Water-Monitoring-Prize 2026
WSA arwards Water-Monitoring-Prize to tandem from TU Bergakademie Freiberg
As part of this year’s Water Research Horizon Conference (WRHC) in Berlin, a special highlight in water research was celebrated: the ceremonial presentation of the Dr. Erich Ritter Foundation’s Water Monitoring Award, organized by the Stifterverband. The award was presented to Dr. Eric Röder and Gero Licht of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg (TUBAF) for their project: “Monitoring of Spatially and Temporally Distributed Phenomena Using Swimming Robots.”
The jury particularly highlighted the close collaboration between the two research groups—which has developed over several years—the diversity of the collaborating partners involved, and the already advanced stage of publication of the research results in the scientific literature. Special thanks go to our jury—Dr. Martin Sudmanns, Prof. Dr. Gunnar Lischeid, and Prof. Dr. Alexander Probst—for their careful evaluation and selection of the submitted works. Prof. Dr. Gunnar Lischeid delivered the laudatory speech for the award winners and personally presented the award on site.
With the development of their autonomous and specialized water-sampling vehicle, these two young scientists are setting new standards for the collection of environmental and aquatic data. The system enables high-resolution, continuous, and efficient data collection directly on and in bodies of water. The Water Science Alliance extends its warmest congratulations to Dr. Eric Röder and Gero Licht on this well-deserved award! We are delighted by this strong impetus from the next generation of scientists and thank the Dr. Erich Ritter Foundation within the Stifterverband for its valuable support of modern water research.
News article by TUBAF: https://tu-freiberg.de/news/tubaf-nachwuchswissenschaftler-gewinnen-water-monitoring-preis.
During the award ceremony, Dr. Andreas Braun (University of Tübingen) reported on the successes of the project honored in 2023: “Monitoring the Effect of Sand Dams on Water Availability in Semi-Arid Regions Using Satellite Image Time-Series Analyses”.
