Award for Claudia Kemfert: Economist receives Abt Jerusalem Prize

Professor Claudia Kemfert of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin and University of Lüneburg has been awarded this year’s Abt Jerusalem Prize. The prize is awarded jointly by TU Braunschweig, the Regional Church of Braunschweig, the Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft and the Stiftung Braunschweigischer Kulturbesitz and is endowed with 5,000 euros.

The economist, whose research focuses on environmental economics and energy economics, will receive the award at a ceremony in the Riddagshausen monastery church on 25 November. The laudatory speech will be delivered by Prof. Dr. Stefan Heuser of the Institute for Protestant Theology and Religious Education at TU Braunschweig. The award ceremony will be preceded by a colloquium, including a lecture by the award winner and a panel discussion on the topic “Shockwaves over shockwaves: climate crisis, energy crisis, economic crisis – how to kill three birds with one stone”.

For the seventh time, the four founding institutions will honour outstanding scientific contributions to the dialogue between the humanities, natural sciences and engineering.

The award ceremony will be preceded by a scientific colloquium at 2 pm on “Climate, Economy, Energy: Ways out of the multiple crises” at the Marketing Management Institute.

Background on the prize

The prize is named after Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem (1709 – 1789). Jerusalem was court chaplain to the hereditary prince Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, abbot of Riddagshausen, director of the Riddagshausen seminary and co-founder of the Collegium Carolinum, the forerunner of TU Braunschweig. Jerusalem is regarded as a pioneer of the enlightened relationship between faith and reason.