Schering Stiftung

Science award 

Bonnie L. Bassler - Ernst Schering Prize 2018

Bonnie L. Bassler - Ernst Schering Prize 2018
Photo: Zach Donnell

Magdalena Götz - Ernst Schering Prize 2014

Magdalena Götz - Ernst Schering Prize 2014

Prof. Dr. Thomas Tuschl - Ernst Schering Prize 2005

Prof. Dr. Thomas Tuschl - Ernst Schering Prize 2005

Dr. Ilme Schlichting - Ernst Schering Prize 1998

Dr. Ilme Schlichting - Ernst Schering Prize 1998

Ernst Schering Prize

for pioneering basic research in biology, medicine and chemistry

Ernst Schering Prize

for pioneering basic research in biology, medicine and chemistry

The deadline for the 2024 Ernst-Schering prize was February 4, 2024.

In case of questions, please contact:
Dr. Katja Naie, Director
naie@scheringstiftung.de
+49 (0)30-20 62 29 62


The 50,000-euro Ernst Schering Prize is one of the most prestigious German science awards. Established by the Ernst Schering Research Foundation in 1991, it has been given annually by the Schering Stiftung since 2003. It honors scientists worldwide whose pioneering research has yielded new, inspiring models or led to fundamental shifts in biomedical knowledge. In particular, we want to honor scientists who, in addition to their top-level research in biology, medicine, or chemistry, are actively engaged in socially relevant debates or have launched initiatives that inspire and support future generations of scientists.

The prize is named for the German apothecary Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering (1824-1889), whose establishment of the chemical factory Chemische Fabrik Ernst Schering laid the foundations for Schering AG, Berlin.

The prize winner is selected by a high-ranking, international selection committee (see below).

Read more

Portrayals of prize winners 

Matthias Tschöp

2023
Matthias Tschöp receives the Ernst Schering Prize 2023 for his discovery of the hunger hormone and his dissection of the signaling pathways of the gut-brain axis.

Learn more

Gisbert Schneider

2022
Gisbert Schneider is Professor of Computer-Assisted Drug Design at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at ETH Zurich. He received the Ernst Schering Prize 2022 for his molecule design using machine learning method.

Learn more

Aviv Regev

2021
The bioinformatician Aviv Regev receives the Ernst Schering Prize 2021 for her research in the field of single-cell analysis and the innovative combination of biology and computer science.

Learn more

Jens Claus Brüning

2020
The physician Jens Claus Brüning receives the Ernst Schering Prize 2020 for his research on how diseases of civilization such as obesity and diabetes mellitus are triggered.

Learn more

Patrick Cramer

2019
The chemist and molecular biologist receives the Ernst Schering Prize for his research on transcription and gene regulation at the molecular and cellular levels.

Learn more

Bonnie L. Bassler

2018
Bonnie L. Bassler, PhD, receives the Ernst Schering Prize 2018 for defining a new, important research field in microbiology: intercellular bacterial communication, or so-called quorum sensing.

Learn more

Elly Tanaka

2017
Prof. Dr. Elly Tanaka Senior Scientist at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, Austria for her outstanding research in the field of regeneration biology.

Learn more

Franz-Ulrich Hartl

2016
Prof. Hartl from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2016 for his research on the role of chaperones in protein.

Learn more

David MacMillan

2015
Prof. MacMillan, Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Princeton University, USA, is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2015 for his research on organocatalysis and organo-cascade catalysis.

Learn more

Magdalena Götz

2014
Prof. Götz Director of the Institute of Stem Cell Research in Muinch is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2014 for her research on the molecular underpinnings of brain development.

Learn more

Frank Kirchhoff

2013
Prof. Kirchhoff from the Institute of Molecular Virology in Ulm is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2013 for his research on the pathogenesis of the immunodeficiency disease AIDS & the evolution of the HI virus.

Learn more

Prof. Dr. Matthias Mann

2012
Prof. Dr. Matthias Mann from the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2012 for his seminal work exploring the proteome.

