Media release: four science prizes 2026

The German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG) awards four early career scientists for their excellent research: Dr Michelle Rönspies reduced the number of chromosomes in plants for the first time. What plants were already capable of millions of years ago, has been shown by Dr Jaccoline Zegers. How climate change menaces arctic kelp forests was revealed by Dr Sarina Niedzwiedz. And Dr Paul Grünhofer has challenged long-standing assumptions about poplars’ protecting surfaces. They will receive the awards honouring their scientific findings on 9^th September 2026, during the International Conference of the DBG at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany. Three of the awardees will present their research results in a plenary lecture at DBG’s international conference, the Botanik-Tagung, where almost 500 plant scientists are expected to participate. But what exactly is the scientific excellence of the award-winning papers and theses? 

Photos of each of the four awardees as well as additional images with studied plants and a graph summarizing the study on chromosomes can be downloaded here:

This year’s Eduard Strasburger Prize of the German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG) will be awarded to Dr Michelle Rönspies from Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) for her paper published in the journal Science. In this paper Dr Rönspies, as the lead author, demonstrates for the first time that the gene scissors CRISPR/Cas can be used to restructure even large fragments of plants’ genomes without impairing growth or development. In two consecutive steps, she succeeded in transferring both arms of chromosome number three to one or two other chromosomes, respectively, thereby creating a new karyotype in the model plant thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana): plants with eight instead of the natural ten chromosomes. Using the CRISPR/Cas gene scissors in this way, Dr Rönspies was thus able to experimentally replicate a process in the laboratory that is quite common in nature and through the course of evolution, but has never been shown before in plants. Although crosses between the new plants and unmodified plants produced fewer seeds, these were as fertile as unmodified plants. Dr Rönspies’ work also demonstrates the remarkable resilience of plant genomes to extensive structural rearrangements and provides novel opportunities for basic research. In the long term, these results open up new avenues in plant breeding e.g. for genetically isolating crops from their wild relatives in order to prevent unwanted outcrossing. In breeding programs, the results could be used to create stress- and climate change-resilient plants for sustainable agriculture. Dr Rönspies will receive the Eduard Strasburger Award, which is endowed with 2,500 Euros from the foundation of the publisher Springer-Spektrum, from DBG’s president, Professor Andreas Weber, on September 9, 2026. She is invited to present her research results in a plenary lecture at this year’s Botanik-Tagung in Bochum, the biannual and international Conference of the German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG). The jury faced a difficult task in making their selection, as they had received many outstanding nominations.

Long before plants conquered land, their algal ancestors had already begun to evolve mechanisms to cope with drought and water stress. How the ancestors of land plants regulated these features on the molecular level and with hormones, was studied by Dr Jaccoline Zegers in her PhD thesis at the University of Göttingen, for which she is now awarded with DBG’s Wilhelm Pfeffer Prize. To reconstruct evolution as it occurred millions of years ago, Dr Zegers established new methods for several species from the group of Zygnematophyceae, which are the closest relatives of land plants. In contrast to better-studied model species, these methods have not been applied to Zygnematophyceae. Through bioinformatic genome comparisons, Dr Zegers revealed similar protective mechanisms in these algae and land plants before they conquered land, such as a flexible cell wall. However, the hormonal signals that regulate dehydration defence strategies, for example, through the hormone abscisic acid, changed later in evolution. Dr Zeger’s genome studies and bioinformatic analyses were not only published in renowned journals but are now also available as robust methods and substantial datasets (transcriptomes and proteomes) for basic research to further analyse the evolution of complex traits in plants. Although Dr Zegers now works for a company, she still loves to analyse algae in her free time. She will receive DBG’s Wilhelm Pfeffer Prize endowed with 2,500 Euros from the president of DBG’s Wilhelm Pfeffer Foundation, Professor Severin Sasso, and will present her findings in a plenary presentation.

