PhD Award

PhD Award in water chemistry of the Society of Water Chemistry

- supported by the Walter Kölle Foundation -

The Society of Water Chemistry of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) has awarded the water chemistry PhD Award annually since 1992. The prize recognizes outstanding dissertations that have made significant contributions to the advancement of a water chemistry topic and have received an overall grade of "very good" or better. The award includes a certificate and €1,500 in prize money provided by the Walter Kölle Foundation. The award ceremony traditionally takes place during the Society of Water Chemistry's annual conference, "WASSER." A committee appointed by the Division Board decides on the award.

Current call for proposals: PhD Award in water chemistry 2026

Submission deadline: October 31, 2025

Objective
The Society of Water Chemistry Division of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) awards the water chemistry PhD Award once a year – sponsored by the Walter Kölle Foundation – to recognize an outstanding dissertation that makes an important contribution to the further development of a water chemistry topic.

The price
The award comes with a certificate and a cash prize of €1,500, sponsored by the Walter Kölle Foundation. The prize will be presented at the WASSER 2026 annual conference, which will take place in Kiel from May 11-13, 2026. The awardee will be invited to present their award-winning work in a scientific lecture during the Conference . The conference costs will be borne by the Division. A committee appointed by the Division Board will decide on the award.

nomination
Nominations are generally made by the academic supervisor; self-nominations are expressly excluded. The doctorate was completed after November 1, 2023, and before October 31, 2025 (examination date). The dissertation was rated with an overall grade of "very good" or better. All nominations must include the following documents:

     

  • Nomination letter from the academic supervisor
  • At least one further reference (preferably doctoral reports and grades of the reports)
  • Summary of the dissertation (max. 3 pages)
  • Doctoral certificate
  • complete dissertation
  • publications relevant to the dissertation
  • Short CV in tabular form including contact details (email address) and list of publications, patents and conference contributions

submission
Please send your proposal by email and summarized in a PDF file to the GDCh Office for the attention of Maike Fries.

PhD Award in water chemistry 2025

The PhD Award in water chemistry was awarded to Dr. Jonathan Zweigle on 26 May 2025 at WASSER 2025 in Münster:

"[...] in recognition of his outstanding dissertation entitled "Characterization and Identification of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the Environment and Consumer Products via High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry and Oxidative Conversion," completed in the working group of Prof. Dr. Christian Zwiener at the University of Tübingen. In his dissertation, Dr. Zweigle made significant progress in the development of analytical screening methods using high-resolution mass spectrometry and the identification of PFAS in products and environmental samples. The approaches developed by Dr. Zweigle were implemented in the open-source tool "PF∆Screen," which offers the scientific community a PFAS-optimized workflow for data analysis of HRMS data. Furthermore, Dr. Zweigle successfully further developed the PFAS sum parameter TOP assay in PhotoTOP, thereby not only circumventing problems of the TOP assay but also characterizing fluorinated side-chain polymers in solid samples."

PhD Award in water chemistry 1992ff

Year awardee Place of award
2025 Dr. Jonathan Zweigle, Tübingen Muenster
2024 Dr. Lotta Hohrenk-Danzouma, Essen
Dr. Joanna Maria Houska, Lausanne/CH
Limburg an der Lahn

2023

Dr. Christian Schwaferts, Munich

augsburg

2022

Dr. Elisabeth von der Esch-Letica, Munich
Dr. Alexander Weizel, Koblenz

on-line

2021

Dr. Peter Carl, Berlin
Dr. Gerrit Renner, Essen

on-line

2020

Dr. Fabian Fischer, Leipzig (awarded in 2021)

on-line

2019 Dr. Tobias Bader, Langenau
Dr. Jens Müller, Rostock

Erfurt

2018

Dr. Stefan Bieber, Munich
Dr. Kevin Jewell, Koblenz

Papenburg

2017

Dr. Allan Philippe, Landau

Donaueschingen

2016

Dr. Thorsten Hüffer, Vienna/AT

Bamberg

2015

Dr. Holger Lutze, Essen
Dr. Aki Sebastian Ruhl, Berlin

Schwerin

2014

Dr. Elisabeth Neubauer, Vienna/AT

Haltern am See

2013

Dr. Carsten Prasse, Koblenz
Dr. Marco Scheurer, Karlsruhe

Goslar

2012 Dr. Arne Wick, Koblenz

New Ulm

2011 Dr. Manuela Peschka, Hamburg
Dr. Alexander Sperlich, Berlin
Norderney
2010 Dr. Markus Florian Bauer, Bayreuth Bayreuth
2009 Dr. Satoshi Endo, Duisburg Stralsund
2008 Dr. Stefan Weiß, Vienna/AT trier

2007

./.

Passau

2006 Dr. Anja These, Berlin
Tobias Wagner, Karlsruhe

Celle

2005 Dr. Margit Müller, Karlsruhe

Bad Mergentheim

2004 Dr. Till Merkel, Ulm

Bad Saarow

2003 Dr. Monique Bissen, Karlsruhe Stade
2002 Dr. Roland Schick, Berlin
Dr. Rudi Winzenbacher, Berlin

Eichstätt

2001 Dr. Martin Seifert, Munich
Dr. Wolfgang Uhl, Duisburg

Bad Wildungen

2000 Dr. Thilo Hofmann, Dortmund Weimar
1999 Dr. Hilmar Börnick, Dresden
Dr. Gudrun Gräbe, Karlsruhe
regensburg
1998 Dr. Achim Gahr, Munich
Dr. Jürgen Lorenz, Karlsruhe

Lübeck

1997 Dr. Reiner Enders, Berlin
Dr. Roland Püschel, Hamburg

Lindau

1996 ./.

Koblenz

1995 Dr. Jutta Jahnel, Karlsruhe
Dr. Norbert Klaas, Stuttgart

Hitzacker

1994 Dr. Jürgen Ritz, Berlin

Coburg

1993 Dr. Stefan Huber, Karlsruhe
Dr. Iris Hübner, Mainz

Badenweiler

1992 ./.

Dresden

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last modified: 07.07.2025 18:29 H from Translator