Awards to researchers from the USA, Denmark, Germany, and China
Sustainability Awards presented by the Nobel Sustainability Trust
The awardees will be presented at the 4th Summit of the Nobel Sustainability Trust from November 20 to 21, 2024, in San Francisco. Eligible for the award are individuals from science and industry, as well as organizations and companies that promote the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
About the Awardees
Category: Leadership in Implementation
Swiss-born Dr. Mathis Wackernagel is the co-founder of the concept of the ecological footprint. He is President of the non-profit organization Global Footprint Network based in the USA. The think tank is known for its annual campaign "Earth Overshoot Day," which marks the date when humanity has used up all the natural resources that the Earth can provide in a year.
Category: Outstanding Research and Development in Agriculture
Prof. Klaus Butterbach-Bahl is a German biogeochemist and head of the Danish Pioneer Center for Landscape Research in Sustainable Agricultural Future Trends at Aarhus University. He also conducts research at the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Atmospheric Environmental Research (IMK-IFU) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. His research focuses on quantifying the environmental impacts of agriculture, particularly in relation to greenhouse gases.
Category: Outstanding Research and Development in Water
Prof. Jiuhui Qu is the former Director of the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a Distinguished Professor at Tsinghua University – a flagship partner of TUM. He has developed a comprehensive technical system "from source to tap," ensuring safe drinking water in both urban and rural areas while addressing water risks. This initiative has positively impacted more than 200 million people in China and around the world.
Peter Nobel, Chairman of the Nobel Sustainability Trust, said: “Solving natural resource scarcity, such as water, or adopting sustainable agricultural practices, involve not only scientific breakthroughs but also requires technological innovation, political efforts, and incentives from non-profit organizations. This is what we want to push forward through the Sustainability Awards. The NST is therefore proud of this year's selection of the three distinguished researchers who all - on an international scale - have addressed the current and future environmental challenges linked to the climate crisis.”
Prof. Michael Molls, Director of the TUM Institute for Advanced Study (TUM-IAS), emphasized: “It takes interdisciplinary research and staying power to achieve sustainability. TUM focuses on interdisciplinary research and sustainability. Together with the NST, we can recognize outstanding results and implementations in science-led sustainability. The outstanding contributions of our three awardees in deepening research and development on sustainability topics and in sharing knowledge beyond their community reflect our mission.”
About the Awards
The Sustainability Awards recognizes distinguished individuals, organizations, or companies in different fields for their contribution to fostering, innovating, and implementing sustainable solutions for the well-being of our society, economy, and planet at present and in the future.
The TUM Institute for Advanced Study (TUM-IAS) oversees the two-stage competitive selection process. The selection committee consists of internationally renowned experts from academia and industry. The final award committee is composed of professors from TUM. The total prize amount is up to 1.3 million Swedish kronor annually, provided by the Nobel Sustainability Trust.
Technical University of Munich
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Contacts to this article:
Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Michael Molls
Director of TUM-IAS
Technical University of Munich
Tel. +49.89.289.10555
molls.michael@tum.de
