through video analysis. In our approach, data are instead captured by a program developed specifically for this project." Each movement or posture is assigned a score: the greater the strain on joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons, the higher the “Rapid Entire Body Assessment" – or REBA – score.
Risk of injury during training
“Our participants spent more than 60 percent of their training time in a moderate-risk, and a further 30 percent in a high-risk range," Wanke says. Even during training, the level of risk is therefore considerable – although training is intended not only to maintain technique but also to prevent injuries. Female dancers spent more time in higher-risk ranges than their male counterparts and were thus exposed, on average, to greater ergonomic stress. This may partly be explained by differences in body structure, meaning that certain movements or postures place greater strain on them.
Classical dance training has changed little over the past 300 years. It follows a three-phase structure: Phase 1 consists of exercises at the barre, while Phases 2 and 3 take place in open space – beginning with slow movement sequences, followed by pirouettes, and culminating in large jumps. As the training progresses, the exercises become increasingly dynamic, placing greater demands on the cardiovascular system as well as on concentration, coordination, and physical control. “Studies show that concentration tends to decline in Phase 3, leading to more frequent errors and inaccuracies," explains Wanke.
Optimization opportunities
Overall, the data suggest that particularly demanding dynamic exercises should be scheduled earlier in training sessions, as is common in other sports. Training could also be adapted in a more gender-specific way to reflect differing physical demands. Organizational changes at performance venues may further help reduce the risk of injury and wear-related conditions. During jumps, bones, muscles, and joints are subjected to high forces – especially upon landing. Specialized dance floors can significantly reduce this strain. While many institutions have such flooring in training spaces, rehearsal and performance stages often still lack it.
Existing flooring may be further optimized. However, which structural measures are most effective in reducing forces in dance has not yet been systematically studied. “This would be an important focus for future research," Wanke concludes.
Publication: Verena Fehringer, Christian Maurer-Grubinger, Fabian Holzgreve, Daniela Ohlendorf, Eileen M. Wanke: Ergonomic Risk Assessment of Professional Dance Using Motion Capture with Ergonomic Evaluation by the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA). Sensors (2026) https://doi.org/10.3390/s26010070
Photo-download:
https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/184114534
Caption: The dancers' special suits transmit the movements of various body parts to a computer, where the stresses are analyzed. Photo: Eileen Wanke, Goethe University Frankfurt
The German Dance Film Institute Bremen has produced two films about the project:
Short version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31u-bdz1yR0 (in German)
Long version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu2gcviNzcs (in German)
Further Information
Professor Dr. Dr. Eileen Wanke
Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine
Goethe University Frankfurt
Wanke@med.uni-frankfurt.de
Bluesky: @goetheuni.bsky.social
LinkedIn: @Goethe-Universität Frankfurt @Eileen Wanke @Unfallkasse NRW @Unfallkasse Freie Hansestadt Bremen
International research team analyzes prehistoric teeth of European straight-tusked elephants
Hunted by Neanderthals: Giant Elephants traveled hundreds of Kilometers across Ice-Age Europe
Fossil teeth can preserve remarkable information because tooth enamel grows slowly and records environmental data layer by layer. An international research team with the participation of scientists from the Rhine-Main Universities Alliance has now reconstructed the life histories of four European straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) by analyzing their teeth. These elephants – significantly larger than modern species – were the largest land mammals of prehistoric Europe and lived during the last interglacial period around 125,000 years ago. A 2023 study had shown that they were prey for Neanderthal hunters.
FRANKFURT/MAINZ/LEIDEN/MODENA. Neumark-Nord in northeastern Germany was a lake landscape in the last interglacial period. It is rich in archeological finds discovered during lignite mining. The area in Saxony-Anhalt is one of the most important European paleontological sites for the European straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus. Fossil remains of more than 70 elephants have been found there – animals that were once hunted in this region by Neanderthals. Because of this unusually large number of finds, the site provides a unique insight into the relationship between these massive animals and the humans of the Pleistocene.