Learn more

Bert W. O'Malley

2011
Prof. Bert W. O'Malley Tom Thompson Distinguished Service Professor is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2011 for his research on the actions of steroid hormones and nuclear receptors.

Learn more

Marc Feldmann & Ravinder Maini

2010
Prof. Feldmann & Prof. Maini from the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology at Imperial College London are awarded the Ernst Schering Price 2010 for their fight against rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.

Learn more

Rudolf Jaenisch

2009
Prof. Jaenisch from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, USA is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2009 for his research on transgenic animal models and therapeutic cloning.

Learn more

Klaus Rajewsky

2008
Prof. Rajewsky from the CBR-Institute, Harvard Medical School is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2008 for his biomedical research, especially for his analysis of the development of B-Lymphocytes.

Learn more

Carolyn R. Bertozzi

2007
Prof. Bertozzi from the University of California in Berkeley, USA is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2007 for her research in the field of chemical glycobiology.

Learn more

Wolfgang P. Baumeister

2006
Prof. Baumeister from the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2006 for his research on cryo-electron tomography.

Learn more

Thomas Tuschl

2005
Prof. Tuschl from the Laboratory of RNA Molecular Biology at The Rockefeller University, New York is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2005 for his research on RNA interference.

Learn more

Ronald D. G. McKay

2004
Prof. McKay from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in Bethesda, MD, USA is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2004 for his research on neuronal stem cell.

Learn more

Svante Pääbo

2003
Prof. Pääbo from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2003 for his work as founder of the field of paleogenetics.

Learn more

Ian Wilmut

2002
Prof. Wilmut from the Roslin Institute of Gene Expression and Development in the UK is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2002 for his research on transgenic methodologies and the "nuclear transfer protocol".

Learn more

Kyriacos Nicolaou

2001
Prof. Nicolaou from the University of California in San Diego, und The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2001 for his research on the synthesis of natural substances.

Learn more

Takao Shimizu

2000
Prof. Shimizu from the University of Tokyo in Japan is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 2000 for his research on the role of eicosanoids.

Learn more

Michael J. Berridge

1999
Prof. Berridge from The Babraham Institute in Cambridge, UK is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 1999 for his research on calcium signal transduction.

Learn more

Ilme Schlichting

1998
Dr. Schlichting from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology in Dortmund is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 1998 for her research on kinetic crystallography.

Learn more

Johann Mulzer

1997
Prof. Mulzer from the Department of Organic Chemistry from the University of Vienna is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 1997 for his pioneering work in the field of research of chirality.

Learn more

Judah Folkman

1996
Prof. Folkman from the Harvard Medical School in Boston USA is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 1996 for his pioneering work on angiogenesis (the proliferation of new vessels) and tumor biology.

Learn more

Yasutomi Nishizuka

1995
Prof. Nishizuka from the Kobe University in Japan is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 1995 for his pioneering work on protein kinase C.

Learn more

Bert Vogelstein

1994
Prof. Dr. Vogelstein from the Oncology Center of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 1994 for his work on the molecular biology of colon carcinoma.

Learn more

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard

1993
Prof. Nüsslein-Volhard from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 1993 for her pioneering work in the field of developmental biology.

Learn more

Peter H. Seeburg

1992
Prof. Seeburg from the Center for Molecular Biology, University of Heidelberg is awarded the Ernst Schering Prize 1992 for his pioneering work in the field of the molecular biology of GABA receptors.

Learn more

Selection Committee of the Ernst Schering Prize 

Pico Caroni has been a senior group leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI) for Biomedical Research and a professor of neurobiology at the Biozentrum/The Center for Molecular Life Sciences at the University of Basel since 1995. He studied biochemistry at ETH Zürich and subsequently worked on regeneration in the central nervous system in Martin Schwab’s lab at the Brain Research Institute of the University of Zurich. Since 1989, Caroni has been a researcher at the FMI – first as a junior group leader – studying the plasticity of defined neuronal circuits and systems. He is interested not only in the fundamentals of learning and memory but also in the impact of gene mutations on the circuits and the resulting mental disorders.

