(Frankfurt am Main, November 27, 2025) The Information Technology Society within VDE (VDE ITG) has honored outstanding academic achievements, dissertations, and scientific publications. With these awards, the VDE ITG recognizes various achievements in the scientific field, highlights excellence, and provides a stage for outstanding achievements.
A total of six VDE Fellows were also honored; a VDE medal of honor and five certificates of honor were presented. They show appreciation for volunteer work—for example, in the context of scientific discourse at conferences and forums where experts from various disciplines can engage in lively exchange.
The awards were presented at the VDE Capital Forum on November 26, 2025, in Berlin. A highlight of the event was the colloquium in honor of the former VDE ITG Chairman Dr.-Ing. Volker Ziegler, with contributions from the current Chairman Dr.-Ing. Jörg-Peter Elbers, his predecessor Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hans Schotten, and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Günther, former head of the German Aerospace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich.
The award winners in detail
VDE ITG Prize 2025 for outstanding publications: Dr. Christoph Baer, Prof. Ilona Rolfes, Francesca Schenkel, Dr. Christian Schulz (all from Ruhr University Bochum), and Dr. Thorsten R.P. Schultze were honored for their essay "Radar-Enabled Millimeter-Wave Sensing of Fire Interactions." Jonathan Bott (Ruhr University Bochum), and Andreas Rennings (University of Duisburg-Essen) were also honored for their paper "An 8 × 8 MIMO Radar System Utilizing Cascadable Transceiver MMICs With On-Chip Antennas at 240 GHz" and the publication "Differential-Mode Power Detection for Built-In Self-Test of SiGe Automotive Radar Transceiver Front Ends" by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vadim Issakov, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Dipl.-Math. Bernd Meinerzhagen (both from the Technical University of Braunschweig) and Dr. Yannick Wenger (Keysight Technologies).
The VDE ITG Dissertation Award 2025 for outstanding dissertations goes to Dr.-Ing. Tobias T. Braun (Ruhr University Bochum) for his dissertation on "High-precision frequency synthesis and nonlinear radar systems based on SiGe circuits for the protection of vulnerable road users," Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Stefan Baumgartner (Apple Linz, Austria) for his doctoral thesis "Machine Learning Concepts for Physical Layer Receiver Processing in Wireless Communication Systems," and Dr.-Ing. Johannes Jakubik (IBM Research Europe, Zurich, Switzerland) for his dissertation "Data-Centric Artificial Intelligence: Foundations and Methods for Deep Learning."
Sophie Theresa Thiele (Christian Albrecht University of Kiel) and Dipl.-Ing. Robert Krämer (Dresden University of Technology) were awarded the VDE ITG Study Prize 2025 for outstanding theses, including academic achievements and further commitment to the field of information technology.
The following individuals were honored as VDE ITG Fellows 2025 for their outstanding services to the VDE, in particular the VDE ITG: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Friedel Gerfers (Technical University of Berlin), Dipl.-Ing. Nikolaus Gieschen (Deutsche Telekom AG), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Tanja Schultz (University of Bremen), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Wietfeld (Technical University of Dortmund), Prof. (ret.) Dr.-Ing. habil. Adam Wolisz (Technical University of Berlin), and Dr.-Ing. Volker Ziegler (posthumously, Nokia, Munich).
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Bauch receives the VDE Medal of Honor 2025 for his voluntary work in the VDE ITG, in his role as a member of the Executive Board, where he has had a significant influence on the recruitment of young talent and laid the foundation for the VDE ITG Study Prize.
The VDE Certificate of Honor 2025 for exceptional voluntary work for the VDE ITG was awarded to Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Karl (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dorothea Kolossa (Technical University of Berlin), Prof. Dr. Rainer Martin (Ruhr University Bochum), Prof. Dr. Maria Dolores Pérez Guirao (Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Braunschweig/Wolfenbüttel), and PD Dr. Ingo Siegert (Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg).