An international research team from Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States has now examined the teeth of four of these elephants in greater detail. Using an innovative approach that combines the analysis of isotopes (Carbon, Oxygen, and Strontium) and proteins (palaeoproteomics), the researchers reconstructed migration behavior, diet, and even the sex of several individuals. Strontium isotope analyses along the direction of growth of the molars showed that the elephants had spent several years in different regions of Europe. The data were collected in Frankfurt by Elena Armaroli and Federico Lugli under the supervision of Prof. Wolfgang Müller, one of the directors of the Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE) at Goethe University. The Carbon and Oxygen isotope analyses were conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz.
Elena Armaroli, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) in Italy and the study's first author, explains: “Thanks to isotope analyses, we can trace the movements of elephants almost as if we had a travel diary that has been preserved in their teeth for more than one hundred thousand years."
“Some of the elephants we studied were animals that did not stay in just one area," says Federico Lugli, associate professor at UNIMORE and, like Armaroli, a corresponding author of the study. “Their teeth show that they traveled very long distances – up to 300 kilometers – before reaching what is now Neumark-Nord. This allows us to reconstruct their home ranges and understand how these animals used the landscape.
The research team also identified the sex of the four elephants: three males and – most likely – one female. Two of the males show isotope signatures that differ significantly from those expected for local bed rocks in the area of Neumark-Nord. This suggests that the males, much like modern elephants, ranged over larger territories than the females.
Elena Armaroli concludes: “The concentration of remains and the isotope profile of the animals suggest that Neanderthals did not kill the elephants merely when a favorable opportunity arose. Everything points to organized hunting in which even such enormous prey animals could be deliberately targeted. For this, Neanderthals must have known the landscape well, cooperated, and planned."
“This study also marks an important methodological advance," emphasizes Federico Lugli. “For the first time, paleoproteomics has been applied to European straight-tusked elephants, allowing us to determine the sex of individual animals from proteins preserved in tooth enamel."
The study is the latest in a series of ongoing scientific analyses of material from the former Neumark-Nord lignite mine. The research projects are conducted by a joint team from MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution in Neuwied – a department of Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA) –, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), and Leiden University. They have been made possible through the continuous support of the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt.
The aim of these research projects is to better determine the different dimensions of the Neanderthals' ecological footprint. The results show that Neanderthals were active gatherers and hunters operating within a rich lakeshore ecosystem. The site provides evidence that people systematically butchered animal carcasses at different locations and extracted fat from large mammals on a large scale. They also consumed plant foods such as hazelnuts and acorns. Neanderthals appear to have repeatedly used the resources of this ecosystem and may even have modified the landscape through the use of fire. They were likely organized in larger social groups than previously assumed.
“What we see at Neumark-Nord is not a picture of mere survival, but of a population that understood its environment and interacted with it actively and in complex ways over a period of at least 2,500 years," says study author Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser, professor of prehistoric and protohistoric archeology at JGU and head of institute at MONREPOS.
“At least some of male elephants uncovered at Neumark spent some of their adolescence and young adulthood away from the Neumark lake land. If Neumark was a point of attraction for elephants from different regions aggregating here or the Neumark area was the homeland of an elephant population, with individuals leaving the area for a certain time span, we can't extract from isotopes alone", says co-author Professor Thomas Tütken from the Applied and Analytical Paleontology Group at JGU. “To understand the population dynamics of the Neumark elephants and with that Neanderthal hunting at Neumark, we have started a genetic study of the Neumark elephants", adds Lutz Kindler, member of the Neumark-Nord team and researcher at MONREPOS and JGU.