Dr Sarina Niedzwiedz, in her PhD thesis at Bremen University, revealed how kelp forests in arctic fjords are affected by climate change and why these macroalgae are accumulating more and more harmful substances. For this work she will be awarded with the Horst Wiehe Prize (“Förderpreis der Horst-Wiehe-Stiftung”) of the German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG). She showed that polar day conditions combined with cold temperatures lead to light stress for the forest-building kelps, which prevented the algae from spreading further North. As climate change causes temperatures to rise, melting glaciers are darkening fjord waters with suspended particles. Consequently, subsequent algal generations are unable to settle in deeper zones, because it is too dark there to generate energy through photosynthesis - an effect that is further exaggerated by higher temperatures. Dr Niedzwiedz showed for the first time that kelps accumulate heavy metals from glacial meltwater, such as cadmium, mercury, and lead. This can have cascading consequences for the entire food web, since the ecosystem forming kelps are habitat, food and nursery for crabs, fish and many other organisms. Through a combination of laboratory experiments and field studies in the Norwegian Spitzbergen and near Greenland, Dr Niedzwiedz has shed light on the changes in one of the world’s regions most severely affected by climate change, publishing her findings in several renowned scientific journals. Dr Niedzwiedz will receive the Horst Wiehe prize for promising early career plant scientists on 9^th September, from DBG’s Secretary General, Professor Iris Finkemeier, where she will also present her research results in a lecture.

In his PhD thesis, Dr Paul Grünhofer from Bonn University questioned long-standing assumptions about the protecting surfaces of poplars. For these findings he will be awarded the Horst Wiehe Prize (“Förderpreis der Horst-Wiehe-Stiftung”) of the German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG), which will be awarded to two winners this year. Until now, it has been assumed that thickened inner and outer layers could better shield trees from droughts. Therefore, Dr Grünhofer analysed the so-called “apoplastic space” of poplars cultivated in climate chambers and in the field. This includes the different barriers between living plant cells and the surrounding environment that are having protecting properties, such as the waxes in the cuticules that cover leaves. By studying native and CRISPR/Cas-generated mutants, Dr Grünhofer discovered that more waxes in a thicker cuticle are not able to reduce non-stomatal leaf water losses. Moreover, Dr. Grünhofer studied the protective tissues on stems and roots: the periderm as well as other inner and outer skins (endo- and exodermis). Once again, changed amounts of the molecule suberin did not directly influence water transport. However, his results indicate that an increased amount of suberin in the poplar’s roots could modulate the uptake of nutrients and other solutes without hindering water uptake. With these results, Dr Grünhofer challenged the long-standing assumptions that increased amounts of cuticular waxes or suberin must inevitably lead to reduced water losses during droughts. His results, published in several scientific papers, now open new ways to analyse apoplastic barriers and create stress-resilient cultivars of poplars for modern agri- and silviculture. As a postdoc, he is now analysing similar mechanisms in the apoplastic space of other crops at Bonn University and abroad. Unfortunately, he is therefore unable to attend the award ceremony in Bochum, Germany, on 9^th September.

Eduard Strasburger Prize winner: 

Dr Michelle M. Rönspies
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter Institute for Plant Sciences (JKIP) – Molecular biology, Fritz-Haber-Weg 4, D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 721 608-43921
E-mail: michelle.roenspies [at] kit.edu 

Laudatory speech:
Prof. Andreas Weber, President of the German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG)
Institute for Plant Biochemistry, Heinrich-Heine-University, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf
Phone: +49 (0) 211-81-12347
E-mail: andreas.weber [at] uni-duesseldorf.de

Wilhelm Pfeffer Prize winner: 

Dr Jaccoline Zegers has been at the
Georg-August-University Göttingen, Institute for Microbiology and Genetics, Department of Applied Bioinformatics, Julia-Lermontowa-Weg 3, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
E-mail: jaccolinezegers [at] hotmail.com  

