On November 5, the Gretener-Thürlemann Prize award ceremony took place at the University of Zurich. Two of the three awardees were in attendance and presented their groundbreaking research on DNA sequencing.
Shankar Balasubramanian, Pascal Mayer, and David Klenerman, from the University of Cambridge and the Université de Strasbourg, were awarded the prize, endowed with 500,000 Swiss francs. It is the largest prize awarded at the UZH.
The evening began with welcoming remarks by Karl Gademann, professor at the UZH Institute of Chemistry, and UZH President Michael Schaepman. This was followed by an introduction to the Gretener-Thürlemann Foundation by Foundation Board Chairman Roger Dall’O, a presentation on the award’s selection criteria and a laudatory speech by Laura Baudis, member of the award committee. In a festive setting and accompanied by music, the award was handed over before the two awardees in attendance, Shankar Balasubramanian and Pascal Mayer, had the opportunity to present their research and answer questions from the large audience.
The evening concluded with a drinks reception in the atrium of the “Alte Kantonsschule” and lively conversations.
The next call for the Gretener-Thürlemann Prize will be in the field of physics and will be published in january 2027.
