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The German Society for Immunology e.V. (DGfI) annually awards the Otto-Westphal Thesis Prize to one of its members. The prize is awarded for the best dissertation on the subject of immunology that was successfully completed in a German-speaking country during the last calendar year (as determined by the date of the oral exam). Self-nomination and nomination by others is possible. The prize carries a prize money of 1,500 EUR.
The prize is named after Prof. Dr. Otto Westphal (1913-2004), founding director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Immunobiology in Freiburg as well as founding member and long-standing president (1967-1976) of the German Society for Immunology e.V. as a chemist Otto Westphal was particularly interested in the structure and function of bacterial cell wall components. He is especially noted for his ground-breaking work on the elucidation of the endotoxic function of lipopolysaccharides. He also characterized numerous antigens from gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria using immunochemical methods.
The Otto-Westphal Thesis Prize 2024 prize is awarded with the kind support of Biotest AG.
The application deadline is 31. January 2025.
Please apply with the following documents:
1. Cover letter incl. CV and publication list
2. Summary of the most important findings (1 page max.)
3. Letter of support by the academic supervisor
4. Dissertation
5. All documents apart from the dissertation must be submitted in English.
6. The applicant must be member of the DGfI at the time of application.
Please send all required documents combined into one single PDF file (max. 10MB) to:
Theresa Hoppe
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Immunologie e.V.
c/o DRFZ
Charitéplatz 1
10117 Berlin, Germany
mail@dgfi.org
Further information:
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Tobias Bopp
E-Mail: boppt@uni-mainz.de
Previous prize winners:
‘Prize of the DGfI for the best dissertation’
1976
Michael Schneider, Göttingen
1977
Annegret Starzinski-Powitz, Mainz
‘Otto-Westphal Thesis Prize’
1978
Stefan Becker, Mainz
1980
Bernhard Liesegang, Köln / Andreas Radbruch, Köln
1982
Anton Rolink, Basel
1984
Marianne Brüggemann, Köln
1986
Robert Strohal, Innsbruck
1989
Ulrich Pessara, Heidelberg
1991
Ulrich E. Schaible, Pforzheim
1993
Kirsten Falk, Tübingen / Harald Kropshofer, Heidelberg / Ralf Kühn, Köln / Olaf Rötzschke, Tübingen
1995
Daniel Graf, London
1997
Mario Assenmacher, Köln
1998
Christina Berndt, Heidelberg
1999
Andreas Hutloff, Berlin
2000
Max Löhning, Berlin
2001
A. K. Nussbaum, La Jolla (USA) / M. Kraus, Boston (USA)
2002
Karsten Fischer, Berlin
2003
Melanie Laschinger, Bad Nauheim
2004
Markus Feuerer, Berlin
2005
Jan C. Dudda, Freiburg/Seattle (USA)
2006
Niklas Feldhahn, Düsseldorf
2007
Tim Worbs, Hannover
2008
Marcus Lettau, Kiel
2009
Michaela Gack, Boston (USA)
2010
Tim Lämmermann, NIH, NIAID, Bethesda (USA)
2011
Swantje Hammerschmidt, Hannover
2012
Lesly Calderón Dominguez, Freiburg
2013
Elina Kiss, Freiburg
2014
Eva Bär, Zürich (Schweiz)
2015
Alexander Ulges, Mainz
2016
Veit Buchholz, München
2017
Anna Brewitz, Bonn
2018
René Pfeifle, Erlangen
2019
Robin Graf, Berlin
2020
Julia Kolter, Freiburg
2021
Tim Wartewig, München
2022
Sebastian Baasch, Freiburg
2023
Timo Rückert, Berlin
2024
Jonas Schulte-Schrepping, Bonn