2022 Christa Schleper

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FWF Wittgenstein Awards

Christa Schleper

Austria’s most highly endowed research award

With nominees named by the scientific community, winners selected by an international jury of experts, and a €1.5 million endowment that exceeds all other individual funding awards in Austria, the FWF Wittgenstein Award is unique in every respect. With this award, the FWF not only honors exceptional academic careers, but also offers researchers the resources they need to advance their own research work at the highest international level.

Gruppenbild der FWF-START und Wittgenstein-Preisträger — Setting the stage for outstanding research: The researchers accepting their awards at the formal award ceremony © Daniel Novotny/FWF

FWF Wittgenstein Award Winners in front of the camera

Target group

The funding program is aimed at outstanding researchers from all disciplines.

Funding goals

The program provides both recognition and support to excellent researchers (up to 60 years of age) who have already produced exceptional work and who occupy a prominent place in the international scientific community.

Funding period and funding amount

60 months
€1.5 million

Christa Schleper 2022

The 2022 prize was awarded to the German microbiologist Christa Schleper (*1962). She was one of the first to investigate the evolution of complex life based on the example of archaea. These primordial microorganisms can survive in the most adverse conditions and play an important role not only in the origin of complex life, but also in the ecosystem. Schleper has been working at the University of Vienna since 2007, where she has also been successful in the post-cultivation of archaea in the laboratory, a lab she played a major role in establishing. She is one of the world's most cited scientists.