“Braunschweig Citizens’ Prize” awarded to six students for outstanding achievement and commitment Total prize money of 13,500 euros

For the 29th time, six students from Technische Universität Braunschweig have been awarded the Braunschweig Citizen’s Prize 2024 for their outstanding academic achievements and social commitment. The award ceremony traditionally took place on 6 December.

Four of the six prizes, each worth €1,500, are funded by the “Braunschweig Citizens’ Prize Foundation for Outstanding Student Achievement”. This was established in 1996 by Lieselotte Alter, a committed citizen of Braunschweig who passed away in 2011 at the age of 92. The Soroptimist Club of Braunschweig and Carl Peter Langerfeldt provide an additional prize of 1,500 euros each for the winners. In addition, three needy students at TU Braunschweig will receive a total of €4,500 from the foundation’s funds.

The awardees

Biology MSc student Ronja Friedhoff is exceptionally motivated and enthusiastic about research. During her bachelor’s degree, she was the first author of a research paper published in the prestigious journal PLOS ONE. As the driving force behind the iGEM 2023 team, she won several awards at the finals of the largest international synthetic biology competition in Paris. Her commitment is also reflected in her voluntary support of the current SynBio2024 team and her active participation in the biology section. She has also contributed to six publications with her research on the sequencing of medically relevant plants and has been invited to give a talk on the subject in London.

Lisa-Marie Jalyschko, a master’s student in Transport Engineering, combines scientific innovation with civic engagement and is actively involved in shaping her city. In her bachelor’s thesis, she successfully combined transport science with her experience in local politics. She developed a GIS-based application to optimise the use of parking space in city centres. The app is available to the public on an open source basis and aims to improve the use of public space. The mother of a son is also involved in local politics as an elected honorary councillor and faction leader on the Braunschweig city council.

Luca M. Nieding impressed us with two outstanding bachelor’s degrees in physics and mathematics. Particularly noteworthy is her practical and interdisciplinary bachelor’s thesis in mathematics on the modelling of forest fires, which led to an invitation to an international conference at a Spanish university and to student conferences. She is very good at combining sound, theoretical mathematical and physical knowledge with application-oriented skills. In addition, she is able to communicate this very well through her particular talent for presentation. She demonstrates this when she runs exercises for the Engineering Mathematics lecture in front of several hundred students. She is also active in student self-government, organising exchanges with students from other universities and sharing her enthusiasm for STEM subjects with high school students through a podcast project.

Larissa Ornat is characterised by her scientific curiosity, her excellent academic performance and her strong commitment to the culture of remembrance. In addition to her double burden of a master’s degree in education and a master’s degree in history, which she is completing with excellent results, she takes on responsible tasks as a student assistant at two different chairs. Her commitment to remembrance work is particularly noteworthy: after an internship at the Wolfenbüttel prison, she volunteered to help relatives of victims of National Socialism with translations, correspondence and empathic support. Her commitment builds bridges between the German and Polish cultures of remembrance and combines historical sensitivity with academic work.

Nele Rosenkranz is passionate about combining technology and business in the master’s programme in Industrial Engineering and Management. She was the first student in her family to achieve top grades in the demanding bachelor’s programme of the same name. Her bachelor’s thesis, which she completed with distinction, focused on sustainable recycling strategies for lithium-ion batteries. She is also responsible for the business development of a start-up in the health tech sector, driving the development of solutions for anxiety disorders and phobias. She volunteers as a tutor for underprivileged students.

Georg Schewtschuk stood out during his pharmacy studies. As the best student in his year, he was the only student in Niedersachsen to pass the first state examination with the highest grade of 1.0 – an achievement that only five students in the whole of Germany achieved. In addition to his academic achievements, he has shown exemplary commitment to his fellow students, including tutorials, private tutoring and promoting social cohesion. As captain of the university football team and a former competitive volleyball player, he has demonstrated hard work, resilience and team spirit.