Laudatory speech:
Prof. Severin Sasso, President of the Wilhelm Pfeffer Foundation of the of the German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG)
Leipzig University, Institute of Biology, Department of Plant Physiology, Johannisallee 21-23, 04103 Leipzig
Phone: ++49 (0) 341-9736893
E-mail: severin.sasso [at] uni-leipzig.de

Horst Wiehe Prize winner (1/2)

Dr Sarina Niedzwiedz
Department Marine Botany, Universität Bremen – BIOM, James Watt Straße 1, 28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 (0) 421 218 63051
E-mail: sarina [at] uni-bremen.de   

Horst Wiehe Prize winner (2/2)

Dr. Paul David Grünhofer
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Institut für Zelluläre und Molekulare Botanik, Kirschallee 1, 53115 Bonn
E-mail: p.gruenhofer [at] uni-bonn.de
Tel.: +49 (0) 228-737 089

Laudatory speech (for both Horst Wiehe Prizes):
Prof. Iris Finkemeier, Secretary General of the German Society for Plant Sciences, Münster University, Plant Physiology, Institute for Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Schlossplatz 7, D-48149 Münster, Germany 
Phone: +49 (0) 251-83-23805
E-mail: dbg [at] uni-muenster.de

Michelle Rönspies et al. (2025): CRISPR-Cas–mediated heritable chromosome fusions in Arabidopsis.
Science 390, 843-848. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz8505

Jaccoline Zegers (2025): Evolutionary conservation of the hyperosmotic response in the closest algal relatives of land plants. PhD thesis, Georg-August-University Göttingen. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-12081

Sarina Niedzwiedz (2024): The Dark Side of Polar Day - The influence of coastal run-off on Arctic kelp communities. PhD thesis, Universität Bremen. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/3391

Paul Grünhofer (2025): Poplars, apoplastic barriers, and the environment. PhD thesis, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48565/bonndoc-366

Eduard Strasburger Prize 

Since 1994 the German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG) awards the Eduard Strasburger Prize for exceptional and original research results. Springer Spektrum (www.springer-spektrum.de) provides the endowment of 2,500 Euros biannually. The Foundation was initiated on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the first edition of "Lehrbuch der Botanik für Hochschulen" written by Eduard Strasburger, Fritz Noll, Heinrich Schenck and A. F. Wilhelm Schimper in the year 1894. The election of the winner is reviewed by a jury consisting of the authors of the next circulation of now „Strasburger Lehrbuch der Pflanzenwissenschaften", DBG’s president and the biology planner from Springer Spektrum. See details: https://www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/about-us-0/promoting-early-career-scientists/strasburger-prize

Wilhelm Pfeffer Prize 

The German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG) awards the Wilhelm Pfeffer Prize for an outstanding PhD thesis (dissertation) in the field for plant sciences. The prize endowment of 2,500 Euros and the award from DBG’s own Wilhelm Pfeffer Foundation is intended to promote the careers of young scientists. The prize is awarded by the foundation’s board members of DBG’s own Wilhelm Pfeffer Foundation. Details: https://www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/about-us-0/promoting-early-career-scientists/pfeffer-prize

Horst Wiehe Advancement Award 

The German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG) awards the Horst Wiehe Prize every other year for outstanding research results exclusively in the plant sciences. The prize, is given solely to early career scientists upon receiving a doctorate or before becoming a lecturer. The prize can be allocated to more than a single person and is named after Horst Wiehe, who provided an amount of money to initiate this foundation. Details: https://www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/about-us-0/promoting-early-career-scientists/wiehe-prize  

German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG)

The German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG) is the largest organisation for plant scientists in the German speaking area. The non-profit organisation represents plant scientists, promotes plant sciences nationally and internationally and was founded more than 140 years ago. The DBG furthers early career plant scientists and unites plant scientists of all career stages. DBG supports the scientific exchange among its more than 1,150 members. More: https://www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/