Julia Gottschall, research associate at ForWind, the centre for wind energy research at the Universities of Oldenburg and Hanover, was awarded the Excellent Young Wind Doctors Award 2009 at the European Wind Energy Conference (EWEC 2009) in Marseille (France) on 17 March 2009. The prize for the best European doctoral thesis in the field of wind energy is awarded annually by the European Wind Energy Association EAWE (European Academy of Wind Energy). Gottschall is working on analysing the dynamics of wind turbines. The topic of her doctoral thesis is "Modelling the Variability of Complex Systems by Means of Langevin processes - On the Application of a Dynamical Approach to Experimental Data". She analysed the influence of wind turbulence on the power output of wind turbines and developed new methods, which were decisive in her being awarded the prize. The young physicist studied in Heidelberg from 2001 to 2005, then went to Uppsala University (Sweden) for a year on an Erasmus scholarship. Her Master's thesis (M. Sc.) focussed on dynamical systems and chaos theory. She then began her doctorate at the Institute of Physics at the University of Oldenburg. Her doctoral thesis was among the best in the European "Shell She Study Award" competition for young scientists.