Sandra Venghaus Honored With the 2022 Christian Patermann Award
Since 2014, the Bioeconomy Science Center has conferred its Supervision Award on early-career researchers among its members for their outstanding achievements in the supervision of doctoral students. In 2021, the prize, which is endowed with 25,000 euros, was renamed as the Christian Patermann Award in honor of the founder of Europe's knowledge-based bioeconomy. On May 11, the eminent lawyer himself presented this year's prize, which is shared by Professor Sandra Venghaus ( Decision Analysis and Socio-Economic Assessment ) and Dr. Till Tiso (Institute of Applied Microbiology), both of RWTH Aachen University).
In January 2021, Sandra Venghaus became Assistant Professor ("Juniorprofessorin") for Decision Analysis and Socio-Economic Assessment at RWTH Aachen University. Her current research focus is the quantitative modeling of complex socio-ecological systems, with a special interest in the impacts of political action options on social, economic, and ecological parameters.
Both of the award winners were nominated by doctoral students and by the heads of their respective institutes. During her laudation speech, Professor Ingar Janzik frequently quoted from letters of support for Sandra Venghaus that spoke favorably of the composition of her academic team that includes doctoral students from business and economics, political science, engineering, and mathematics. The authors of these letters emphasized that this specific composition reflects the interdisciplinary approach needed for researching society's transformation towards a sustainable bioeconomy. This approach is further complemented by various collaborations with international partners, helping the team to not only overcome any disciplinary boundaries but also to think globally.