2019 Michael Wagner

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FWF Wittgenstein Awards

Michael Wagner

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

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

Michael Wagner 2019

In 2019, the prize was awarded to both the German microbiologist Michael Wagner (*1965) and the historian Philipp Ther. Wagner is one of the world's leading researchers in microbial ecology and microbiome analysis. These subfields of microbiology study how communities of microorganisms, without which there would be no life on Earth, function in the environment and in medicine. His research focus is on microbes that perform essential functions in the global nitrogen cycle. In 2019, Wagner established the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Science (CMESS) at the University of Vienna, now a world-leading research site.