Christian Wirth Receives Leipzig Science and Humanities Prize 2022

The Leipzig Science and Humanities Prize, worth €10,000, was awarded today in a ceremony at the Alte Handelsbörse. This year's award goes to Professor Christian Wirth, who is a speaker for the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, a professor for special botany and functional biodiversity at Leipzig University and a Max Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena. The prize - which is awarded regularly by the City of Leipzig, Leipzig University and the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig - honours research that meets the highest academic standards and reinforces Leipzig's reputation as a city of science and research with a nationally and internationally recognised research and education landscape. Leipzig's Mayor Burkhard Jung said, "With Professor Wirth, this year we are honouring an outstanding scientist who embodies the purpose of the Leipzig Science and Humanities Award in the best sense. As a speaker for the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Christian Wirth has established a beacon of excellence in science in our city that carries Leipzig's reputation as a city of science and research out into the world and at the same time attracts many bright minds to Leipzig. Whether through the iDiv, the Botanical Garden or the Leipzig Canopy Crane, Professor Wirth has also succeeded in effectively communicating research on biological diversity to our urban society and getting many people excited about this highly relevant subject." "As always, the jury of the Leipzig Science and Humanities Award 2022 had the particularly rewarding but difficult task of choosing a winner from the many high-calibre proposals submitted.