Rolf Emmermann Medal
The Rolf Emmermann Medal is the GFZ's highest honour. It is awarded on specific occasions to outstanding personalities who have rendered outstanding services to the GFZ and scientific research in the field of geosciences. The medal is named after Rolf Emmermann, the founding director of the GFZ.
The award is decided by a jury of researchers from the GFZ, including the Executive Board and the namesake. All active and former employees of the GFZ, the active and former members of the Board of Trustees and the Scientific Advisory Board as well as the members of the Association of Friends and Sponsors of the GFZ e.V. (GFZ Friends) are eligible to nominate potential award winners.
The award's namesake, Rolf Emmermann, was Scientific Director of the Continental Deep Drilling Programme of the Federal Republic of Germany (KTB) before the GFZ was founded. The KTB provided an important impetus for the founding of the GFZ in 1992. The KTB comprised a 4 kilometres deep pilot borehole and a 9.101 kilometres deep main borehole, which were drilled near the village of Windischeschenbach in the Upper Palatinate/Bavaria. The award has a special connection to this major project, as each medal consists of a three-millimetre-thin slice of rock cut from a drill core from the KTB pilot bore. The rock comes from a depth of around three and a half kilometres.
Prize winner 2024: Mark D. Zoback
The US geophysicist Mark D. Zoback received the GFZ's highest award in 2024 for his outstanding services to the geosciences and the GFZ. His major contributions to the Continental Deep Drilling Program of the Federal Republic of Germany (KTB) as well as the later foundation of the International Continental Drilling Program ICDP were decisive starting points both in the founding phase and in the early years of the GFZ. Mark D. Zoback taught at Stanford University for several decades and is considered one of the key figures in the field of brittle crust mechanics and scientific drilling worldwide.
Prize winner 2022: Michael M. Watkins
The first prize winner was the US geoscientist and research manager Michael M. Watkins. He was honored for his outstanding achievements in the design and development of new methods for obtaining information on climate change and the global water cycle through satellite-based measurements of the Earth's gravitational field. Through his long-term collaboration with the GFZ on the groundbreaking Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), one of the most successful satellite missions of the GFZ and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and its successor mission GRACE Follow-On, Michael M. Watkins has rendered a unique service to the GFZ and the entire scientific community.
corresponding GFZ press release