HAInews 2023/02Award for Alumnus Eckart von Hirschhausen
Alumnus Dr Eckart von Hirschhausen has been awarded the “Science Communication Prize 2023 for a Sustainable Future” for his commitment to science-based climate policy. The doctor and science journalist, who studied Medicine in Heidelberg, is the first recipient of the new award, which is presented by the “Friends of the Leopoldina”.
The award ceremony took place on 31 May 2023 in the ballroom of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in Halle. “Because the climate crisis is the greatest health threat of this century, Eckart von Hirschhausen has been committed to a medically and scientifically sound climate policy since the heatwave summer of 2018,” emphasised the Chair of the Circle of Friends, Prof. Dr Jutta Schnitzer-Ungefug, in the laudatory speech. Hirschhausen, a medical doctor, is a co-founder of Scientists for Future and in 2020 established the foundation “Healthy Earth – Healthy People” in order to anchor climate protection as health protection in the professional world as well as socially and politically. “Climate change, the effects of which we are already feeling more and more strongly, is man-made. Science agrees on that,” added Prof. Dr Gerald Haug, climate scientist and President of the Leopoldina. “With his ability to convey complex issues in a comprehensible way using linguistic images, lightness and humour, Eckart von Hirschhausen has made a significant contribution to ensuring that this realisation is also consolidated in large sections of society.”
The award ceremony was a great honour, Eckart von Hirschhausen said. “We have a century-long task ahead of us, for which we have less than a decade.” That is why he is glad about the support of his foundation's team, because it is difficult to "save the world on a voluntary basis when others are destroying it on a full-time basis".
