TU Braunschweig cleans up: Three Lower Saxony Science Awards

On 13 November, Lower Saxony’s Minister of Science Falko Mohrs presented the 2025 Lower Saxony Science Award. Three of the award winners were from Technische Universität Braunschweig: Professor Iordania Constantinou and students Ahmad Iqbal Bin Mohd Shahir Shamsir and Luca Madita Nieding. The prize is endowed with a total of €109,000, of which €32,000 goes to TU Braunschweig.

On Thursday evening, the 18th Lower Saxony Science Prize was awarded at the Sprengel Museum in Hannover. Through this prize, Science Minister Falko Mohrs honours exceptional achievements in research, knowledge transfer, teaching, and study. “With the Lower Saxony Science Prize, we honour researchers who push boundaries with curiosity, courage and perseverance. […] The prize recognises exceptional research, while also demonstrating the diversity and dynamism that define science in our federal state. I would like to congratulate all the winners,” said Mohrs. Three of the eight prize winners are from TU Braunschweig. TU President Angela Ittel said “Our university employs people who are passionate about research, teaching, and helping others. Three of them are receiving the Science Award today. They are rethinking teaching methods, supporting international students, and demonstrating how to shape the future. I am proud of them and grateful for their commitment. Congratulations!”

“Excellent Teaching”: Professor Iordania Constantinou

Professor Iordania Constantinou from the Institute of Microtechnology received the 25,000 euro award in the “Excellent Teaching” category. The jury wrote: “Ms Constantinou encourages students to experiment independently, conduct creative research and reflect on their mistakes. She combines theory and practice in an innovative and motivating way, thus preparing students excellently for their final theses and the professional world.”

In her teaching, Iordania Constantinou takes a holistic and interdisciplinary approach, combining engineering and bioscience fundamentals with practical applications. Her dedication to university teaching is evident in her initiation of a teaching project and her publication on evidence-based teaching. She continuously integrates the findings of this publication into her teaching practice.

Her laboratory internship “Introduction to BioMEMS” is particularly noteworthy. “The focus is not on the script, but on the research process: this allows students to pursue their own hypotheses and learn from setbacks,” says Constantinou. For this teaching concept, she and research assistant Hazal Kutluk won the TU Teaching Prize in the “Best Laboratory” category in 2024.

At the age of 29, Constantinou was appointed professor of microsystems for the life sciences. Over the past five years, she has raised over 2.5 million euros in third-party funding, which she has used to set up an interdisciplinary laboratory in which students participate in research projects.

“Student Engagement”: Ahmad Iqbal Bin Mohd Shahir Shamsir

Ahmad Iqbal Bin Mohd Shahir Shamsir, who studies business informatics at TU Braunschweig, was honoured in the “Student Engagement” category and received prize money of 3,500 euros. The jury said: “Through extraordinary commitment, [Mr Iqbal] has […] integrated international students at Technische Universität Braunschweig and beyond, providing personal counselling, facilitating cultural exchange, founding associations, and representing students in university politics. He makes diversity a living reality on campus.”

Iqbal is involved in the Subject Group Council and Student Council of his degree programme, the Student Parliament, and the General Student Committee of TU Braunschweig. He advises international students on study and career issues, and helps them with administrative procedures. “It is important to me to provide new international students with what I lacked at the beginning,” says Iqbal. He established a buddy programme and a digital exchange platform to promote networking within the international community at TU Braunschweig. His latest project is establishing a Malaysian student association.

Originally from Malaysia, Ahmad Iqbal Bin Mohd Shahir Shamsir has been studying at TU Braunschweig since 2018. His bachelor’s thesis on data-driven enterprises makes an important contribution to the digital implementation of sustainable supply chains. In addition, the student and his team won first place at the Young Software Developers’ Day 2024.

“Student Engagement”: Luca Madita Nieding

Another award, worth 3,500 euros, was given in the “Student Engagement” category to Luca Madita Nieding, who recently completed her Master’s degree in Physics at TU Braunschweig. She impressed the jury with her excellent academic achievements in mathematics and physics. “Ms Nieding’s commitment to university politics and voluntary work deserves special recognition,” the jury added.

During her studies, Nieding earned two outstanding bachelor’s degrees in physics and mathematics. She presented her mathematical models on the spread of forest fires at international conferences and published them as the lead author in a conference paper, among other publications. In her current doctoral programme at the Institute for Partial Differential Equations, she is researching advection-diffusion-reaction equations, which have various applications in the life sciences.

Beyond her academic commitments, Nieding is active in student self-government and sits on several committees. “I want to share my enthusiasm for physics and mathematics so that more young people can discover how great STEM subjects are,” she says. To this end, she has launched a podcast project and acts as a mentor for young people in the ROCK YOUR LIFE! e. V. association, providing career guidance. Nieding was already awarded the Braunschweig Citizens’ Prize in 2024 for her commitment.

About the award

The Lower Saxony Science Award has been presented since 2007, and this year it is being presented for the first time in five different categories. Winners are nominated by universities and non-university institutions in Lower Saxony and selected by the Lower Saxony Science Commission. A separate jury was appointed for the “Teaching” category. Several award winners have been represented by the TU Braunschweig, including Prof. Andreas Waag, Prof. Patrick Schwerdtner and Sarah Koop-Brinkmann (2024), Prof. Franziska Neumann and Antonia Schultz (2023), Mandy Hoffmann (2022) and Prof. Arno Kwade and the student initiative MethodAid (2021).