The historian Dr. Christopher Degelmann and the physicist Dr. Dominika Wylezalek are to be awarded the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize 2024 of the German Research Foundation for their scientific achievements. The two academics received funding as part of the Daimler and Benz Foundation’s scholarship program for junior professors and postdocs.

As an ancient historian, Christopher Degelmann from the Humboldt University of Berlin’s Department of History links together historical and contemporary issues. In his research, he investigates the significance of ancient heritage for our conception of ourselves today. He looks at the practice of Athenian democracy, for example, and examines the impact of fake news, rumors, clothing, beards and verbal abuse against politicians.

The astrophysicist Dominika Wylezalek from the Center for Astronomy at Heidelberg University is researching the formation of galaxies and the role played by black holes at their centers. In a NASA research project, she collected data from the James Webb Space Telescope and found a cluster of galaxies that formed around ten billion years ago. This observation enhances our understanding of how galaxies in the early universe merged to form today’s cosmic web. The Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize of the German Research Foundation is the country’s most important award for scientific careers. The prize for 2024 will be bestowed on six male and four female researchers at the award ceremony on June 4.