Participating Institutions:
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy
Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
California Institute of Technology, Davis, USA
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany
MONREPOS Archaeological Research Center and Museum for Human Behavioral Evolution, Leibniz Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA), Neuwied, Germany
Leiden University, The Netherlands
University of California, Davis, USA
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany
Columbia University, New York, USA
Publication: Elena Armaroli, Federico Lugli, Théo Tacail, Lutz Kindler, Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Fulco Scherjon, Wil Roebroeks, Glendon Parker, Hubert Vonhof, Anna Cipriani, Thomas Tütken, Wolfgang Müller: Life histories of straight-tusked elephants from the Last Interglacial Neanderthal site of Neumark-Nord (~125 ka). Science Advances (2026)https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adz0114
Picture download: https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/183947150
Caption: 125,000 years ago, straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) populated the prehistoric Europe. Image: Hodari Nundu, CC-BY-4.0
Contact:
Professor Federico Lugli
Laboratorio di Geochimica
Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
federico.lugli@unimore.it
https://www.geochem.unimore.it/chi-siamo/
Dr. Elena Armaroli
Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche
Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Tel. +39 3312563925
elena.armaroli@unimore.it
Professor Wolfgang Müller
Institute of Geosciences /
Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE)
Goethe University Frankfurt
Tel. +49 (0)69 798 40291
w.muller@em.uni-frankfurt.de
https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/49540288/Homepage-Mueller
Dr. Lutz Kindler
LEIZA - Leibniz Zentrum für Archäologie, Neuwied
MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution
lutz.kindler@leiza.de
https://monrepos.leiza.de/
Bluesky: @goetheuni.bsky.social @leizarchaeology.bsky.social @unimainz.bsky.social @unileiden.bsky.social @landesmuseumhalle.bsky.social @mpic.de
LinkedIn: @Goethe-Universität Frankfurt @Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz @Universiteit Leiden @Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia @Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie
The renowned philosopher and sociologist developed the central part of his intellectual life and work in Frankfurt
Goethe University Mourns the Loss of Philosopher Jürgen Habermas
Philosopher Jürgen Habermas passed away this weekend
at his home in Starnberg. Goethe University mourns the loss of its emeritus
professor, who was a member of the university from 1964 to 1971 as Professor of
Philosophy and Sociology, succeeding Max Horkheimer. Following his time as
Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of the
Scientific-Technological World, he returned to Goethe University in 1983 and
remained Professor of Philosophy until his retirement in 1994.
FRANKFURT. With Jürgen Habermas, Goethe University
loses one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries and the most prominent representative of the second
generation of the Frankfurt School. Habermas significantly developed Critical
Theory, building on the work of Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer. At the
same time, he was the most influential public intellectual in the history of
the Federal Republic of Germany, whose voice continued to shape debates after
German reunification in 1990 and far beyond Germany's borders.
“Habermas' contributions to a
philosophical theory of communicative reason, to the foundations of rational
freedom and social justice, to the normativity and institutionalization of law,
and to the role of religion in secular and pluralistic societies have inspired
worldwide reception and vibrant debates that continue at Goethe University
Frankfurt to this day," said University President Prof. Enrico Schleiff,
honoring the late scholar. “His groundbreaking work, as well as his personal
presence at the university and his close intellectual relationships with many
members of our academic community, extend far beyond the lifetime of this
extraordinary scholar and exceptional teacher. They will continue to shape
research and teaching at Goethe University Frankfurt for years to come,
including within the framework of the Rhine-Main Universities alliance."
Habermas had already donated part of his
literary estate to Goethe University Frankfurt in 2011, followed by another
portion in 2025. As a result, research on his work is now primarily anchored in
Frankfurt – the place that formed the central focus of his intellectual
development and career. The Frankfurt School, Critical Theory, and the work of
Jürgen Habermas remain central to the identity of Goethe University, which
seeks – across a wide range of disciplines – to address fundamental questions
facing contemporary society.
Image
for download: https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/184056055
Caption:
Jürgen Habermas
delivering a lecture at Goethe University Frankfurt during an event marking his
90th birthday in 2019. (Photo: Uwe Dettmar/Goethe University Frankfurt)
Editor: Volker Schmidt, Head of the
PR & Communications Office, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1, 60323 Frankfurt,
Tel: + 49 (0)69 798-13035, E-Mail: v.schmidt@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Interdisciplinary publication including student contributions on ecosystem research in the Nördlinger Ries.
