Germany’s most important research funding prize is presented to ten researchers / Prize money of €2.5 million each / Award ceremony to be held in Berlin on 18 March

The latest recipients of the most prestigious research funding prize in Germany have been announced: today, the Joint Committee of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) awarded the 2026 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize to three female and seven male researchers. The selection committee chose the winners from a pool of 144 nominees. Of the ten prizewinners, three work in the humanities and social sciences, two in the life sciences, three in the natural sciences and two in the engineering sciences. The winners each receive €2.5 million in prize money. They are entitled to use the prize money for their research work in any way they wish, without bureaucratic obstacles, for a period of up to seven years. The Leibniz Prizes will be officially presented on 18 March 2026 in Berlin.

The following researchers will receive the 2026 “Funding Prize in the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Programme” awarded by the DFG:

• Professor Dr. Klaus Blaum, Experimental Physics, Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg
• Professor Dr. Christian Doeller, Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig
• Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Hasse, Energy Process Technology, TU Darmstadt
• Professor Dr. Johannes Krause, Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
• Julia Mahamid Ph.D., Structural Biology, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg
• Professor Dr. Klaus-Robert Müller, Machine Learning, TU Berlin
• Professor Dr. Frank Pollmann, Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics, TU Munich
• Professor Dr. Armido Studer, Organic Molecular Chemistry, University of Münster
• Professor Dr. Barbara Vetter, Theoretical Philosophy, FU Berlin
• Professor Dr. Cornelia Zumbusch, Modern German Literature, University of Hamburg

The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize has been awarded annually by the DFG since 1986. Up to ten prizes can be awarded per year, each endowed with prize money of €2.5 million. Including this year’s awards, a total of 438 Leibniz Prizes have been awarded to date. Of these, 104 have gone to the area of humanities and social sciences, 128 to life sciences, 139 to natural sciences and 67 to engineering sciences. The number of award recipients is greater than the number of prizes awarded, as the prize and prize money were shared in some cases. A total of 465 nominees have received the prize to date, including 384 male researchers and 81 female researchers.

Two female and ten male Leibniz prizewinners have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize after being awarded the most important research funding prize in Germany: 1988 Professor Dr. Hartmut Michel (Chemistry), 1991 Professor Dr. Erwin Neher and Professor Dr. Bert Sakmann (both Medicine), 1995 Professor Dr. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (Medicine), 2005 Professor Dr. Theodor W. Hänsch (Physics), 2007 Professor Dr. Gerhard Ertl (Chemistry), 2014 Professor Dr. Stefan W. Hell (Chemistry), 2020 Professor Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier (Chemistry) and Professor Dr. Reinhard Genzel (Physics), 2021 Professor Dr. Benjamin List (Chemistry), 2022 Professor Dr. Svante Pääbo (Medicine) and 2023 Professor Dr. Ferenc Krausz (Physics).


Brief portraits of the 2026 recipients of the Leibniz Prize:


Professor Dr. Klaus Blaum from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg receives the Leibniz Prize for his high-precision measurements of natural constants and symmetries using electromagnetic ion traps.

Klaus Blaum’s research work is characterised by his passion for precision. The physicist aims to determine fundamental physical constants more precisely, to gain a greater understanding of the symmetries and forces of nature, and to scrutinise the Standard Model of particle physics through experimentation. To this end, he traps individual ions in overlapping electric and magnetic fields and measures their properties, such as their mass and magnetic moment. Blaum’s examination of the differences between matter and antimatter has generated some ground-breaking results. Among other things, he achieved the most precise comparison of the mass-to-charge-ratio of protons and antiprotons to date. In addition, he has also attained some important milestones in the field of nuclear physics, such as testing and confirming theoretical predictions of the magnetic moment of an electron in a hydrogen-like tin ion with unprecedented precision. In this type of ion, an electron is exposed to an extremely strong electric field. Blaum also performed the world’s most precise measurement of the maximum energy released as a result of radioactive decay of holmium 163. This is an important result in the context of attempts made around the world to determine the absolute neutrino mass.

