MUG prizes for doctoral and habilitation theses

Each year, Munich University Society (MUG) recognizes early-career researchers from a huge variety of fields for their outstanding doctoral and habilitation theses. The topics this year range from deadly cat diseases and the history of Bavarian territorial estates to high-temperature superconductors.

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Professor Carola Metzner-Nebelsick, Vice President for Humanities at LMU and member of the prize jury:

“I heartily congratulate the award winners on this special achievement. Through their outstanding work, they have not only enriched their respective fields, but also demonstrated how academic research generates new insights and addresses social challenges and scientific problems at the highest level. These doctoral and habilitation prizes honor their exceptional commitment, their creativity, and their scholarly excellence. LMU can count itself fortunate to have such early-career researchers in its ranks.”

Professor Peter Höppe, first chairman of the Munich University Association: “In the more than 100-year history of the MUG, there is a long tradition of awarding prizes to outstanding young scientists. The awards are intended to provide incentives for young scientists at LMU for outstanding research, but also to express recognition for their achievements. I wish all award winners every success in their future academic careers.”

Doctoral awards

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Combating coronaviruses in cats and people

Dr. Katharina Zwicklbauer, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, has been awarded a doctoral prize for her dissertation: “Evaluation of clinical, laboratory-diagnostic, virological, and immunological parameters in cats with feline infectious peritonitis during and after antiviral therapy”.

A diagnosis of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) was long equivalent to a death sentence. Until a few years ago, there was no effective treatment for this disease, which affects millions of cats worldwide and is caused by coronaviruses. Through her dissertation, Katharina Zwicklbauer has made a significant contribution to changing this situation.

In her studies, she demonstrated that the antiviral drug GS-441524 can fully and permanently cure cats suffering from FIP, with no serious side effects. For owners of cats affected by this disease, this is a life-changing development.

At the same time, her dissertation extends well beyond veterinary medicine. In its clinical presentation and disease course, FIP resembles the inflammatory syndrome observed in children following SARS-CoV-2 infection. Katharina Zwicklbauer therefore conducted her research in close cooperation with the Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital at LMU. This bridge between animal and human medicine highlights how veterinary medical research can also benefit human patients.

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Investigating brain cells in living organisms

Dr. Sebastian Thomas Kunte, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, is receiving a doctoral award for his dissertation: “Assessment of relative cellular glucose uptake of microglia cells within the regular brain environment”.

Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are among the greatest medical challenges of our time. Imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) can already detect metabolic changes in the brain long before structural damage becomes visible. However, which cells in the brain contribute to these signals and what role they play in the brain has so far remained poorly understood.

In his dissertation project, Sebastian Kunte was involved in establishing a novel methodology, called single-cell radiotracing, to measure a snapshot of sugar metabolism in individual brain cell types directly in the living organism.

His central finding is striking: Microglia cells, the immune cells of the brain, drasttically alter their metabolism as soon as they are removed from their natural environment. Under laboratory conditions, they therefore indicate a completely different picture compared with the living organism.

Reliable statements about brain metabolism are therefore only possible when the cells are observed in their natural environment. These results are important for better understanding the results of diagnostic procedures and for identifying new therapeutic targets for Alzheimer’s disease other neurodegenerative disorders.

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Menstruation: overcoming shame through talking

Dr. Silvia Castro, Faculty of Economics, has been granted a doctoral prize for her dissertation: "Managing Culture".

In the course of her doctoral thesis, Silvia Castro investigated how cultural and social norms shape the health decisions of women. Her focus is menstrual health. This remains a comparatively neglected subject in economics, even though it affects roughly half the population for much of their adult lives.

At the core of her work is a field experiment in a garment factory in Bangladesh. It asked a simple question: why do women place a low value on purpose-made menstrual products and do not take them up, even when those products are available and affordable?

The answer lies in stigma and shame. These are not just a side effect of poverty or scarcity. They act as barriers in their own right. They persist even when products are within easy reach, because obtaining them in public carries a social cost. To test whether that cost could be lowered, Castro introduced a deliberately light-touch intervention: moderated group discussions to normalize the topic. The effect was substantial. Women became willing to pay more for sanitary napkins and increased take up innovative products.

The study shows clearly how shame and stigma operate as structural obstacles. It also points to concrete ways of overcoming them. Its contribution is therefore twofold. It advances our scientific understanding of social norms in development economics. And it offers practical insight for policymakers, NGOs, and companies working in low-income countries.

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New mathematical mechanism

Dr. Leon Bollmann, Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics, is receiving a doctoral award for his dissertation: “Szegő-type asymptotics for the free Dirac operator”.

With his dissertation, Leon Bollmann has made significant advances in a challenging research field at the interface of pseudo-differential operators, spectral theory and mathematical physics – Szegő-type asymptotics. This area gained renewed importance after the Widom conjecture, which had long remained open, was finally proven in 2013 by A. V. Sobolev. As a result, mathematical explanations became possible for enhancements of area laws for quantum systems.

Bollmann expanded the studies of A. V. Sobolev to matrix-valued symbols and laid the foundation for applications to relativistic quantum mechanical systems. Moreover, he managed to explain, for the first time, the mechanism behind enhancements of subleading terms in the Szegő-type asymptotics. To do this, he developed a novel method that was singled out for particular praise by the referees, who noted that the dissertation breaks new mathematical ground and is set to have a lasting impact on the research field.

