Awards and Grants

Dr Kami Pekayvaz (LMU Hospital) has been awarded the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize by the DFG, which recognises researchers in the early stages of their careers.

Professor Stefanie Dimmeler (University Hospital Frankfurt) is awarded the Hector Science Prize of the Weinheim-based Hector Foundation, endowed with €200,000.

Dr. Kami Pekayvaz (University Hospital Munich) receives the “Publication Prize 2026 of the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation,” which is endowed with 10,000 euros.

Prof. Dr. med. Lorenz Lehmann (Heidelberg University Hospital), as project leader of an interdisciplinary consortium, has been awarded a grant of 1.3 million euros from the Hector Foundation for a research project into the cardiological side effects of so-called checkpoint inhibitors.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Fabian Theis (Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Health and Environment) receives the “AI for Science Fund” by Google.org for two AI research projects as part of the opening of Google’s first German AI Center in Berlin.

Dr Carla Abrahamian (German Heart Centre Munich) has been awarded a Young Investigator Fellowship by the European Atherosclerosis Society.

At the Annual Meeting of the German Society for Thoracic, Cardiac and Vascular Surgery and the German Society for Pediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Defects, the following were honored: Dr Monika Sadlonova (Research Award for Cardiovascular Medicine), Dr Nele Rolfs (Young Investigator Award), PD Dr Franziska Seidel (Poster Award 2026), Prof. Dr Katharina Schmitt (Election to the DGPK Executive Board), Dr Marcin Zaradzki (Vascular Surgery Research Award of the DGTHG), Dr Caroline Radner (Georg Wilhelm Rodewald Award), Dr Linda Grefen (Award of the DGTHG in cooperation with the Gerald Asamoah Foundation).

Dr. Julius Kaemmel (German Heart Center, Charité) has been awarded the Dr.-Rusche Research Project. The funding, totaling approximately €60,000, will enable him to collaborate with researchers at the Institute for Cardiovascular Computer-Assisted Medicine (ICM) to develop an AI-based virtual feedback system.

PD Dr. med. Monika Sadlonova (University Medical Centre Göttingen) receives the research prize for cardiovascular medicine, jointly awarded by the German Society for Thoracic, Cardiac and Vascular Surgery (DGTHG) and the Ulrich Karsten Foundation, worth €10,000, for her prospective FINDERI study on the identification of early risk factors for postoperative delirium following heart surgery.