Excellent research and outstanding doctorate: physicist Ilia Solov'yov and lawyer David Saive receive this year's prizes from the Universitätsgesellschaft Oldenburg.
With the "Prize for Excellent Research" for the physicist Prof. Dr Ilia Solov'yov and the "Prize for Outstanding Doctorate" for the lawyer Dr David Saive, the Universitätsgesellschaft Oldenburg e. V. (UGO) is honouring the important pioneering work of the two scientists. The research prize is endowed with 5,000 euros and the doctorate prize with 2,000 euros.
UGO prize for excellent research
Prof. Dr Dr Ilia Solov'yov has held a Volkswagen Foundation-funded Lichtenberg Professorship for Quantum Biology and Computational Physics at the University of Oldenburg since last autumn. He develops and utilises theoretical methods and computer-aided techniques to investigate the physical basis of a variety of processes in complex chemical compounds. He investigates molecules in very different contexts - from elementary biological processes in living organisms to physical processes in intelligent nanomaterials. He is particularly interested in the quantum mechanical principles of biological processes in which energy, such as light, is converted into a chemically usable form.
One of Solov'yov's focal points is the biophysical basis of the magnetic sense of birds. He has been working in this field with the internationally renowned Oldenburg biologist Prof Dr Henrik Mouritsen since 2008. In the Collaborative Research Centre "Magnetoreception and Navigation in Vertebrates: from Biophysics to Brain and Behaviour" funded by the German Research Foundation, Solov'yov is currently working on the key question of whether the protein cryptochrome is the primary molecule that enables birds to perceive the Earth's weak magnetic field.
UGO prize for outstanding doctorate
This year, the prize for outstanding doctorate goes to a lawyer for the first time. Dr David Saive completed his doctorate under Prof. Dr Prof. h. c. Jürgen Taeger at the Department of Economics and Law at the University of Oldenburg. In his thesis, he analysed how freight documents can be replaced by digital equivalents in international maritime trade. Specifically, he focussed on the so-called bill of lading, the most important document in freight transport. Although electronic freight documents have been permitted by law since 2013 and their potential to reduce costs is undisputed among experts, their introduction has so far failed due to legal and technical hurdles. In his work, Saive analysed the underlying section of the German Commercial Code and derived requirements for a digital bill of lading from it. He showed that a certain form of blockchain technology can fulfil all legal requirements for electronic freight documents.