German Forest Science Prize

The German Forest Science Award, funded by the Eva Mayr-Stihl Foundation, is the most highly endowed forest science award in the German-speaking world, worth 15,000 Euros. Every two years since the year 2000 the four forestry faculties in Germany, together with the Eva Mayr-Stihl Foundation, hadn over the award as part of the bi-annual Forest Science Conference. The prize recognizes outstanding research by young scientists on the conservation, use and function of forest ecosystems. In addition to the prize money, the award winner also receives a bronze sculpture 40 centimeter high - the forestry science trophy in the form of a stylized tree.

The current laureate is Dr. Dominik Seidel. His research at the Department of Silviculture and Forest Ecology of the temperate zones of the University of Göttingen deals with the three-dimensional structure of the forest. How does the complex forest structure develop and which ecosystem functions depend on it in which way? Because productivity, biodiversity, but also aesthetics and other functions of the ecosystem depend on the structure. Together with colleagues from other disciplines, Seidel explores the form, architecture and structural complexity of individual trees and attempts to decipher how the structure of many trees generates the structure of an entire forest. An essential part of his work is the development of the required methodology. The data are collected by terrestrial laser scanning in cooperation with other researchers on all wooded continents, but mainly in primeval forests. There, natural processes of forest development are best observed.