Klaus Blaum studied physics at Mainz University, where he also earned his doctorate. In 2000, he started working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva in Switzerland as a research assistant. In 2004, he became the leader of a Helmholtz Investigator Group at Mainz University where he obtained his postdoctoral lecturing qualification in 2006. A year later, he was made a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg. Since 2008, Blaum has also been teaching at the University of Heidelberg as an honorary professor. Blaum has received two ERC Advanced Grants (2011, 2019) and various other prizes including the Stern-Gerlach Medal from the German Physical Society (2025) and the Lise Meitner Prize from the European Physical Society (2020). He is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.


Professor Dr. Christian Doeller from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig receives the Leibniz Prize for his work in the field of cognitive neuroscience and psychology through which he has been providing valuable insights into the structure of human thought processes.

How do human thought processes and the brain work? The psychologist Christian Doeller has been exploring this question for decades. He is a leading memory researcher and his work has led to ground-breaking findings in the field of neuronal spatial cognition, which is the ability of human beings to orient themselves in a physical space, and to apprehend and navigate it. Doeller demonstrated that spatial contexts can also be recoded into abstract categories and that they therefore form the neuronal basis of thinking and decision-making. Among other things, Doeller developed imaging analysis methods that allowed him to detect, for the first time ever, signals in the human brain that correspond to the grid cells. These are cells that were originally found in rats and that provide the animals with a system of coordinates that enables them to determine their own position. Doeller’s findings also help to gain a greater understanding of how and why human brain diseases lead to particular forms of cognitive impairment.

Christian Doeller studied psychology and computer science at the Universities of Bonn and Würzburg, as well as at the HU Berlin, before obtaining his doctorate in psychology at Saarland University. Following a postdoc position at the University College London and work as an Associate Professor and Principal Investigator at Radboud University in Nijmegen in the Netherlands, he accepted a professorship at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. Shortly thereafter, he was made a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters. Doeller received an ERC Starting Grant (2010) and an ERC Consolidator Grant (2016). In 2018,Doeller joined the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, where he is a Director and in charge of the Psychology Department. He is also an honorary professor at the TU Dresden and at Leipzig University, and has been the Vice President of the Max Planck Society since 2023.


Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Hasse from the TU Darmstadt receives the Leibniz Prize for his contributions to the development of innovative combustion processes for climate-neutral energy generation, and in particular for the development of mathematical models as a basis for process assessment and technical implementation.

The biggest goal of the mechanical engineer Christian Hasse is to find solutions for realising the energy transition and tackling other present-day challenges. In pursuing this goal, he has been very successful in bridging the gap between knowledge-driven research and practical application. His work is primarily dedicated to thermofluid phenomena, which are systems in which heat and material are exchanged between a fluid and its environment. Aiming to better understand this type of phenomena, Hasse develops mathematical models and simulation methods that allow for an analysis of reactive flows using high-performance computers. Among other things, his work has provided important foundations for reliable and efficient operation of hydrogen gas turbines that do not emit any CO₂. The starting point of this work is the fact that widely available metals such as iron and aluminium feature great potential for generating, storing and transporting energy and could therefore contribute substantially to a sustainable energy supply.

Christian Hasse studied mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen, where he also earned his doctorate in the same discipline in 2004. After obtaining his doctorate with distinction, he worked in the industrial sector, where he spent close to six years doing research in the area of waste gas purification system development. In 2010, Hasse returned to the field of basic research and accepted a position at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. Since 2017, Hasse has been holding the Chair of Simulation of Reactive Thermo-Fluid Systems at TU Darmstadt. In 2024, he was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for his work and projects in the area of aluminium combustion. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (UK) since 2025.


Professor Dr. Johannes Krause from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig receives the Leibniz Prize for his contributions in the area of archaeogenetics, where he has created an evidence-based foundation for the history of epidemics.

