Awarded Archive - Page 3 of 3 - GDNÄ - Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte

Wolfgang Wahlster is a new foreign member of the Czech Academy of Engineering Sciences

On 23 November 2021, the former president of the GDNÄ, Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Wahlster was accepted as a foreign member of the Czech Academy of Engineering Sciences (Cena Inženýrské akademie České republiky, EACR) in Prague.

Professor Wolfgang Wahlster from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is known in the Czech Republic as a scientific pioneer in the field of Industry 4.0 and artificial intelligence. Industrial production is of great economic importance for both the Czech Republic and Germany. In both countries, industrial artificial intelligence is perceived as an innovation driver.

For many years, Wahlster has been cooperating with Professor Vladimír Mařík in Prague, the founder of the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC) at the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU). Together, the two scientists have launched the Research and Innovation Centre on Advanced Industrial Production (RICAIP), which is funded with 50 million euros.

The Czech Academy of Science and Engineering EACR is a partner organisation of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) and represents the Czech Republic in Euro-CASE, the European association of all academies of science and engineering.

Former president of the GDNÄ, Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Wahlster. © DFKI

Lasker Award for GDNÄ member

Professor Dieter Oesterhelt receives high honor for his merits in optogenetics

A pioneer in optogenetics, longtime GDNÄ member and director emeritus at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Professor Dieter Oesterhelt, has been awarded the most prestigious biomedical research prize in the United States.

Oesterhelt will receive the Albert Lasker Award 2021, which is endowed with $250,000, together with his academic student Professor Peter Hegemann of Berlin's Humboldt University and Professor Karl Deisseroth, who conducts research at Stanford University. The three scientists are being honored for the discovery of light-sensitive proteins in the membrane of unicellular organisms and their use in the further development of optogenetics. With their research, the laureates paved the way for numerous medical applications, including new therapeutic approaches to blindness. Many recipients of the Lasker Prize went on to win the Nobel Prize.