In memory of Günther Ossimitz, long time Board member of the BCSSS, who passed away in 2013, a prize is given the first time that year at the Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt where he was teacher.
As the bereaved had asked for money donations instead of flowers for enabling the establishment of a financial reward for young scientists at his university, the Günther-Ossimitz-Preis was set up. From that year on every year a student who excels in systemic thinking will be granted the prize in the amount of € 500,00. A master thesis or a dissertation work finished in any discipline is required. The BCSSS is represented in the jury.
Twenty-two applications had been received. The first ever Günther-Ossimitz-Preis goes to Mag. Dr. Anna Schreuer, MSc., for her dissertation on Dealing with the diffusion challenges of grassroots innovations: the case of citizen power plants in Austria and Germany. The jury decided to give also a special prize, the Günther-Ossimitz-Sonderpreis, to Mag. Dr. Thomas Vlk who had done a dissertation that belonged to the research fields of Günther Ossimitz and was even graded by him. That work continues Günther’s ideas of Metanoia and discusses the value of non-formal logics for systems thinking from the perspective of management applications.
The prizes will be given on 9 October 2015 at 12:00 at the Stiftungssaal of the University Klagenfurt. That date is the 57th anniversary of Günther’s birth.
Günther Ossimitz (Barbara Hanfstingl)