Siegener Assistant Professor Receives Teaching Award
The recipients of the Young University Faculty Award: Assistant Professor Dr. Anna Katharina Beine from the University of Siegen (2nd from the right), Assistant Professor Dr. Jens Bremer from Clausthal University of Technology (center), and Dr. Carolin Mügge from Ruhr University Bochum (2nd from the left).
She knows how to convey excellent expertise in an accessible way and connect it to real-world applications: Assistant Professor Dr. Anna Katharina Beine of the University of Siegen has been honored by a jury with the Young Faculty Award for Biotechnology, Chemical Engineering, and Process Engineering. The researcher from the Chair of Energy Process Engineering has now received the award, which comes with a prize of 1,000 euros. The prize is awarded by the Education and Innovation Section of DECHEMA, the Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, and the Association of German Engineers (VDI). A total of three prizes were awarded. “We are very pleased about this award because it exemplifies our commitment: Excellent research at the University of Siegen should also be reflected in excellent teaching,” says Prof. Dr. Stefanie Reese, Rector of the University of Siegen. “Our faculty members thereby lay the foundation for students to think in a scientifically sound manner while also taking on responsibility for the challenges of tomorrow.”
Jun.-Prof. Beine prevailed in a two-stage selection process. In the final round, five selected candidates were invited to present their teaching lectures. The top three received an award. Assistant Professor Beine spoke on the topic “From Biomass to Chemical Products—How Catalysis and Process Development Enable the Defossilization of the Chemical Industry.” Her presentation impressed both the audience and the jury. “This award means a great deal to me personally. For me, it is a special recognition of my work in teaching and my commitment to the students,” says Assistant Professor Beine.
Teaching at the University of Siegen
Beine is an assistant professor of energy and process engineering at the University of Siegen. Her professorship combines energy and process engineering. In addition to her research, she designs and teaches courses, supervises theses, and supports early-career researchers, for example through targeted mentoring. Together with lecturers from industry, she regularly organizes field trips to companies so that students can experience what they’ve learned in lectures in a practical setting. She offers lab experiments for both bachelor’s and master’s students. In interactive learning formats focused on the use of renewable energy sources, students develop lecture and lab content themselves and then deliver their own lectures.
In 2023, Beine was appointed to the University of Siegen. Previously, she studied chemistry at RWTH Aachen University and earned her Ph.D. there; she then worked and conducted research as a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mülheim an der Ruhr.
In addition to Beine, Jens Bremer, an assistant professor at Clausthal University of Technology, and Dr. Carolin Mügge from Ruhr University Bochum were awarded the Young University Teacher Prize.
