Harsewinkel, October 2023. The Claas-Foundation recently honored outstanding theses from the fields of agricultural sciences and engineering. As has been the case for more than 20 years, the students received awards, which in value this year totalled over 30,000 euros.
The up-and-coming talents received their awards at a ceremony in the CLAAS Greenhouse. In addition, the final theses of the main prize winners were presented to the audience in short lectures. The awards were presented by Cathrina Claas-Mühlhäuser, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees since 2021. She was pleased to be able to welcome new agricultural talents from the most diverse nations of Europe to Harsewinkel. "Today we meet students who have already discovered their great passion for technology and agriculture. Talents that are so important to meet the challenges we will face today and in the future." Founded in 1999, the Claas-Foundation annually awards the Helmut Claas Scholarships, Bonus Prizes and International Prizes.
Specifically, the following prizes were awarded:
Scholarships
1st prize: Tristan Mitzel, a student at the University of Kassel (Germany), created a guideline for the planning of agroforestry systems, paying particular attention to climate-friendly design. He received 7,200 euros for his work.
2nd prize: Christian Reichler from the South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences (Germany) developed reference materials for the determination of moisture in a forage harvester using near-infrared rays. For this, he received 6,000 euros.
3rd prize: Fabian Lorenz, who studies at the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences (Germany), received 4,800 euros for his experiment on single-grain sowing of wheat using different sowing methods and pilled seeds (seeds enclosed in a shell, resulting in a uniformly round shape).
4th prize: Tim Huurdeman received the 4th prize for his research into optimized auxiliary lighting in greenhouses to maximize financial returns. For this, the student of Wageningen University (Netherlands) received 3,600 euros.
Bonus Prizes
In addition to the scholarships, two bonus prizes worth 1,500 euros each were awarded. In the "Agricultural Engineering" category, Jonathan Voß, a student at the Technical University of Munich, presented the best work. He developed a climate sensor station for the analysis of climatic heterogeneities in an indoor farming system. Furthermore, Alicia Völker, a student at the University of Hohenheim, was awarded the bonus prize in the category "Extraordinary personality and future impulses". She dealt with the research question: Does chopping sugar beet cause yield-effective nitrogen mineralization effects?
International Student Awards
The International Student Awards, each worth 2,000 euros, were awarded to Cristian Marcovici from the University of Life Sciences "King Mihai I" from Timisoara (Romania), Pál Szabó Zoltán from the Budapest University of Technology and Economy (Hungary), Nynke de Wilde from Wageningen University (Netherlands), Nikolas Bakan from Poznań University of Life Sciences (Poland) and Jakub Trnka from the Slovak University of Agriculture Nitra (Slovakia).
