Hannes Leitgeb, Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla, and Bettina Valeska Lotsch have each been given a prestigious Leibniz Prize by the German Research Foundation – the top research award in Germany.
Professor Hannes Leitgeb is Chair of Logic and Philosophy of Language and co-director of the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy at LMU Munich. In awarding the prestigious Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize to Leitgeb, the German Research Foundation (DFG) is honoring his outstanding research in the field of mathematical and analytic philosophy, whose tradition he has “illuminated with important historical studies, expanded with creative ideas, and applied to numerous phenomena from the domains of philosophy and the cognitive and linguistic sciences.”
Hannes Leitgeb researches and teaches at the interface between logic, mathematics, and the cognitive sciences. His current research interests include questions in logic and the analysis of neural networks with the logic of inductive reasoning.
Born in 1972 in Austria, Professor Hannes Leitgeb studied Mathematics, Computer Science, and Philosophy at the University of Salzburg, where he obtained a doctorate in mathematics in 1998 and in philosophy in 2001. Subsequently, he worked as an assistant professor at the University of Salzburg, before spending a research year at Stanford University in 2004 as an Erwin Schrödinger Fellow. From 2005 he was a reader, and then from 2007 a professor, in the Department of Philosophy and Mathematics at the University of Bristol. In 2010, Leitgeb was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship and took up the Chair of Logic and Philosophy of Language at LMU, where he is also a founder and co-director of the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy.
Leibniz Prizes also awarded to Marie-Elena Torres-Padilla and Bettina Valeska Lotsch
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Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla has also been awarded a Leibniz Prize. Director of the Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells at Helmholtz Munich and Professor of Stem Cell Biology at LMU, she is receiving a Leibniz Prize for her work on epigenetic plasticity and reprogramming of stem cells in the embryonal development of mammals.
Another winner of a Leibniz Prize this year is Professor Bettina Valeska Lotsch. Managing Director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart and honorary professor at LMU, she is being honored for her work in solid-state chemistry in the field between basic-research-oriented materials synthesis and the development of new materials.
Given annually by the German Research Foundation, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize is considered the most important research award in Germany. This year, it has been awarded to ten researchers. The winners can use the prize money of up to 2.5 million euros for their research for a period of up to seven years.