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Bright Minds, Green Topics

The University of Bayreuth Sustainability Award for Final Theses 2025 goes to Helen Regina, Alisa Hanft and Laetitia Wendt. They have delivered outstanding academic work in the field of sustainability.

Photos: Tristan Kuhlmann ·

As part of the University of Bayreuth’s Sustainability Week, University President Prof. Dr. Stefan Leible presented the 2025 Sustainability Award for final theses. The award ceremony, followed by a lecture, was embedded within a week of talks, workshops and guided tours, all designed to offer insights into the university’s research activities, solution strategies, and the lived commitment of students to sustainability in all its facets. The award winners were selected by a jury made up of representatives from the university management, GreenCampus, the Student Parliament, and the University Association.

First prize was awarded to Helen Regina for her Master's thesis entitled “Investigation of protein content and amino acid profiles in five commercially available seaweeds for human consumption.” The thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Susanne Baldermann and Dr. Maria Fitzner (Chair of Food Metabolome).

Second prize went to Alisa Hanft for her Master's thesis on “Development and comparison of AI-based and analytical models for photovoltaic forecasting.” The work was supervised by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Fischerauer and Onno Bremer (Chair of Measurement and Control Systems).

Third prize was awarded to Laetitia Wendt for her Bachelor's thesis titled “A normative argument for a militant climate democracy.” The thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Gabriel Wollner (Chair of Social and Political Philosophy).

The ceremony was rounded off with a keynote by Prof. Dr. Maren Urner, Professor of Sustainable Transformation at the University of Applied Sciences Münster, neuroscientist, and bestselling author. Her lecture, “Why sustainability always starts in the mind,” argued against the common assumption that the brain separates emotion from rational decision-making. The neuroscientist called for a new kind of maturity test to help society confront the major challenges of the climate crisis. In a lively discussion afterwards, audience questions and ideas were addressed and explored in light of both individual and collective capacities for action.

The event was hosted by Prof. Dr. Susanne Tittlbach, Vice President for Digitalisation, Innovation and Sustainability, together with Lena Roth and Anna Krombacher from GreenCampus.

Prof. Dr. Susanne Tittlbach (left) with guest speaker Prof. Dr. Maren Urner.

The Sustainability Award was endowed by the University Association of Bayreuth and Sparkasse Bayreuth.

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