2019 Philipp Ther

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FWF Wittgenstein Awards

Philipp Ther

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

Philipp Ther 2019

In 2019, the prize was awarded to both the German-Austrian historian Philipp Ther (*1967) and microbiologist Michael Wagner. Ther is an expert on the history of East-Central Europe with a focus on the cultural and social historical transformation that took place after 1989. He is particularly interested in the social consequences of the historic upheavals following the revolution, both on a European and a global scale. Ther has been researching and teaching at the University of Vienna since 2010 and is the director of the Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET), which he founded.