Dr.-Ing. Laura König-Mattern was awarded the 2025 Deutscher Studienpreis by the Körber-Stiftung
Dr.-Ing. Laura König-Mattern is an alumna of the Process Engineering Department at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg. She was awarded second prize in the German Study Award for her doctoral thesis on "Systematic Solvent Screening and Design for Biomass Fractionation Processes."
Today, chemical production is still largely based on fossil raw materials and energy sources, which cause significant CO2 emissions. Therefore, research into renewable resources, especially biomass, is urgently needed.
Dr.-Ing. Laura König-Mattern's research focused on solvent-based separation processes designed to make biomass available for resource-efficient chemical production. To identify the best possible solvents, she developed computational optimization methods for solvent molecules. The newly developed separation processes for microalgae and wood enable the decomposition of biomass into its basic building blocks, thus making it usable for the production of chemicals.
For her essay: „The chemical industry in transition: Using algorithms and biomass to achieve sustainable processes“ Dr.-Ing. Laura König-Mattern was awarded second prize in the Natural and Technical Sciences section and the corresponding prize money of 10,000 euros.
"We congratulate Laura König-Mattern on her outstanding achievement! Mrs. König-Mattern is a scientist who has demonstrated exceptional dedication and commitment during her studies at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and during her doctoral research at our institute. We are very proud to have Mrs. König-Mattern among our alumni and wish her every success in her future career," says CDS spokesperson Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai Sundmacher, Director of the Process Engineering Department at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg.
Laura König-Mattern studied Biosystems Engineering and Systems Engineering and Technical Cybernetics at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. She successfully completed her studies with a master's degree in August 2019. From 2019 to 2024, she worked as a doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems Magdeburg, focusing on solvent selection for biorefineries. In December 2024, she completed her doctorate with the title "Systematic Solvent Screening and Design for Biomass Fractionation Processes" at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg with the distinction "summa cum laude."
Since January 2025, Dr.-Ing. Laura König-Mattern has been a group leader at the Center for the Transformation of Chemistry (CTC) in Leuna, Saxony-Anhalt. She has been awarded a scholarship from the Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Research and an Add-on Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Life Science from the Joachim Herz Foundation for her work.
The Körber Foundation's German Study Prize annually honors doctoral graduates who have addressed socially relevant topics in their academically excellent dissertations and presented tangible results. The prize is awarded in three categories: social sciences, natural and technical sciences, and humanities and cultural studies.
On December 4th, 2026, Dr. Laura König-Mattern received the second prize of the German Study Prize from the President of the German Bundestag, Julia Klöckner. The award was presented to her in the presence of her mentors. CDS member Dr. Liisa Rihko-Struckmann is a team leader in the Process Engineering research group at the Max Planck Institute in Magdeburg, and CDS spokesperson Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Kai Sundmacher supervised her doctoral dissertation as an examiner at the Faculty of Process and Systems Engineering at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg.