IANUS Award

2023 IANUS award

The IANUS Award honours excellent academic work from all disciplines at TU Darmstadt.

IANUS award 2023

The prize will be awarded again in 2023. Qualification papers (especially studies/project papers, bachelor's or master's theses, publications or dissertations) which have been completed since August 2021 and deal with IANUS-relevant issues can be submitted until 31 July 2023.

The award ceremony will take place within the framework of the 3rd Interdisciplinary conference for technical peace research „Science · Peace · Security ’23“ (20.-23.9.2023 in Darmstadt), where the award winners will be invited.

IANUS award

IANUS is a synonym for natural and engineering peace research in exchange with social sciences and humanities and understands itself as a multi- and trans-disciplinary network of scientists at TU Darmstadt. The IANUS Award (1500 Euro) is granted for outstanding scientific theses from all faculties of TU Darmstadt. The next application deadline is July 31st, 2023.

Scientific theses (especially student research projects, bachelor theses, master theses, publications or dissertations) that have been completed since August 2021 could be submitted dealing with IANUS-relevant topics and issues.

We ask for nominations, including self-nominations, under the subject “IANUS Award” to . Please attach a PDF version of the submitted paper, a justification for the award (usually by the supervisor) and optional attachments (curriculum vitae, expert opinion).

Papers cover a wide range of possible topics.

  • Dual Use
  • Sustainable development
  • Justice
  • Value-oriented security research
  • The Ambivalence of scientific and technological progress
  • International conflicts
  • Vulnerability and resilience
  • Critical Raw Materials

Members of the IANUS jury are Prof. Dr. Markus Lederer (International Politics) and Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Reuter (Science and Technology for Peace and Security).

More Information Peasec

Helene Pfeil for her master's thesis in the Peace and Conflict Studies programme with the title “Arms Control for Cyberspace: An Analysis of Challenges and Possible Benefits Established to Control the Chemical Weapons' Domain”, mentored by Dipl.-Inf. Thomas Reinhold and Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Reuter (Science and Technology for Peace and Security, Department of Computer Science and Department of Social and Historical Sciences).

Lilian Reichert for her master's thesis in the Peace and Conflict Studies programme with the title “The Role of Meaningful Human Control in Autonomous Military Systems: An Empirical Analysis of Meaningful Human Control- Narratives in the Public Relations of the Arms-producing Industry”, mentored by Thea Riebe, M.A. and Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Reuter (Science and Technology for Peace and Security, Department of Computer Science and Department of Social and Historical Sciences).

Dr. Niklas Simon for his dissertation in German Studies with the title “Text:World:Rhetoric: On the Constitution of Knowledge in the Neonicotinoid Debate”, mentored by Prof. Dr. Nina Janich (German Studies – Applied Linguistics, Department of Social and Historical Sciences).

The quality of the work and its relation to the IANUS call for proposals was evaluated by all three members of the selection committee, Prof. Dr. Alfred Nordmann (Philosophy of Technosciences), Prof. Dr. Markus Lederer (International Politics) and Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Reuter (Science and Technology for Peace and Security). In case of bias, the respective member did not participate. After selecting works worthy of an award in principle, an assessment was made by usually two members of the commission after detailed consideration.

We are pleased to honour three works with the IANUS Award 2022 (500€ each)!

Prof. Dr. Nina Janich (Betreuerin von Dr. Niklas Simon), Dr. Niklas Simon (Preisträger), Dr. Thea Riebe (Betreuerin von Lilian Reichert), Lilian Reichert (Preisträgerin), Helene Pleil (Preisträgerin), Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Reuter (Betreuer und IANUS-Sprecher), Prof. Dr. Markus Lederer (IANUS-FIF-Fellow), Prof. em. Dr. Alfred Nordmann (IANUS-Sprecher)

Jonas Franken for his research internship thesis in the Peace and Conflict Studies programme entitled “Assessing State Vulnerability to Submarine Communications Cable Failure in Global Comparison”supervised by Dipl.-Inf. Thomas Reinhold as well as Prof. Dr. Christian Reuter (Science and Technology for Peace and Security, Department of Computer Science).

Anna Maria Krebs for her scientific term paper for the teaching position at grammar schools entitled “Right-wing extremism and right-wing populism – a competence-oriented learning landscape for political education”, supervised by Dr. Andreas Füchtner (Institute of Political Science, Department of Social and Historical Sciences).

Philipp Terhörst for his dissertation in computer science entitled “Mitigating Soft-Biometric Driven Bias and Privacy Concerns in Face Recognition Systems”, supervised by Prof. Dr. Arjan Kuijper (Mathematical and Applied Visual Computing, Department of Computer Science).

The quality of the work and its relation to the IANUS call for proposals was assessed by all three members of the selection committee Prof. Dr. Alfred Nordmann (Philosophy of Technosciences), Prof. Dr. Markus Lederer (International Policy) and Prof. Dr. Christian Reuter (Science and Technology for Peace and Security). In case of bias, the respective member did not participate. After the selection of generally prize-worthy works, usually two members of the committee made an assessment after detailed consideration.

We are pleased to award three works with the IANUS Prize 2021 (500€ each).

Press release on the IANUS award 2021: Vulnerability of submarine cables, fairness in facial recognition and learning landscape on right-wing populism – three papers awarding natural science and technology peace research at TU Darmstadt

Seven excellent applications from seven different departments of TU Darmstadt (Architecture, Biology, Electrical Engineering, History, Informatics, Political Science, Psychology) or six departments (FB02: Social and Historical Sciences; FB03: Human Sciences, FB10: Biology, FB15: Architecture, FB18: Electronic Engineering, FB20: Informatics) were selected as finalists for the IANUS Prize 2020.

The quality of the submitted work as well as its relation to the IANUS call for proposals was evaluated by all three members of the award committee, Prof. Dr. Alfred Nordmann (Philosophy of technosciences), Prof. Dr. Markus Lederer (International politics) and Prof. Dr. Christian Reuter (Science and technology for peace and security). In any case of bias, the respective member did not participate. After an initial selection of generally award-worthy works, an evaluation and classification was carried out by usually two committee members after detailed examination.

First price: Dr. Marc-Andrè Kaufhold

The first price and 500 euros were awarded to Dr. Marc-André Kaufhold, M.Sc., for his doctoral thesis „Information Refinement Technologies for Crisis Informatics: User Expectations and Design Implications for Social Media and Mobile Apps in Crisis“

First price: Dr. Marita Unden, M.A.

The first price was also awarded to Dr Marita Unden, M.A., with her interdisciplinary dissertation “Psychological stress and demands in assignments abroad – expatriates in development cooperation”.

Second price: Annika Simon

The second price, awarded with 250 euros, was given to Ms Annika Simon for her final thesis in the subject Politics and Economics with the title „The challenge of a sustainable water supply: fundamental principles and practical examples of a problem- and action-oriented learning landscape“ in the course of studying to become a teacher at grammar schools.

Third price: Jonathan Götzinger, Ruben Hott, Kirill Kuroptev und Pascal Uetz

Jonathan Götzinger, Ruben Hott, Kirill Kuroptev und Pascal Uetz were jointly awarded the third price of 250 euros for their project word „Non-cooperative, payoff-based play between microgrids“ as part of the Automation Technology project seminar in the department of Control Engineering and Robotics.

Award winners:

Christopher Fichtlscherer (Bachelor thesis in Physics: “Dose Rate Calculations for the PRISM Reactor”)

Stefka Schmid (Scientific interschip: “Meaningful Human Control of LAWS: The CCW-Debate and its Implications for Value-Sensitive Design”)

Verena Zimmermann (Research paper: “Moving from a ”Human-as-Problem“ to a ”Human-as-Solution“ Cybersecurity Mindset”)

The honouring and award ceremony was held at the conference SCIENCE PEACE SECURITY 19 (www.sps.peasec.de) from September 25-27 2019 at the Lichtenberg-Haus of TU Darmstadt.

Members of the jury (for the IANUS network group) were Prof. Dr. Markus Lederer (International Politics), Prof. Dr. Alfred Nordmann (Philosophy of Technosciences) and Prof. Dr. Christian Reuter (Science and Technology for Peace and Security).

A more detailed presentation of the ceremony can be found on the following pages of PEASEC: https://peasec.de/2019/ianus-preis-2019/.

You can download a digital version of the conference transcript 2019 with the following link: https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/9164/.

2006: Dr. Alexander Glaser (PhD thesis “NeutronicsCalculationsRelevant to the Conversion of Research Reactors to Low-Enriched Fuel”)

2008: Johanna Born (Bachelor thesis: “Proliferation potential of gas ultra-centrifuges”)

2008: Leander Hohmann (Bachelor thesis: “Neutron physical investigation of homogeneous TH02-PU02 fuels with regard to proliferation relevance and their potential to eliminate plutonium”)

2008: Moritz Kütt (Bachelor thesis: “Proliferation issues in the handling of plutonium combustibles: Burn-up calculations on the role of 238Pu”)

2010: Hannes Kurtze (Master thesis: “Conflict zone technology – Technology in the social theories of Luhmann and Habermas”)