Excellent ideas for a strong industry – VAA Foundation honors a successful young researcher from FAU in the field of chemistry 2025:

At the VAA Annual Conference on November 7, 2025, in Essen, Dr. Jakob Reichstein (at the chair of Prof. Dr. Karl Mandel, FAU), Dr. Maximilian Baur, Dr. Ieva A. Cechanaviciute-Misiune, and Dr. Joe Hajjar received this year’s Excellence Award from the VAA Foundation. Dr. Jakob Reichstein received this year’s prize, worth €5,000, in the field of chemistry for his dissertation on supraparticle designs as micrometer-sized information carriers.

Every year, the VAA Foundation awards the Excellence Prize to young scientists for outstanding research work in the fields of chemistry, pharmacy, and process engineering. “We want to preserve what has made us strong: the combination of good science and a strong industry,” emphasized Dr. Thomas Fischer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the VAA Foundation, at the award ceremony at the VAA Annual Conference. Even in a crisis, science and industry are capable of peak performance. “Innovation is the key to a strong industry in Germany: those who promote excellent ideas today lay the foundation for us to remain competitive tomorrow.”

Through the VAA Foundation, the VAA, as the representative body for specialists and managers in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, promotes scientific research in the fields of science and technology. “The ideas of our award winners are building blocks for the world of tomorrow,” said VAA Honorary Chairman Fischer. “They combine scientific excellence with responsibility for the future – this is precisely the attitude our industry needs now more than ever.”

Each year, the VAA Foundation’s high-caliber board of trustees decides on the award winners. In 2025, the jury consisted of Prof. Sabine Beuermann, Prof. Stefan Buchholz, Prof. Ralf Dohrn, Dr. Thomas Fischer, Prof. Andreas Jupke, Prof. Wolfram Koch, and Prof. Thomas Martin.

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