Where are the origins of historic infectious agents and diseases and how did these spread and develop in an evolutionary manner? The biochemist Johannes Krause is able to reconstruct a part of this history. Identifying the Yersinia pestis bacterium as the pathogen that caused the Black Death has been one of the key milestones of his work and played a significant role in establishing ancient pathogen genomics as a discipline that interlinks matters of natural science and cultural studies. Krause has since been exploring the genetic signatures of a range of historic pathogens from human skeletons. Among these are bacteria and parasites that cause diseases such as the plague, tuberculosis, malaria and hepatitis. He was, for example, able to determine that the second plague pandemic started in Central Asia between 1338 and 1339, by combining knowledge gained from old DNA and historic sources from the Tian Shan region. Further milestones of Krause’s work include studies aiming to reconstruct the (pre)historic settlement history on different continents. His work is giving us insights into the ways in which infectious diseases have been part of the history of humankind. This can help us to correct the Eurocentric perspective and raise awareness of global mechanisms.

Johannes Krause studied biochemistry at Leipzig University and University College Cork and obtained his doctorate at Leipzig University in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) in 2008. In 2010, he joined the University of Tübingen where he initially held a junior professorship in palaeogenetics, followed by a W3 professorship in archaeogenetics and palaeogenetics. Between 2014 and 2020, he was a founding director at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, and since 2018 he has also been a Professor of Archaeogenetics at the University of Jena. In 2020, he was made the Director of the Archaeogenetics Department of the MPI-EVA in Leipzig. He received an ERC Starting Grant (2013) as well as an ERC Synergy Grant (2020). He was also awarded a number of prizes including the 2010 AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize and the 2020 Fabio Frassetto Prize. Krause has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina since 2024.


Julia Mahamid, Ph.D., from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg receives the Leibniz Prize for her contributions to the field of in situ structural biology that have taken our understanding of molecular architecture and cellular processes to a new level.

Julia Mahamid explores the spatial structure of biological macromolecules, and in particular of proteins. This type of structural data helps to gain a better understanding of molecular mechanisms of cellular processes and processes caused by illness. Mahamid’s papers are among the most influential of her generation. Further development of modern cryo-electron tomography and an innovative combination of methods are at the core of her successful work. She interlinks a technique in which a focussed ion beam is used to remove an extremely thin layer of frozen cells with a method that combines optical and electron microscopy, and this approach is further enhanced through state-of-the-art AI-assisted image analysis. This approach has led to a number of breakthroughs: among other achievements, she was the first to reconstruct the full dynamics of protein biosynthesis in an intact bacterial cell. She also expanded her approach to include viruses and explained how cellular stress can wake up a “sleeping” virus. This has paved the way for further research into chronic virus-host interactions.

Julia Mahamid studied biology and chemistry at the Israeli Technion and Haifa institutes, as well as at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rechovot, where she completed her doctoral thesis about biomineralisation processes in 2010. In 2011, she accepted a postdoc position at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, and in 2017, she became a Group Leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, where she was made a Senior Scientist in 2021, before becoming the Head of the Molecular Systems Biology Unit in 2024. Mahamid is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) and has received numerous awards, such as the 2023 EMBO Gold Medal, the 2022 Frankfurt Biophysics Prize and the 2021 Ernst Ruska Prize. She is also currently in charge of the TransFORM ERC Synergy Grant.


Professor Dr. Klaus-Robert Müller from the TU Berlin receives the Leibniz Prize for his work in the field of theoretical developments in the area of machine learning and their application in the natural sciences.

Klaus-Robert Müller’s research is characterised by a combination of formal mathematical thought and a strong application-oriented approach. Back in the 1990s, he and Vladimir Vapnik set out the principles for so-called support vector machines (SVM) that are among the most important theoretical developments in the area of machine learning. He also did outstanding theoretical and practical work in the field of deep neural networks. His more recent work is laying the foundations for explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). This research discipline aims at understanding the ways in which AI systems work, as well as explaining how learning algorithms arrive at their predictions. Müller has also performed ground-breaking work related to the use of machine learning in science, with a particular focus on physics and chemistry. He was, for example, successful in using machine learning for predicting solutions to the Schrödinger equations.

