Outstanding "sustainable" final theses
The 2023 Sustainability Award for theses at the University of Bayreuth goes to Lion Schumacher, Annika Fischer and Mirna Al Masri. They showed "outstanding scientific achievements in the field of sustainability", says the jury.
"Sustainability" is a top priority at the University of Bayreuth, especially since it was one of the first universities in Bavaria to adopt a binding sustainability strategy across all areas. One measure of the strategy is the sustainability prize for theses. The prize is awarded by the President of the University, Prof. Dr. Stefan Leible.
Lion Schumacher won first place this year with his Master's thesis on "Mesoporous SrTiO3 and SrTiO3/TiO2 composites for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution and water splitting". The jury finds that his work makes a valuable contribution to the emission-free synthesis of "green hydrogen".
Schumacher was able to demonstrate an increase in photocatalytic activity of more than 40 % and also develop a novel synthesis for SrTiO3 that allows the temperature to be reduced to 550 °C. This makes the synthesis of hydrogen much easier. This makes the synthesis of hydrogen significantly cheaper and more resource-efficient. The supervisor of the work was Prof. Dr. Roland Marschall from the Chair of Physical Chemistry III.
Second place went to Annika Fischer with her bachelor's thesis on "Investigation of the degradation behaviour of polyolefin films under artificial weathering". In it, she investigated the change in physical, chemical and mechanical properties during photo-oxidation under artificial weathering.
The jury judges: Her research has improved knowledge about the degradation of plastics in the environment. It thus makes an important contribution to the understanding of the formation of microplastics. The supervisors of the work were Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Ruckdäschel and Teresa Menzel (M.Sc.) from the Department of Polymer Materials.
Mirna Al Masri won third place with her Master's thesis on "Cross-cultural comparison of sustainable diet perception between Global South and Global North countries using the Fake Food Buffet".
She was able to find out that cultural background has a significant influence on eating behaviour and that most participants in a study did not realise that there is an overlap between sustainable and healthy nutrition. Therefore, measures are needed on a global level that take cultural differences into account in order to improve people's understanding of the benefits and risks of their eating behaviour (healthy and sustainable). This was also worthy of a prize from the jury. The supervisor of the work was Jun.-Prof. Dr. Laura König from the Junior Professorship Public Health Nutrition.
The award ceremony was rounded off with a lecture by Prof. Dr. Torsten Weber from CBS International Business School on the topic of "Corporate sustainability - real innovation driver or just a cool fig leaf? Prof. Weber particularly addressed the pressure points in the topic of sustainability for organisations, success factors in sustainability management, the danger of greenwashing and best practice cases from medium-sized businesses and sports. In a lively discussion, questions and ideas from the audience were taken up and discussed concretely against the background of the challenges at the University of Bayreuth. Prof. Dr. Susanne Tittlbach (Vice President for Digitalisation, Innovation and Sustainability), Anna Krombacher and Sebastian Kindig from GreenCampus led through the event. In addition, before and after the award ceremony, sustainable initiatives presented themselves in the foyer of the SWO conference room and showcased the great sustainability commitment of students at the University of Bayreuth.
The Sustainability Award was once again donated by the Universitätsverein Bayreuth e.V. this year. The award winners were selected by a jury consisting of members of the university management, GreenCampus, the student parliament and the university association. The award ceremony was embedded in a whole week of lectures, workshops, panel discussions and guided tours that gave insights into the university's research activities, solution strategies and the lived engagement of students in all facets of sustainability.
Contact:
Sebastian Kindig
c/o GreenCampus Universität Bayreuth
Tel.: +49 (0) 921 55 3463
Anja-Maria MeisterPR Spokesperson of the University of Bayreuth
Universitätsstraße 30
D - 95447 Bayreuth
Phone: +49 (0) 921 / 55 - 5300
Mail: anja.meister@uni-bayreuth.de