University Outstanding Dissertations with High Relevance for Environmental Research
26 March 2025
Patricia Nayna Schwerdtle and Dagmar Brombierstäudl receive the Environmental Award from the Viktor and Sigrid Dulger Foundation
Two exceptional early-career researchers from Heidelberg University have been recognized for their outstanding contributions to environmental research. Geographer Dr Dagmar Brombierstäudl and public health expert Dr Patricia Nayna Schwerdtle share the Environmental Award of the Viktor and Sigrid Dulger Foundation, which is endowed with 10,000 euros. The Heidelberg Center for the Environment (HCE), the university’s environmental research hub, has recognized their dissertations, which were completed at the South Asia Institute and the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health. The awards for 2024 were presented by the Vice-Rector for Quality Development and Sustainability, Prof. Dr Karin Schumacher.
In her dissertation, completed at the South Asia Institute, award recipient Dagmar Brombierstäudl focuses on the underexplored scientific phenomenon of Aufeis. This term refers to layered ice deposits that form through the freezing of successive water discharges. In her “methodologically sophisticated work”, which has been praised as pioneering, the geographer concentrates on the cold-arid mountain regions of the Trans-Himalaya. However, the HCE award judging panel noted that her findings have wide-ranging significance, as she explores the socio-economic impact and various ways these mountain water resources are used. The results of Dr Brombierstäudl’s cumulative dissertation, “Exploring Aufeis in the Trans-Himalaya: Remote Sensing-Based Studies of a Neglected Cryosphere Component”, have already resulted in several publications.
Public health researcher Patricia Nayna Schwerdtle has made a significant contribution to understanding the global health impacts of climate change through her doctoral thesis at the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, as highlighted by the HCE award judges. Within the context of migration in Bangladesh, a highly climate-vulnerable region, she analyzes the health risks posed by climatic changes to the population of the South Asian country. In her dissertation, titled “The Nexus of Climate Change, Migration and Health. Connecting the Global Literature with a Local Reality in Bangladesh”, she offers crucial insights into how climate change influences human mobility patterns in a region with few options for adaptation or protective measures. The judging panel commended Dr Nayna Schwerdtle’s rigorous scientific analysis, evidenced by numerous publications.
The Viktor and Sigrid Dulger Foundation’s Environmental Award is presented to master’s theses, dissertations or habilitation projects in the field of environmental research. “The Extended Board of Directors of the Heidelberg Center for the Environment did not take the decision for the 2024 award lightly,” said HCE Managing Director, Prof. Dr Thomas Rausch. Both award-winning dissertations “set themselves apart, despite their differences, through their originality and high level of scientific rigor, offering findings that go beyond purely academic interest.” A formal award ceremony was held on 18 March 2025.