Internationally Announced
Archimedes Science Award

The Free State of Saxony will award the internationally announced Archimedes Science Award for the second time in 2026.

Archimedes formulated the law of the lever in his work “On the Equilibrium of Plane Figures.” He recognized that using a fixed lever allows heavy objects to be moved with less effort. In this sense, the name of the prize emphasizes the unique leverage effect that outstanding science can have in addressing the major global challenges of our time. Scientific achievements with such leverage effect are to be honored.

The prize is endowed with EUR 50,000 and is awarded by a high-caliber and unique jury. Members of the jury:

Prof. Martin Keller, President of the Helmholtz Association
Prof. Claudia Felser, Vice President of the Max Planck Society
Prof. Holger Hanselka, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Prof. Martina Brockmeier, President of the Leibniz Association
Prof. Walter Rosenthal, President of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK)
Prof. Dr. Ursula M. Staudinger, Rector of TUD Dresden University of Technology and Chair of the DRESDEN-concept Alliance
Prof. Sebastian M. Schmidt, Scientific Director at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf Director (HZDR)

This means that all four major extramural research organizations as well as the HRK – and thus numerous members of the Alliance of Science Organizations – are represented on the jury. The jury is chaired by Prof. Staudinger and Prof. Sebastian M. Schmidt.

Each year, the prize is advertised with a focus on the respective theme of the Science Conference “Building Bridges” in Dresden. The award ceremony will take place there.

For the Free State of Saxony, research and science are of utmost importance. Innovations help to advance us and are crucial for successful economic development and our prosperity. The Free State of Saxony is home to a unique international and interdisciplinary research and science landscape with an incredible number of bright minds. The ‘Archimedes Science Award’ now presented by the Free State of Saxony is a perfect fit for our region. It represents innovation, internationality and excellent prospects.

Michael Kretschmer, Minister President of the Free State of Saxony

The Archimedes Science Award is a unique science award due to the endowment of EUR 50,000, but also due to the special composition of the jury. The jury is made up of presidents or vice presidents of the four major extramural research organizations and the HRK in order to demonstrate the power of science to contribute to solving the great challenges of our time. The fact that this prize will be awarded here in Saxony – in Dresden – is no coincidence. This is where you will find one of the largest concentrations of extramural research institutions in Germany, which also work very closely with the university in the DRESDEN-concept e.V. science alliance. We are very excited about the nominations in the fields of hydrogen technology, energy conversion, and related research fields for the award ceremony in 2026.

Prof. Ursula Staudinger, Rector of TUD Dresden University of Technology and
Chairwoman of the Executive Board of DRESDEN-concept e.V.

Award, nomination and ceremony

1. Announcement of the Award

Announcement of the annual prize and its award in 2026 on the website and on social media. The announcement provides information on the criteria, deadlines, prize money and the submission procedure. The jury members (deputy for their respective organizations) are entitled to nominate. The jury members are invited to nominate. The nominees may come from their own organization or other institutions.

2. Nomination

The jury members entitled to nominate candidates, can nominate one person they consider suitable for the award.

For the Archimedes Science Award 2026, the Jury seeks internationally renowned, excellent scientists working in the fields of hydrogen technology, energy conversion, and related research fields, and whose research has made contributions to solving the major global challenges of our time. Outstanding scientific achievements with such leverage effect are to be recognized.

Scientific achievements with particular focus on hydrogen as the energy carrier of the future and its role in energy transformation are prioritized. Consideration should be given to world-leading research achievements that focus on the advantages and disadvantages of hydrogen, generation/production, availability, storage, transport/logistics (particularly in which form/state of matter – liquefaction), catalysis, safety, battery technology, and engineering aspects. Basic research with application relevance is the focus. The modernization and further development of energy supply must be evident in the performance to be awarded.

3. Documents to be Submitted

CV
up to five selected publications that demonstrate the excellence of the scientific achievement and its leverage effect
laudatory speech (max. 3 pages) outlining the achievement to be honored and the leverage effect
10-15 lines short description

The documents will be sent in English and in electronic form to archimedes@dresden-concept.de by January 15, 2026.
Queries can be directed to the above e-mail.

4. Review of Nominations

The nominations and documents submitted are carefully examined by the jury and evaluated on the basis of the specified criteria.

4. Selection of the Award Winner

The jury selects the winner from the nominees. The decision is made by secret ballot. The nominee with the most votes receives the prize.

5. Announcement of the Winner

The person receiving the prize will be informed by the jury chair. Once the prize has been accepted, the name will be announced publicly and the awarding of the prize will be made public.

6. Award Ceremony

The award ceremony will take place during the ‘Building Bridges’ science conference in Dresden. The winner will be honored and give a keynote lecture.

7. Follow-up and Documentation

DRESDEN-concept documents the nomination and selection process and presents the award winner on the Archimedes website.

Archimedes Science Award awarded for the first time:
Computer scientist Cordelia Schmid wins new Saxon prize for cutting-edge research

The first winner is the internationally renowned computer scientist and AI researcher Dr. Cordelia Schmid. Saxony’s Minister President Michael Kretschmer presendet Cordelia Schmid with the award, TUD Rector Prof. Ursula Staudinger hold the laudatory speech. Schmid then gave a keynote speech entitled Artificial Intelligence: Past, Present and Future.

Background: Award winner Dr. Cordelia Schmid

Dr. Cordelia Schmid received her Diplom in Computer Science from TH Karlsruhe (now KIT) and completed her doctorate and habilitation at the Institute National Polytechnique de Grenoble. She is Research Director at France’s National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria) and also works at Google DeepMind.

Schmid conducts research into computer vision, machine learning and robotics and has had a decisive influence on her field. With her contributions, she has revolutionized the automated recognition of complex objects in images and videos – with applications in search engines and multimodal AI systems, for example. She has also mentored numerous young scientists and played a key role in shaping the scientific community in leading roles at renowned journals and conferences.