Awards for emerging talent in agricultural engineering

The Helmut Claas scholarships and other international student prizes with a total value of over 45,000 euros were given to students from Bulgaria, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia, Russia, Poland and Romania.

During the prize-giving ceremony, the students gave talks on their theses and presented the details of their research areas. The suspense lasted right until the end, because it was only then that the scholarship candidates found out which prize they had received. The task of awarding the eagerly awaited certificates was taken on by Helmut Claas, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the CLAAS Foundation.

The following individual prizes were awarded:

Scholarships:
Helmut Claas Scholarships support students in the general engineering disciplines and those completing business management degrees.

1^st prize: The first prize of a scholarship worth 7,200 euros went to Dagmar Wicklow, student of organic agricultural sciences at the University of Kassel, Witzenhausen. Her bachelor's dissertation involved a business assessment and system-theory analysis of mother-bonded calf raising in organic dairy cattle farming.

2^nd prize: Hubertus Kleuter, an agricultural sciences student with a focus on engineering at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, won the second prize of 6,000 euros. His master's thesis was a benefit analysis of NIR sensors for use in commercial liquid fertilisers.

3^rd prize: Tobias Rapp from the University of Hohenheim was awarded the third prize of 4,800 euros. His master's thesis dealt with the measurement of flow velocity and creation of a flow profile in a biogas fermenter for a newly developed bionic agitator, analysed independently of viscosity.

4^th prize: The fourth prize of 3,600 euros went to Simon Wolfram from the University of Kassel,Witzenhausen. He investigated the relevance and future possibilities of insects as a foodstuff and fodder in Europe, with a focus on Germany.

Bonus Prizes:
Four bonus prizes, each worth 1,500 euros, were awarded in addition to the annual scholarships to students from the Technical University Aachen (Germany), Harper Adams University (Great Britain), HfWU Nuertingen-Geislingen University (Germany) and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary).

International Student Prizes:
The International Student Prizes, each valued at 4,500 euros in total, were awarded to students from the Banat University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Timisoara (Romania), the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary), Wageningen University (the Netherlands), the University of Agriculture in Nitra (Slovakia), the Angel Kanchev University of Ruse (Bulgaria), the Kuban State Agrarian University (Russia) and Poznan University (Poland).

New arrivals in the CLAAS Foundation
Hermann Lohbeck, Speaker for the CLAAS Group Executive Board since 1st October 2017, is a new member of the Board of Trustees. He takes the place of Dr. Meuther, who is retiring after twelve years of committed service. Dr. Kim Blackburn of Cranfield University (UK) and Prof. Thomas Herlitzius of the TU Dresden are new members of the jury.