Research PrizeHonours for Two Outstanding Young Researchers at Heidelberg University

Press Release No. 106/2020
2 December 2020

Dr Ana Oliveira and Dr Stefan Pfeffer receive research prize of the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation

Two outstanding young researchers at Heidelberg University – neurobiologist Dr Ana Oliveira and biochemist Dr Stefan Pfeffer – are being honoured by the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation: on 4 December 2020 they will receive the advancement award for biomedical research named after its sponsors. It comes with funds for their research amounting to 100,000 euros each. Dr Oliveira is receiving the award for her basic research on epigenetic mechanisms in learning and memory processes. She heads an Emmy Noether junior research group at the Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences. Dr Pfeffer is a junior research group leader at the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH). In awarding him the prize, the foundation acknowledges his groundbreaking investigations on the function of ribosomes and the processes of protein synthesis by means of cryoelectron tomography.

The foundation established by scientists Prof. Dr Chica Schaller and Prof. Dr Heinz Schaller has funded basic biomedical research since 2000. That entails, in particular, the founding and financing of “Schaller Research Groups”, which operate at Heidelberg University and the German Cancer Research Center. Prime sponsoring instruments also include the research prizes named after the two founders, which have been awarded annually to outstanding young Heidelberg scientists since 2005.

 

The award ceremony on Friday (4 December) will take place as a virtual event. Two members of the scientific advisory council of the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation will introduce the prize winners. Prof. Dr Klaus-Armin Nave, director of the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen, will pay tribute to Dr Oliveira and Prof. Dr Frauke Melchior, from the ZMBH board of directors, to Dr Pfeffer. The general public is invited to follow the award ceremony online.