Dr. Willmar Schwabe-Award

The aim of the award is to motivate preferentially young scientists to resolve phytotherapeutical and phytopharmaceutical problems in an interdisciplinary approach, in order to support the evidence-based use of natural products.

1961
Donation of the award

1962
Dr. Manfred Kienholz

1964/65
Dr. Herbert Theodor Bruester (awarded 1966)

1967
Dr. Hans Joachim Meyer
Dr. Volkmar und Dr. Eva Boehlau
Dr. Paul Heinz List
Dr. Erich Weil
Dr. Walter Schmid

1969
Dr. Tibor Kemeny
Dr. Dietrich Frohne

1971
Dr. Ernst Mutschler
Dr. Klaus Hultzsch
Dr. Otto Nieschulz
Dr. Max Wichtl

1972
Dr. Günter Willuhn
Dr. Vesselin Petkov
Dr. Peter Sofia

1974
Dr. Gustav Georg Belz
Dr. Hasso Scholz

1975
Dr. Peter W. Thies
Dr. Guenter Stange
Dr. Claus-Dieter Benning

1976
Announced, but not awarded

2022
Dr. Simone Moser

The prestigious Dr. Willmar Schwabe Award 2022 is bestowed to Dr. Simone Moser, Center for Drug Research at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.

Dr Simone Moser published 30 papers in high-ranking international journals, with an impressive number of citations (868). She contributed significantly to the discovery of phyllobilins and the recognition of their pharmacological relevance. Simone Moser achieved the identification of important bioactivities for this compound class as well as the first human target. Furthermore, she established an un-biased target ID screen in living yeast cells, which is now ready to be applied for the research community for target identification of natural products. With her research on phyllobilins, she revealed this family of ubiquitous natural products to be bioactive ingredients of medicinal plants, which appear to have been completely overlooked.

2020
Dr. Nadine Kretschmer

The prestigious Dr. Willmar Schwabe Award 2020 is bestowed to Dr. Nadine Kretschmer, University of Graz, Austria, in recognition of her interdisciplinary phytochemical and pharmacological research of plants traditionally used to treat cancer and related diseases, identifying new lead compounds and their target pathways or proteins. 

The aim of this award is to motivate preferentially young scientists to resolve phytotherapeutical and phytopharmaceutical problems in an interdisciplinary approach, in order to support the evidence-based use of natural products. It is a pleasure to award Dr Kretschmer, who is at an early stage of her career, with this prize recognising achievements, which will foster the scientific studies of traditionally used plants.

2018
Dr. med. Matthias Engel

The GA presented the Dr. Willmar Schwabe Award 2018 to PD Dr. med. Matthias Engel is Senior Physician of Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, at Erlangen University Hospital, Germany

Dr. Engel, in 2005, after the Doctoral thesis entitled “The cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 in nociception of the rodent skin” at the University of Erlangen, Institute of Physiology and Pathophysiology, he obtained a permanent position at the University Hospital Erlangen, Department of Medicine.  In 2014 he was bestowed of the Sertürner Award and in 2015 of the Award of the Foundation for Neurogastroenterology of the German Association of Gastroenterology

Dr. Willmar-Schwabe Award is donated to Dr. Engel for the excellent research on the role of transient receptor potential (TRP)-receptors in nociception and inflammation in the context of inflammatory bowel disease.

2014
Dr. Christian Gruber

The GA presented the Dr. Willmar Schwabe Award 2014 to Dr. Christian Gruber, Medical University of Vienna, Austria, in recognition of his interdisciplinary research on active peptides derived from medicinal plants.

Copyright/Fotohinweis © MedUni Wien/F. Matern

2012
Dr. Elke Heiss

The GA presented the Dr. Willmar Schwabe Award 2012 to Dr. Elke Heiss, University of Vienna, Austria, in recognition of her outstanding scientific investigations on effects of medicinal plants and natural compounds especially in the field of metabolic and vascular dysfunction.

2010
Prof. Dr. Jürg Gertsch

The GA presents the Dr. Willmar Schabe-Award 2010 to Prof. Dr. Jürg Gertsch for his contributions impressively show that natural compounds still play an important role in drug discovery and development. more…

2008
Prof. Dr. Oliver Werz

The GA presents the Dr. Willmar Schabe-Award 2008 to Prof. Dr. Oliver Werz for his outstanding scientific investigations of pharmacological effects of medicinal plants and natural compounds, especially regarding biological actions and moelcular targets.

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2006
PD Dr. Thomas Efferth

Winner of the Dr. Willmar Schwabe-Award of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research 2006 is PD Dr. Thomas Efferth, German Cancer Research, Heidelberg, for his outstanding scientific investigations of pharmalogical effects of medicinal plants and plant ingredients, especially anti-cancer agents.