Virtual Awards Ceremony this year

At the awards ceremony, students usually present their submitted theses and their research areas. Due to the Covid pandemic, this annual event as the traditional highlight of the CLAAS Foundation year was held in a virtual format for the first time. Sylvia Looks, member of the Executive Board of the CLAAS Foundation, explained: "We are not going to let Covid get on top of us, but instead we stick to the idea of the CLAAS Foundation and will continue to support talents in the fields of agriculture and agricultural engineering". Frank Klüsener, member of the Executive Board of the CLAAS Foundation, also emphasised: "Let us honour the academic achievements of these students as well as their personal commitment, enthusiasm and dedication to agriculture and related areas despite these challenging times".

Live Broadcast - Awards Ceremony from home:

For more than 20 years, the Helmut Claas-Scholarships, Bonus Prizes and International Student Prizes of a this year’s value of over 36,000 euros have been awarded to young talents from various international universities. 13 students from Germany, England, the Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Poland, Russia and Uzbekistan received awards.

In detail, the following prizes were awarded:

Scholarships:

1st Prize: Linda Richter, student at OWL University of Applied Sciences in Höxter, was awarded the first prize – a scholarship of the amount of 7,200 euros. She studied environmental engineering and her bachelor thesis, which she wrote in cooperation with a Norwegian university, dealt with the topic „Recovery of Nutrients from Urine by Precipitation of Struvite“.

2nd Prize: Johannes Frey can celebrate his second place and a scholarship of 6,000 euros. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Esslingen. His final thesis is on “the development of mechanical weed regulation in mobile agricultural robotics“.

3rd Prize: The Third place, which is endowed with 4,800 euros, went to Jan Rebmann, student at the Nürtingen-Geislingen University in the field of agricultural sciences. In his work, he “investigated the performance of a camera-controlled hoe for plant population development”.

4th Prize: Abigail Allen studied at Harper Adams University (UK) and was awarded 4th place for her work and thus a scholarship of 3,600 euros. In her final thesis, she investigated the properties of buckwheat for the weed suppression of black-grass.

Bonus prizes:

In addition to the full one-year scholarships, two bonus prizes worth 1,500 euros each were awarded.

In the category "Food Marketing", Hannah Baldwin from Harper Adams University (UK) was honoured for her work on investigating the microbial properties of turkeys in slaughterhouses.

In the "Agricultural Engineering and Management" category, Johannes Munz from the Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Sciences received the bonus prize for his investigations in the use of a forage harvester in grain harvesting.

International Student Prizes:

The International Student Prizes, worth 2,000 euros each, went to students of the Banat University of Agricultural Sciences in Timisoara (Romania), the Budapest University of Technology and Economy (Hungary), the Wageningen University (Netherlands), the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra (Slovakia), the Kuban State Agrarian University (Russia) and the Poznan University of Life Sciences (Poland).

A further grant was given to Dilshod Umarov from Uzbekistan, student of the International Master’s Degree in Agricultural Management at the University of Applied Sciences Weihenstephan-Triesdorf.