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Dr. Laura König-Mattern, alumna of the Process Engineering Department at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg, will be awarded second prize of the Deutscher Studienpreis (German Study Prize). She will receive the prize given by the Körber-Stiftung (Körber Foundation), worth €10,000, in the Natural Sciences and Technology section for her doctoral thesis on “Systematic Solvent Screening and Design for Biomass Fractionation Processes,” which she successfully completed at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg in 2024. This is the first time the German Study Prize goes to Saxony-Anhalt.
Today, chemical production is still largely based on fossil raw materials and energy sources, the use of which leads to climate-damaging CO2 emissions. Therefore, the switch to renewable raw materials, especially biomass, is inevitable.
In her doctoral thesis at the Max Planck Institute in Magdeburg, Laura König-Mattern investigated separation processes based on solvents that are intended to make biomass available for resource-efficient chemical production.
To identify the optimal solvents for each separation step, she developed computer-aided optimization methods for solvent molecules. To do this, she used computational approaches from quantum chemistry and machine learning methods.
Decomposing microalgae and wood into their basic building blocks using solvents identified by computer algorithms
This new methodology enabled her to develop new separation processes for microalgae and wood that break down the biomass used into its basic components, making it available for the production of chemicals—an important step toward a chemical industry without fossil raw materials.
With her essay “The chemical industry in transition: Using algorithms and biomass to achieve sustainable processes,” Dr.-Ing. Laura König-Mattern prevailed among 687 competition submissions and was awarded second prize in the Natural Sciences and Technology section, which comes with a monetary grant of €10,000. The prize will be presented by the President of the German Bundestag, Julia Klöckner, in Berlin in December.
"We congratulate Laura König-Mattern on her outstanding achievement! Mrs. König-Mattern is a scientist who has demonstrated exceptional dedication and commitment during her studies at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and during her doctoral research at our institute. We are very proud to have Mrs. König-Mattern among our alumni and wish her every success in her future career," says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai Sundmacher, Director of the Process Engineering Department at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg.
About Dr.-Ing. Laura König-Mattern
Laura König-Mattern studied Biosystems Engineering at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg from 2013 to 2017 and Systems Engineering and Technical Cybernetics from 2017 to 2019. She successfully completed her studies in August 2019 with a master's degree. From September 2019 to December 2024, she worked as a doctoral candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg on solvent selection for biorefineries. From October 2022 to March 2023, she conducted research as a visiting scientist at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) in Switzerland. She completed her PhD entitled “Systematic Solvent Screening and Design for Biomass Fractionation Processes” at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg in December 2024 with the distinction “summa cum laude.”
Since January 2025, Dr. Laura König-Mattern has been group leader at the Center for the Transformation of Chemistry (CTC) in Leuna, Saxony-Anhalt.
In 2021, she was awarded a scholarship from the Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Research, and in December 2024, she received an Add-on Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Life Science from the Joachim Herz Foundation.
About Deutscher Studienpreis
The German Study Prize by the Körber Foundation is awarded annually to PhD graduates who have addressed socially relevant topics in their academically excellent dissertations and presented tangible results.
In each of the three sections—social sciences, natural sciences and technology, and humanities and cultural studies—one top prize of €25,000 and two second prizes of €10,000 are awarded. A total of 687 participants submitted a contribution in 2025.
All 31 nominees presented their research to the jury in late June and early July 2025 for the final round of the competition. The prize will be presented in Berlin in December 2025.
https://www.mpi-magdeburg.mpg.de/4751104/2025-08-04-deutscher-studienpreis-laura...
https://www.mpg.de/24878534/jahrbuch-highlights-2024.pdf “Green Chemistry from the Computer”,
https://www.mpi-magdeburg.mpg.de/4737401/research_report_24175649?c=9501 “Computer-based Separation Processes for Bio-based Production of Chemicals”
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