Heidelberg University Student To Get Marie-Luise Jung Prize

For her scientific potential with regard to her doctoral phase, which has now begun, and a subsequent career in academic research, Janin Schokolowski is being honoured as an outstanding master’s graduate of Heidelberg University. A doctoral student at the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht (Netherlands), she is to be the first recipient of the Marie-Luise Jung Prize, initiated jointly by Ruperto Carola with the Constituted Student Body and the Doctoral Convention. The award is being made by the Faculty of Biosciences and commemorates the biology student killed during the shooting in 2022, whose express wish was to embark on such an academic career at Heidelberg University. The award ceremony will take place on 17 April 2023 in the Great Hall of the Old University.

The grounds for awarding the prize to Janin Schokolowski were, besides her wish to earn a doctorate, her coursework results, the overall grade obtained for her master’s degree, and, particularly, the quality and significance of her master’s thesis; this is shown, inter alia, in the fact that her work has already been included in two scientific publications. Her research focuses on the study of biologically relevant cell culture samples in single cell microscopy, for which she develops fluorescent probes for RNA imaging in living cells. “Janin Schokolowski shows a particularly strong sense of purpose and high commitment,” underlines Prof. Dr Rüdiger Hell, Dean of the Faculty of Biosciences. After acquiring a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from 2016 to 2019, Janin Schokolowski completed a consecutive master’s in biochemistry before transferring for her doctoral studies to the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research in Utrecht in September 2022.

Prof. Dr Bernhard Eitel, Rector of Heidelberg University, will open the award ceremony, followed by Peter Abelmann on behalf of the Constituted Student Body and Franziska Grün, representing the Doctoral Convention. Prof. Dr Walter Nickel, Dean of Studies for biochemistry at the Faculty of Biosciences, will give the tribute to Janin Schokolowski. After the presentation of the award by Rector Eitel, the prize-winner will report on her scientific work. The concluding words will come from the victim’s lawyer and a member of the Jung family. The event will be framed musically by University Music Director Michael Sekulla at the piano and Caroline Werkle, from Heidelberg University’s Collegium Musicum, playing the cello.

In the middle of last year, the Rectorate and the governing bodies of the Constituted Student Body and the Doctoral Convention decided, in consultation with the Faculty of Biosciences and the victim’s family, that a prize would be initiated in memory of the 23-year-old student who lost her life, and financed over a period of 20 years. The Marie-Luise Jung Prize comes with 1,500 euros in prize money. In this context, it was also decided that a community day would be organised once a year for first-year students of biosciences, to conclude with the academic awarding of the prize.