Marie-Luise Jung Prize Award for Top Academic Performance and Master’s Thesis of Particular Quality and Relevance
10 June 2025
Marie-Luise Jung Prize, presented for the third time, goes to life scientist Henrike Antony
Henrike Antony has been honored as an outstanding master’s graduate of Heidelberg University. She has been selected to receive the Marie-Luise Jung Prize for the year 2025 in recognition of her scientific potential regarding her doctoral phase, which has since begun, and a subsequent career in academic research. The prize, jointly initiated by the university with the Constituted Student Body and the Doctoral Convention, is granted by the Faculty of Biosciences; it commemorates the biology student killed during a shooting three years ago, whose express wish was to embark on such an academic career at Heidelberg University. While being a symbol of mourning and commemoration, this award is also a look to the future, which is intended to encourage young women scientists, as Prof. Dr Frauke Melchior, Rector of Ruperto Carola, underlined at the start of the award ceremony.
The prize-winner Henrike Antony took a master’s course in Molecular Biosciences at Heidelberg University specializing in Neurosciences. The key reasons for selecting her as the recipient of the Marie-Luise Jung Prize were – besides her constantly excellent academic results – the particular quality and relevance of her master’s thesis, which Henrike Antony wrote at McLean Hospital of Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA). It deals with a genetic risk factor in the development of Alzheimer’s dementia. In his tribute, Prof. Dr Christoph Schuster, Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Biosciences, praised Henrike Antony’s top performance, who made outstanding contributions to different neuroscientific research projects during her master’s program and has already co-authored three publications in international journals. The Dean of Studies was convinced, he said, that the scientific community will still hear a lot from Henrike Antony.
For her doctoral thesis, which is based at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the University of Bonn, she is doing research on communication between synapses and microglia – a certain group of immune cells in the central nervous system. “It is wonderful to acknowledge scientific research as it is lived, and which will hopefully soon reach society,” said Sebastian Fath in greeting as one of the two chairs of the Constituted Student Body. Representing the Doctoral Convention, Paolo González Jabalera expressed appreciation of the social relevance of Henrike Antony’s projects, particularly emphasizing her passion for research.
Henrike Antony studied Molecular Biomedicine at the University of Bonn and transferred to Heidelberg University after graduating to study towards her master’s degree. During her student years she worked in various research laboratories in Germany and abroad. At Southampton General Hospital, which belongs to the University Hospital Southampton (UK) she explored neuroimmunological issues relating to Alzheimer’s disease, which were also her main focus while at McLean Hospital.
In 2022, the Rectorate and the governing bodies of the Constituted Student Body and the Doctoral Convention decided, in consultation with the Faculty of Biosciences and the victim’s family, that a prize would be initiated in memory of the 23-year-old student who lost her life, and financed over a period of 20 years. The Marie-Luise Jung Prize comes with 1,500 euros in prize money and is awarded annually during an academic ceremony. This year’s ceremony to award the prize took place on 21 May in the Great Hall of the Old University.