Since 2001, the Forschungsverbund Berlin (FVB) has annually presented the “Marthe Vogt Award” to young female scientists who have completed outstanding dissertations in scientific fields represented by FVB within the Berlin and Brandenburg region. This year, Alexandra Quitmann, an alumna of the Berlin Mathematical School (BMS), who graduated in 2023, was honored for her exceptional thesis. Congratulations!

On 7 November 2024, the "Marthe Vogt Award" was conferred during a festive ceremony at the Leibniz Headquarters in Berlin on Dr. Alexandra Quitmann and Dr. Sara Hetzel. Alexandra Quitmann completed her bachelor’s and master’s studies at the Universität Münster before moving to Berlin to pursue her research as a BMS student at the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics (WIAS) under the supervision of Wolfgang König. She was also part of the International Research Training Group Berlin-Oxford (IRTG) 2544 “Stochastic Analysis in Interaction” and earned her PhD from the Technische Universität Berlin in October 2023 with the award-winning thesis on “Phase Transitions in Random Loop Models.” The laudatory speech in her honor was given by Michael Hintermüller, Director of WIAS, professor at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, and former MATH+ Chair. Stefan Eisebitt, spokesperson of the Executive Board of Forschungsverbund Berlin, welcomed the attendees, while Micha Klapp, State Secretary for Labor and Equality, served as the keynote speaker.

Alexandra Quitmann is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at La Sapienza University in Rome. Reflecting on the prestigious award, Quitmann said: “The Marthe Vogt Award is a great honor and special recognition of my work, particularly since the proportion of female researchers in my field, mathematical physics, remains very low to this day. It is extremely fascinating to capture and precisely describe complex physical phenomena mathematically. I am also deeply grateful for the close supervision and the numerous international experiences from my research stays in Rome and Oxford.” In her dissertation, “Phase Transitions in Random Loop Models,” she investigated the interacting Bose gas, one of the most active yet insufficiently understood areas of research in mathematical physics. Together with her primary supervisor, Lorenzo Taggi (initially at WIAS, now in Rome), Alexandra Quitmann adapted the method of reflection positivity to a variant of the Bose gas. This allowed them to answer a crucial question regarding the existence of a very long loops in this loop ensemble. This represents the first successful treatment of an interacting model of this type and can rightfully be considered a breakthrough.

Wolfgang König, her supervisor at WIAS, praised her work: “Throughout Alexandra Quitmann’s doctoral studies, it was a pleasure to witness her deep commitment to the topic and her relentless determination. She never gave up, constantly pushing forward until she succeeded. This remarkable perseverance has now been justly rewarded. I believe she has solved an extraordinary problem. Starting this project amidst the pandemic required a high degree of independence and discipline, which she mastered exceptionally well; I find that truly impressive.”

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The Marthe Vogt Award is conferred annually on an outstanding young female scientist for her excellent thesis in a field represented by the institutes of the Forschungsverbund Berlin (FVB). Notably, the research need not have been conducted at an FVB institute. The research fields covered include, but are not limited to, Molecular Pharmacology, Structural Biology and Chemical Biology, Advanced Materials, Aquatic Ecology and Biodiversity Research, Biology, Veterinary Medicine and Environmental Research, Nanomaterials, Quantum Materials, Optoelectronics and Materials Science, Laser Research and Light-Matter Interaction, as well as Applied Mathematics. The doctoral dissertation must have been completed at a non-university research facility or a university in the Berlin and Brandenburg region.

Marthe Vogt (1903–2003) conducted pioneer research on neurotransmitters and worked at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Hirnforschung in Berlin-Buch, now location of the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP). She is an academic and personal role model for this award. Due to national policies against Jewish scientists, she left Germany in 1935 and continued her research in Great Britain.