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Exploring ancient authorship and scribal culture

Dr. des. Tonio Mitto, Faculty of History and the Arts, has been awarded a doctoral prize for his dissertation: “The historical-literary bilingual text Zamim Ene and its role in the reception of Nebuchadnezzar I in Mesopotamian scholarly tradition”.

Zamim Ene is an important bilingual composition from ancient Mesopotamia, which is preserved in both Sumerian and Akkadian. The text centers on posthumous memories of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar I. For his dissertation, Tonio Mitto substantially almost d the known text of this key Mesopotamian composition – from 59 to 108 lines – and personally identified most of the manuscripts he consulted. As such, he himself made accessible a large part of the material on which his research into the context of the work’s creation and its subsequent reception is based. In addition, he developed a systematic method for dating late Babylonian tablets, which may allow thousands of previously unclassifiable written documents to be placed in their historical context for the first time.

According to his referees, Tonio Mitto’s dissertation sets new standards in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Despite his young age, he is already regarded as an influential figure in international Assyriology. The three referees from Munich and Jerusalem described the work as a “reference point for cuneiform philology.” Beyond his dissertation, Mitto has produced more than 2,100 digital editions and 14 scholarly publications. His discoveries include the identification of the Mesopotamian author Rīmūt-Gula and of the hitherto latest dated non-astronomical tablet from Mesopotamia. Both findings are of lasting importance for the study of ancient authorship and scribal culture. Tonio Mitto is widely viewed as a scholar who will shape Ancient Near Eastern Studies for years to come.

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Ordering phenomena in quantum systems

Dr. Henning Schlömer, Faculty of Physics, is receiving a doctoral award for his dissertation: “Exploring the low-temperature regime of doped Hubbard models: Theoretical insights leveraging quantum simulation”.

At the heart of Henning Schlömer’s dissertation are several scientific breakthroughs in the field of strongly correlated quantum systems and high-temperature superconductivity. Shortly after the discovery of new nickel-based high-temperature superconductors, Schlömer made substantial contributions to understanding them and elaborated one of the first convincing microscopic explanations for superconductivity in these materials.

Another focus of his work is the investigation of spin-charge stripes – complex ordering phenomena in quantum systems. Schlömer showed how these structures can be deliberately generated and experimentally demonstrated in quantum simulators. The results, published in the journal Nature, are considered an important milestone in this field. In addition, he developed a new measurement method that makes it possible to directly study superconducting correlations in such systems for the first time.

Furthermore, Schlömer has proposed a new theoretical description of the so-called pseudogap in copper-based superconductors. His approach yields concrete predictions that can be verified in future experiments with quantum simulators. Schlömer combines numerical simulations, analytical theory, and modern machine learning methods.

Habilitation awards

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New models for T-cell-based immunotherapies

PD Dr. Kai Rejeski, Faculty of Medicine, has been granted a habilitation award for his habilitation thesis: ”T-cell-based immunotherapies in hematological neoplasms: Pathophysiology and risk models of immunotoxicity and treatment response”.

At the center of Dr. Rejeski’s scientific work is the integrative analysis of the complex interplay between side effects and efficacy of novel T-cell-based immunotherapies, with a particular focus on the transformative CAR T-cell therapy. To pursue this work, Dr. Rejeski has established an innovative research paradigm: rather than considering efficacy and toxicity in isolation, he develops mechanistically grounded, clinically applicable models that capture and predict both dimensions together.

A prominent example is his development of the internationally adopted CAR-HEMATOTOX Score, a risk model for predicting cytopenias and infectious complications following CAR T-cell therapy. By integrating readily available clinical parameters with underlying biological mechanisms, this model represents a major advance toward the personalized management of cellular immunotherapies.

Through his habilitation work, Kai Rejeski addresses a highly relevant and rapidly evolving field at the intersection of immunology, hematology, and data-driven medicine. His research has made fundamental contributions to understanding, predicting, and ultimately improving both therapeutic efficacy and immune-related toxicity of modern T-cell-based cancer therapies.

Since February 2025, he leads the Precision Immunotherapy research group within the Department of Medicine III at the LMU University Hospital.

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Constitutional development in Bavaria, Salzburg, and Tyrol

PD Dr. Markus Christopher Müller, Faculty of History and the Arts, has been awarded a prize for his habilitation thesis: „Land und Freiheit. Landschaft, Landstände und Landesfreiheiten in Bayern, Salzburg und Tirol 1520 bis 1300“.

Previous research had interpreted the history of Bavarian territorial estates (Landstände) from a compilation of territorial liberties (Landesfreiheiten) printed in 1514 and had pinpointed their origins in the early 14th century. Markus C. Müller contradicts this view in his habilitation thesis.

Based on a comprehensive analysis of a variety of sources, Müller examines the transmission, as well as the reception history of territorial liberties and privileges and retraces constitutional development in Bavaria, Salzburg, and Tyrol. In the process, he demonstrates that the corporate territorial constitution (landschaftliche Verfasstheit) developed primarily in the 15th century, while the territorial estates were only institutionalized at the end of the 15th and start of the 16th centuries. At the same time, Müller brings “land” and “liberty” into focus as key categories of contemporary political negotiation processes.

His study combines the discussion of fundamental methodological questions with the careful evaluation of numerous previously overlooked archival sources. Upon this foundation, he develops far-reaching theories regarding the political and constitutional history of the regions in the Holy Roman Empire. His results fundamentally correct previous research and expand it simultaneously.

LMU Foundation Day: Science with Responsibility