Awards for Junior Academics
Every year, a number of prizes are awarded to graduate students and doctoral candidates who have recently finished their doctorate at the University of Siegen for outstanding scientific achievements, sometimes in cooperation with the region. The exact criteria can be found in the respective guidelines; an overview can be found below.
Please direct alle enquiries to Ms Kathrin L. Wagner:
E-Mail: wagner@rektorat.uni-siegen.de
Phone: +49 271 740-4074
Personal Consultant for Students and Junior Faculty of the Prorectorate for Students and Junior Faculty, Diversity, and International Affairs
Call for nominations:
The deadline for the DAAD Prize and the Prize for Services in Internationalization is 15 September 2026.
Please note: The application deadline for the Historian Award of the Dirlmeier Foundation has been extended to 31 July 2026.
The application deadline for all other junior researcher prizes expired on 1 June 2026.
- Prerequisites
- Graduation from a school in the district of Altenkirchen
- Practical benefit for the economy
- or cooperation with companies located in the district of Altenkirchen
- or business- or economy-related structural investigation of issues concerning the district of Altenkirchen
- Focus of Support
- Doctoral, diploma, master's or bachelor's thesis
- Endowment
- EUR 2,000
- In case of splitting: 2 × EUR 1,500
- Guidelines
- Guidelines (in German only)
- Prerequisites
- Particularly outstanding final theses
- Engineering, natural sciences or economics as subject area
- Practical applicability of the research
- Example of practice-oriented research and technology transfer from university to industry
- Focus of Support
- Doctoral, diploma, master's or bachelor's thesis
- Endowment
- EUR 4,000
- The award will be split between two theses
- Guidelines
- Guidelines (in German only)
- Prerequisites
- Particularly qualified thesis that opens up a historical perspective in terms of content and methodology
- Focus of Support
- Especially dissertations and habilitation theses
- Endowment
- EUR 1,000
- Possibility of a separate application for printing subsidies
- Guidelines
- Guidelines (in German only)
- Prerequisites
- Particularly qualified thesis
- Focus of Support
- Especially dissertations and habilitation theses
- Endowment
- EUR 1,000
- Guidelines
- Guidelines (in German only)
- Prerequisites
- Particularly high quality of examination performance
- Foreign citizenship
- Focus of Support
- Dissertations
- Endowment
- EUR 1,000
- Guidelines
- Guidelines (in German only)
Further awards
If you have any questions about the following awards, please get in touch with the contact persons listed:
International Awards
The DAAD prize is awarded annually by the German Academic Exchange Service (with funding from the German Federal Foreign Office) to an outstanding foreign student or doctoral candidate who has distinguished themselves through notable academic achievement and in particular superlative engagement in societal or intercultural affairs.
The next call for applications for the DAAD Prize 2026 is open now. Suggestions can be handed in to Kathrin L. Wagner (wagner@rektorat.uni-siegen.de) until 15 September 2026. Please find the guidelines here (in German).
The report form can be found here.
The award winners of previous years:
| 2025 | Juliana Berrío Uribe | Master student in Engineering of Hydro-Enviromental Extremes | Presse release |
| 2024 |
Charles Otieno Ogalla |
Doctoral candidate in Micro- and Nanoanalytics |
Presse release |
| 2023 |
Kirill Perstenkov | Bachelor student in business administrations | Presse release |
| 2022 |
Salwa Shaglel | Master student in physics | Presse release |
| 2021 |
Yalda Yazdani | Doctoral candidate in music | Presse release |
| 2020 |
Sabrina-Maria Anderson | Master student in political sciences | Presse release |
| 2019 |
Subramahmanya Siddharda Chelluri | Master student physics | Presse release |
| 2018 |
Amr Nahhas | Master student in mechatronics | Presse release |
| 2017 |
Talish Babayev |
Master student in business administrations | Presse release |
The Gesellschaft der Freunde und Förderer der Universität Siegen e.V. awards an annual “Prize for Services in Internationalization” [Preis für internationales Engagement] at the University of Siegen. It honors notable efforts to drive internationalization at the University of Siegen and encourages a comprehensive approach to internationalization that encompasses research, instruction, and administration. The guidelines can be viewed here. (Currently available only in German.).
The next call for applications for the Prize for Services in Internationalization 2026 is now open. Suggestions can be handed in to Kathrin L. Wagner (wagner@rektorat.uni-siegen.de) until 15 September 2026.
The award winners of previous years:
| 2024 |
Michael Daub |
Examination Office Faculty III |
|
| 2023 | Prof. Dr. Hubert Roth (em) |
Lehrstuhl- für Regelungs- und Steuerungstechnik |
Contact: Prorectorate for Students and Junior Faculty, Diversity, and International Affairs (prorektorat-ndi@uni-siegen.de)
Wolfgang-Popp-Preis
The Center for Gender Studies Siegen (Gestu_S) awards the Wolfgang Popp award for gender studies to outstanding final theses (master's theses, diploma theses) that deal with topics of gender studies.
Contact: Dr Uta Fenske (uta.fenske@uni-siegen.de)