Klaus-Robert Müller studied physics at the University of Karlsruhe, where he earned his doctorate in computer science in 1992. He then worked at the GMD information technology research centre (GMD FIRST) in Berlin as a postdoc for two years, followed by a research stay at the University of Tokyo, Japan. Between 1995 and 2008, he was the leader of a research unit at the GMD FIRST in Berlin, which became Fraunhofer FIRST in 2001. In 2003 he accepted a post at the University of Potsdam. He has been a Professor at the TU Berlin since 2006, as well as being the Director of the Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD). He received numerous awards for his research work, including the 2017 Vodafone Innovations Award, the 2023 Hector Research Award and the 2024 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology. Müller is a member of the Leopoldina, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) and the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech).


Professor Dr. Frank Pollmann from the TU Munich receives the Leibniz Prize for his work in the area of theoretical quantum physics, especially regarding statistical mechanics of many-body systems and their links to quantum information theory.

Matter features different characteristics in different phases. Frank Pollmann is particularly interested in topological phases that differ significantly from the usual phases of matter in terms of their energy excitation. These “exotic” phases could serve as components for quantum computers in the future. As a theoretical physicist, Pollmann is also working on predicting specific dynamic properties of such phases and simulating these in model systems. When exploring new phenomena, his focus is on so-called spin-lattice models. In this field, he has developed some ground-breaking methods for numerical simulation of such models, and the algorithms he has made freely available have inspired further research work. His more recent work included an error analysis that demonstrated that existing quantum computers can be used for numerical simulation of topological phases in quantum lattice models. These and other projects have made him a pioneer in the field of scientific computing.

Frank Pollmann studied physics at the TU Braunschweig and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Upon completion of his doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPIPKS) and the TU Dresden in 2006, he conducted research work as a postdoc at the MPIPKS, the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and the Academia Sinica in Taipeh, Taiwan. He returned to Germany in 2011 and became the leader of an independent junior research group at the MPIPKS. In 2016, Frank Pollmann was made an Associate Professor at the TU Munich, before becoming a Full Professor in 2022. He has received numerous scientific awards, such as the Otto Hahn Medal from the Max Planck Society in 2007, the 2015 Walter Schottky Prize from the German Physical Society and an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2017.


Professor Dr. Armido Studer from the University of Münster receives the Leibniz Prize for his work in the field of organic radical chemistry, in particular for developing sustainable synthesis methods with organic radicals.

Armido Studer’s research is driven by creativity and innovation in organic radical chemistry. He develops sustainable synthesis methods with organic radicals. These are reactive molecules that feature at least one unpaired electron. These radicals can be used smartly to facilitate the migration of molecule fragments. As a global pioneer in the field of green radical chemistry, Studer has been able to establish tin-free reactions and to use the so-called TEMPO radical for new forms of transformation of molecules. Studer has been involved in sustainably shaping the field of synthesis chemistry through innovative photocatalysis and triple catalysis, which has inspired some ground-breaking studies concerning the activation of water. Over the past few years, he has been focussing on concrete practical use of the electron as a catalyst. This concept has already been applied in a range of chemical reactions. Furthermore, Studer has also made some visionary contributions in other fields, for example concerning the synthesis of metal nanoparticles and controlled radical polymerisation.

Armido Studer studied at the ETH Zurich where he earned his doctorate in 1995. He then spent a year at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, as a postdoc, and obtained his post-doctoral lecturing qualification at the ETH Zurich in 2000. Following this, he accepted a professorship at the University of Marburg. Since 2004, Armido Studer has been a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Münster. He received numerous international research awards, most recently the 2024 Paracelsus Prize from the Swiss Chemical Society. In 2016 and 2024, he was awarded ERC Advanced Grants. He is a member of the European Academy of Sciences, the Academia Europaea, the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts.


