On Wednesday, 10 September 2014, the Polish-German Scientific Award COPERNICUS was conferred at a ceremony in Berlin. In the Leibniz Room at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, DFG President Prof. Peter Strohschneider and FNP President Prof. Maciej Żylicz presented the award to this year?s winners:
- Prof. Marek Żukowski of the University of Gdańsk
- Prof. Harald Weinfurter of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
The ceremony featured a lecture from Dr Gunter Pleuger, Rector of the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). A laudation, which also summarised the two scholars? joint research, was given by Prof. Otfried Gühne of the University of Siegen. The award-winners were also congratulated by Prof. Włodzisław Duch, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, who presented them with congratulatory letters from Prof. Lena Kolarska-Bobińska, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland.
The COPERNICUS Award is a joint venture of the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) and German Research Foundation (DFG). Its objective is to award the most active participants in Polish-German scientific collaboration who are able to demonstrate an outstanding research output. The award amounts to 100,000 euro (50,000) euro for each winner).
The Polish beneficiary receives a personal prize of 20,000 euro as well as 30,000 euro to spend on continuing Polish-German collaboration, especially support of young scholars.