Four Millennia of Cultural History
Around 15 million years ago, an asteroid strike created the Nördlinger Ries impact crater in Bavaria, shaping a unique geological landscape. Over millennia, people settled across the region, leaving behind a rich historical record. A newly published interdisciplinary volume by scholars from Goethe University Frankfurt and the University of Tübingen explores this history, presenting archaeological, archaeobotanical and scientific research on the area between the Ipf mountain and the Kartäusertal valley at the western edge of the Ries.
FRANKFURT. Ecosystem research examines how human activity reshapes landscapes and environments. Students from Goethe University and the University of Tübingen applied this approach to the Nördlinger Ries region. They began with the striking Ipf mountain, home to one of Central Europe's famous Iron Age princely seats – elite hilltop centers that dominated political and economic networks in the early Iron Age. Supported by a corporate foundation, the project has yielded several studies since 2022 that examine the landscape from the western edge of the Ries – a large asteroid impact crater in southern Germany – to the Kartäusertal valley, known for its unusually high density of medieval castles.
The Ipf, north of Bopfingen, stands out with its distinctive conical shape. A limestone formation from the Late Jurassic period common in southern Germany, this “hard rock" remnant of the White Jura period is unrelated to the asteroid impact and preserves traces of millennia of human settlement. Over time, the hill served as a power center, princely seat, and trade hub, while fertile soils in the surrounding area produced abundant harvests. Humans and their animals have shaped the landscape since the Bronze Age, and intensive forestry and farming have dramatically altered its appearance. Archaeologists and natural scientists have spent years uncovering the past of the Nördlinger Ries. Archaeologist Prof. Rüdiger Krause and archaeobotanist Prof. Astrid Stobbe from Goethe University Frankfurt have made significant contributions to this work.
Data from archaeological, archaeobotanical, and geomorphological projects have emerged from two DFG Collaborative Research Centers and several other individual projects funded by the German Research Foundation. Since 2022, another project has evaluated and consolidated these meta-data and supplemented them with additional research to reconstruct four millennia of cultural history. The first results now appear in an attractively designed publication. The volume brings together numerous contributions, including many student works. It presents the research in a manner accessible to interested lay readers while offering detailed insights into the scholars' methods. Large-format photographs and graphics illustrate the findings. Both the research project and the publication received funding from the Kessler + Co Corporate Foundation for Education and Culture, headquartered in Abtsgmünd, in the Ostalb district of Baden-Württemberg.
The surroundings of the Ipf include an Iron Age settlement at Ohrenberg, where archaeologists have even uncovered evidence of bronze smelting and the production of numerous items such as fibulae (clothing pins). Another highlight is the discovery of glass processing in Celtic times: The findings show that blue glass was remelted (recycled) here and used to produce new glass artifacts such as beads and arm rings. The landscape offers further material for reconstructing historical living conditions, particularly in the Kartäusertal valley. During the Hungarian invasions of the 10th century AD, attackers struck three small fortifications in the valley, leaving behind hundreds of iron arrowheads. There are also mills and settlements from the Carolingian period, three stone castles from the High Middle Ages, and the Christgarten monastery from the Late Middle Ages. The region later witnessed one of the most dramatic episodes of the Thirty Years' War: the famous Battle of Nördlingen on the Albuch, where more than 10,000 soldiers were killed in a single day, accompanied by widespread devastation of the surrounding countryside and villages.
The collection provides a comprehensive overview by bringing together a wide range of research approaches. It demonstrates how pollen analyses from wet archives such as bogs were used to reconstruct past vegetation and to trace how the landscape gradually transformed from dense forest into a cultural landscape shaped by human activity. The volume also presents several student theses. In her master's thesis, Elaine Schneider conducted strontium analyses on animal teeth to investigate grazing patterns and the mobility of livestock. Strontium accumulates in teeth, and since its ratios vary by region, its presence can reveal where animals once grazed. In her bachelor's thesis, Elsa Jansen reconstructed the historical topography of the Retzenbach and Kartäusertal valleys. Other contributions focus on craft production and settlement activity. Jonathan Schmidt examined bronze processing in the Iron Age settlement at Ohrenberg, while Simone Pivesan analyzed evidence for glass melting and the large number of glass artifacts discovered there. The book also includes a historical-topographical landscape study by the Nördlingen-based geologist Kurt Kroepelin, as well as the first presentation of investigations into the funnel- or water-pits used to supply water at the Ipf. As part of her doctoral research, Lisa Bringemeier conducted pollen analyses of sediment cores, providing an important foundation for the reconstruction of past vegetation and agricultural practices.