Professor Dr. Barbara Vetter from the FU Berlin receives the Leibniz Prize for her work in the area of modality theory, that is dedicated, among other things, to cognitive approaches to possibilities.

Philosophy has always been concerned with the idea of possibility. A plurality of possible worlds is the domineering model in contemporary analytical philosophy. Barbara Vetter has conducted a fundamental critical review of this model and has developed an alternative concept, the concept of potentiality, in which possibilities are seen as the driving force and capacity of the present-day world. Her paper was praised in expert circles, among other things for its technical virtuosity, and has had considerable impact on current debate. Vetter is now working on further developing this approach in epistemological terms as well as in terms of action theory: how does capability differ from other possibilities, such as predisposition? How do cognitive and practical abilities relate to one another? How can we find out about our own abilities? Her hypothesis is that knowledge of one’s own abilities and options for action forms the foundation of an acting individual’s knowledge of their possibilities. With her work, Vetter contributes to making Germany an internationally interesting place for contemporary analytical metaphysics, epistemology and action theory.

Barbara Vetter studied philosophy at the University of Erlangen and the University of Oxford, where she earned her doctorate in 2010. She became a junior professor at the HU Berlin in late 2010. In 2016, she accepted a post at the University of Erlangen, before taking over her current role as Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the FU Berlin. Vetter has received numerous prestigious awards, such as the Wolfgang Stegmüller Award from the Society for Analytic Philosophy and the Hanfling Scholar of the Faculty of Philosophy Award of the University of Oxford. She is an active member of the management bodies of national and international academic organisations and the co-spokesperson of the Human Abilities DFG Centre for Advanced Studies. In addition, Barbara Vetter is dedicated to counteracting the under-representation of women in philosophy.


Professor Dr. Cornelia Zumbusch from the University of Hamburg receives the Leibniz Prize for her work on German 18th and 19th century literature, and in particular about the relationship between knowledge, science and literature.

How do science and literature interact? This question is addressed in the research field known as the poetics of knowledge, to which Cornelia Zumbusch has made a number of new and decisive contributions with her research work. Zumbusch’s work on the knowledge of literature is located at the interface between literary studies, cultural studies and intellectual history and demonstrates that literature is not only a medium that is on equal footing with science and the humanities, but is also a knowledge-creating and in the broadest sense epistemological force in itself. In her studies on 18th and 19th century literature, Zumbusch has shown how literature interlinks modern-day knowledge with millennia-old formal, pictorial and genre traditions. Her recently published monograph on “romantic thermodynamics” is an impressive account of the ways in which literature is involved in shaping the current debate on energy. Zumbusch is among the most productive and internationally acclaimed literary scholars of her generation, and her reputation reaches far beyond the field of German studies.

Cornelia Zumbusch studied modern German literature, Anglistics, art history and philosophy in Tübingen and Berlin and earned her doctorate at the FU Berlin in 2003. She initially worked at the Department of German Philology of LMU Munich as a research assistant, before gaining her postdoctoral teaching qualification in 2009 with her thesis titled “Die Immunität der Klassik. Reinheit, Schutz und Unempfindlichkeit bei Schiller und Goethe” (“The immunity of classics. Purity, protection and immunity in Schiller and Goethe’s work”). Since 2013, she has been a Professor of Modern German Literature at the Institute for German Studies of the University of Hamburg, focussing on the 18th and 19th century. She has also been a visiting professor at Harvard University in 2020 and at the University of California in 2023. Since 2015, Zumbusch has been the co-director of the Warburg House and co-spokesperson of the DFG Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences "Imaginaria of Force", in whose establishment she was also involved.


Event notice:
The Leibniz Prizes will be presented in the Leibniz Hall of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Berlin at 4 pm on 18 March 2026. The event will also be live streamed. The media will receive a separate invitation.

Further information about the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Programme and the prizewinners

40 years of Leibniz Prizes – a summary in numbers