"Scientists strive to gain knowledge and to disseminate their research as widely as possible. That means publishing. The University of Wuppertal has now honoured two publications from 2023 that are examples of our outstanding publication achievements, redefine their respective fields and will leave a strong footprint," explains Prof. Dr Stefan F. Kirsch, Vice-Rector for Research and Digital Affairs at the University of Wuppertal and member of the jury. In the first round of the competition, 42 researchers applied with their publications.

The award winners

Birte Boes is a research assistant at the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering in the Computational Applied Mechanics department under Prof Dr Jaan-Willem Simon. In 2023, she published an article in the journal "Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering", which is one of the most renowned journals in the specialist community. The content of her work deals with a new, innovative material modelling of paper. Although paper has been used for over 2000 years, its properties are still largely unknown due to its complex microstructure. In order to be able to use it reliably as a building material in the future, we need to understand how it reacts to very different types of stress. Birte Boes has developed a special mathematical model that not only provides reliable explanations and predictions for paper and cardboard, but can also be applied to other materials with similar properties.

"With this work, the young researcher Birte Boes has delivered an excellent scientific achievement. At the same time, her results promote an ecological, resource-conserving, cycle-orientated and sustainable rethinking of the use of renewable materials," was the jury's verdict.

Elisabeth Badenhoop is a junior-professor of sociology in the school of human and social sciences. She researches the sociology, regulation and organisation of migration and citizenship, climate change and digitalisation. She was honoured for her book "Calling for the Super Citizen", which was published in 2023 in the internationally recognised "Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series". In it, she examines the interaction between migrants and state actors in naturalisation procedures in two of the most important European immigration countries, Germany and the UK. By analysing a comprehensive, innovative data set, Elisabeth Badenhoop shows for the first time how state actors use the various requirements and hurdles of the naturalisation process to impose expectations on migrants to constantly optimise their self-image and behaviour and align them with the fictitious ideal of the "super citizen". In addition to the integration of migrants through their legal and political equality, naturalisation procedures in liberal democracies thus simultaneously create new hierarchies and competition between immigrants, naturalised citizens and natives.

"Thanks to its wealth of material and its in-depth analyses, the book is both a challenging and exciting social science read. But it is also an important contribution to the current social discourse and to a critical self-reflection of the receiving countries - in their divergence of demands on the immigrants and on themselves," said the jury.