Close

Britta Eickholt has been Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin since 2011. She received her doctorate in 1998 at Guy's Hospital in London. In 2001, she received a lectureship at King's College London and started her own research group at the MRC Center for Developmental Neurobiology. She was appointed Professor of Molecular Neurobiology at King's College in 2010, before her move to Berlin in 2011. Her research focusses on the signaling mechanisms that regulate dynamic processes of the cytoskeleton in neuronal cells.

Close

Carl-Henrik Heldin has, since 1992, been professor in Molecular Cell Biology at Uppsala University, Sweden. Between 1986 and 2017, he was the Branch Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Uppsala. Professor Heldin is the chair of the Boards of the Nobel Foundation, the Science for Life Laboratory, and the European Molecular Biology Organization. His research interest is related to the mechanisms of signal transduction by growth regulatory factors, as well as their normal function and role in disease. An important goal is to explore the possible clinical utility of signal transduction antagonists.

Close

Hartmut Michel studied Biochemistry at the Universities of Tübingen and Munich. He completed his doctoral degree at the University of Würzburg in 1977 and habilitated in 1988 at the University of Munich. Since 1987 he is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics at Frankfurt/Main, where he leads the Department for Molecular Membrane Biology. In 1988, Hartmut Michel was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, together with Johannes Deisenhöfer and Robert Huber, for their investigation of the molecular structure of the photosynthesis reaction center in the rhodopseudomonas viridis bacterium.

Close

Martin Oestreich has been Professor of Organic Chemistry (Synthesis & Catalysis) at TU Berlin since 2011. His appoitment was supported through an Einstein professorship by the Einstein Foundation Berlin. He studied chemistry at the Universities of Düsseldorf, Manchester, and Marburg (1991–1996) and received his doctoral degree at the University of Münster (1996–1999). After a postdoctoral stint at the University of California at Irvine (1999–2001), he completed his habilitation at the University of Freiburg (2001–2005). Martin Oestreich was Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Münster from 2006 until 2011. Visiting professorships took him to Cardiff (2005), Canberra (2010), and Kyoto (2018). His research interest range from homogeneous catalysis with main-group elements to elucidation of reaction mechanisms.

Close

Max Löhning (*1969) carries out research at the Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, as well as at the German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin (DRFZ), where he directs the Pitzer Laboratory of Osteoarthritis Research, which is funded by the Willy Robert Pitzer Stiftung and the Dr. Rolf M. Schwiete Stiftung. Foundations have played a major role throughout his career. As a fellow of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), he studied biology in Mainz and earned his doctorate in 2000 at the Institute for Genetics at the University of Cologne with research stays at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, and at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. After a postdoc at the Institute of Experimental Immunology at ETH/University Hospital Zürich, Switzerland, which was supported by the Schering Stiftung, he moved to Berlin to serve as Volkswagen Foundation-funded Lichtenberg Professor at the Charité before he was appointed Professor of Experimental Immunology and Osteoarthritis Research in 2012. Max Löhning is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) where he has served as Spokesperson of its Biological and Medical Science Class since 2017. In addition, he is a member of the board of the Deutsche Rheumastiftung, a former member of Die Junge Akademie at the BBAW and of the Leopoldina – German National Academy of Sciences, and the recipient of several science awards.

Close

You might also be interested in

Friedmund Neumann Prize

for basic research in biology, organic chemistry or human medicine

Newsletter 

Contact & social networks

Schering Stiftung

Unter den Linden 32-34
10117 Berlin

Telefon: +49.30.20 62 29 62
Email: info@scheringstiftung.de

Opening hours
Project space

Thursday to Monday: 1 pm - 7 pm
Saturday to Sunday: 11 am - 7 pm
free entrance

Follow us!

Follow us on our social media channels to find out the latest developments!

facebook Youtube Instagram