The detailed scientific studies will later appear in the academic publication series Frankfurter Archäologische Schriften issued by Goethe University Frankfurt's Institute of Archaeological Sciences.
Images and Captions for download: https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/184050433
Publication:
Vier Jahrtausende Kulturgeschichte: Ökosystemforschung im Umfeld des frühkeltischen Fürstensitzes auf dem Ipf. Archäologisch-naturwissenschaftliche Studien am Westrand des Nördlinger Ries. [Four Millennia of Cultural History: Ecosystem Research Around the Early Celtic Princely Seat On the Ipf. Archaeological and natural science studies on the western edge of the Nördlinger Ries], compiled by Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Krause and Prof. Dr. Astrid Stobbe. Bonn: Dr. Rudolf Habelt Verlag 2025. ISBN 978-3-16-148410-0
Further Information
Apl. Prof. Dr. Astrid Stobbe
Institute of Archaeological Sciences
Goethe University Frankfurt
Phone: +49 (0)69 798-32105
E-Mail stobbe@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Krause
Institute of Archaeological Sciences
Goethe University Frankfurt '
E-Mail krause@em.uni-frankfurt.de
This year’s Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prizes will be awarded at Frankfurt’s Paulskirche tomorrow
The Writing On the Genes and the Tumor’s Power Grid
For their discovery of genomic imprinting, developmental biologists Davor Solter and Azim Surani will receive the 2026 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, endowed with €120,000, on March 14 at Frankfurt's Paulskirche. They discovered that we inherit some genes only in one active copy, determined by a molecular mark specifying maternal or paternal origin – thereby laying the foundation for the field of epigenetics. The Early Career Award will be presented to neurologist Varun Venkataramani, who demonstrated that malignant brain tumors accelerate growth by tapping into nerve currents, helping establish the field of cancer neuroscience.
FRANKFURT. A long-standing principle of genetics held that every body cell contains two active copies of each gene. In 1984, Davor Solter and Azim Surani overturned this basic rule. They demonstrated that some genes are only inherited in one active copy – either the maternal or paternal copy is permanently deactivated. Working independently yet in parallel, they used a cell nucleus transplantation technique developed by Solter to show that mouse embryos containing only maternal or only paternal genetic material were not viable – contradicting established doctrine. Their findings revealed that mammals, including humans, require the full genetic contribution of both parents. This sets them apart from species capable of reproducing through parthenogenesis from unfertilized eggs. The underlying mechanism: of the two gene copies inherited from mother and father, some are selectively switched off by epigenetic imprints – small molecular tags attached to DNA. Surani termed this phenomenon genomic imprinting. “This discovery was a turning point in modern genetics," said Prof. Thomas Boehm, Chairman of the Scientific Council. “It showed that our phenotype is not determined by genotype alone, but also shaped by epigenetic marks."
Genomic imprinting is essential for healthy embryonic development, as it balances the competition for limited resources between mother and fetus. Its medical relevance extends far beyond embryology: We know that around one percent of human genes are imprinted, many of them embedded in signaling pathways that influence health and disease in adulthood. The discovery of genomic imprinting gave rise to modern epigenetics – the study of molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression without altering DNA sequence. Epigenetic changes play a key role in cancer, for example – an insight that has already led to the development of targeted therapies.
Brain tumors do not arise from nerve cells, which – with few exceptions – no longer divide. Most are gliomas, originating from glial cells that normally support and nourish nerve cells. Varun Venkataramani discovered that gliomas form synapses with neurons, allowing them to tap into electrical signals that drive tumor growth and spread. Over the past decade, he and his mentors have validated and deepened this unexpected finding, helping establish the field of cancer neuroscience. The work has also opened a new therapeutic avenue: disrupting the tumor's access to neural signaling to halt its growth – an approach currently being tested in a Phase II clinical trial.
Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 2026
https://tinygu.de/csQDp
Davor Solter, born in 1941, is director emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg. He has held visiting professorships in Singapore and Bangkok and now lives in the U.S. state of Maine.
Azim Surani, born in 1945, is a professor at the University of Cambridge in England, where he serves as Director of Germline and Epigenetic Research at the Gurdon Institute.
https://www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/people/azim-surani/
Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize for Young Scientists 2026
https://tinygu.de/EIvyl
Varun Venkataramani, born in 1989, is a neurologist at Heidelberg University Hospital and heads a research group at the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University.
https://venkataramani-lab.com/
Further information
Press Office Paul Ehrlich Foundation
Joachim Pietzsch
Tel: +49 (0)69 36007188
Email:j.pietzsch@wissenswort.com
www.paul-ehrlich-stiftung.de
The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize is the most prestigious medical prize in Germany. It is endowed with 120,000 euros and is traditionally awarded on Paul Ehrlich's birthday, March 14, in Frankfurt's Paulskirche. It honors scientists who have made outstanding contributions in the field of research represented by Paul Ehrlich, particularly in immunology, cancer research, hematology, microbiology and chemotherapy. The prize, which has been awarded since 1952, is financed by the Federal Ministry of Health, the German Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies and earmarked donations from the following companies, foundations and institutions: Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung, Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, C.H. Boehringer Sohn AG & Co KG, Biotest AG, Hans und Wolfgang Schleussner-Stiftung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Fresenius SE & Co KGaA, F. Hoffmann-LaRoche Ltd, Grünenthal Group, Janssen-Cilag GmbH, Merck KGaA, Bayer AG, Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH & Co KG, GlaxoSmithKline GmbH & Co KG, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co AG. The prize winners are selected by the Scientific Council of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation. A list of the members of the Scientific Council is available on the website of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation.
The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Early Career Award, first awarded in 2006, is presented annually by the Paul Ehrlich Foundation to a young scientist working in Germany for outstanding achievements in biomedical research. The prize money of €60,000 must be used for research purposes. University professors and senior scientists at German research institutions are eligible to submit nominations. The winners are selected by the Foundation Board on the recommendation of an eight-member selection committee.
The Paul Ehrlich Foundation
The Paul Ehrlich Foundation is a legally dependent foundation that is administered in trust by the Association of Friends and Sponsors of Goethe University. The honorary president of the foundation, which was established in 1929 by Hedwig Ehrlich, is Professor Dr. Katja Becker, president of the German Research Foundation, who also appoints the elected members of the foundation council and the board of trustees. The Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation is Professor Dr. Thomas Boehm, Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Professor Dr. Jochen Maas. In his capacity as Chairman of the Association of Friends and Sponsors of Goethe University, Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Bender is also a member of the Foundation Council of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation. The president of Goethe University is also a member of the Board of Trustees in this capacity.
Goethe University Frankfurt is a cosmopolitan workshop of the future based in the heart of Europe. Founded in 1914 by Frankfurt citizens, it resumed this tradition as a foundation university in 2008: as an autonomous citizens' university embedded in urban society, both ensuring and offering a high degree of social participation in and support for metropolitan life. With more than 40,000 students, Goethe University Frankfurt is one of Germany's largest and most research-intensive universities and one of Frankfurt's largest employers.
As an internationally oriented comprehensive university, Goethe University Frankfurt's excellent research is clustered along six interdisciplinary, interdepartmental profile areas as well as the diversity of its faculties and subjects, spanning the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, life sciences and medicine. Together with TU Darmstadt and the University of Mainz, it makes up the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) alliance, and is also a member of the "German U15", the association of the 15 most research-intensive German universities. Goethe University Frankfurt is the only university in the “Frankfurt Alliance" network, whose 15 other members consist of non-university research institutions in the Rhine-Main region. www.goethe-universitaet.de/en
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