Today the German Research Foundation (DFG) awarded Prof. Artemis Alexiadou, Head of the Department of English Studies at the Institute for Linguistics at the University of Stuttgart, the Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz Prize. The distinction by DFG, also described as the “German Nobel Prize“ , is considered to be the most eminent research prize in Germany and is endowed with 2.5 million Euros. Alexiadou is being honoured as an excellent linguist who is recognised worldwide. She is being awarded the Leibniz Prize for the “Further Development of Models and Theories on Human Language Comprehension“.
Prof. Wolfram Ressel, Rector at the University of Stuttgart, commented in an initial statement on the decision by the DFG: “We would like to congratulate Prof. Alexiadou wholeheartedly on this award. We are delighted to see Prof. Alexiadou honoured with the Leibniz Prize only two years after the Stuttgart Physicist Prof. Jörg Wrachtrup received the Leibniz Prize in 2012, meaning another Leibniz award winner researching and teaching at the University of Stuttgart.“ Ressel underlined the services of the scientist in terms of English linguistics at the University of Stuttgart that was already attested excellent research by the Science Council. “Together with her team Ms Alexiadou has led English linguistics to attain international acclaim. We would also like to thank her in particular for her foresight in the cooperation between engineers and humanities scholars at our University“, is how Ressel expressed her achievements.
The linguist Prof. Artemis Alexiadou was born in Volos, Greece in 1969. After studying Philology in Athens, she gained her doctorate in Potsdam in 1994 and qualified as a professor there in 1999 on the topic of General Linguistics. From 1999 to 2000 she was employed as the Managing Director in the Centre for General Linguistics, Berlin. In 2000 Prof. Alexiadou was awarded a Heisenberg bursary from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and researched at the University of Potsdam, at the Massachusetts’ Institute of Technology (MIT) and at Princeton University. This was followed by a Fellowship from Princeton University. From 2001 to 2002 Prof. Alexiadou was again the recipient of a Heisenberg bursary (University of Pennsylvania, University of Potsdam). Since 2002 she has been a Professor for Theoretical and English Linguistics at the University of Stuttgart. In 2007 she worked as a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, USA, LSA Summer School. Prof. Alexiadou is a spokesperson for the Special Research Field SFB 732 of the German Research Foundation (DFG) that deals with ambiguities in language.
The Leibniz Prize has been awarded annually by the DFG since 1986. It distinguishes excellent scientists for their research work in all fields of science. Generally this prize is endowed with prize money of respectively 2.5 million Euros, that the winners may spend in a period of up to seven years according to their own ideas and without bureaucratic burdens. Up to now 335 scientists have been awarded the prize, which is also considered to be one of the most important scientific prizes worldwide; six prize-winners were also awarded the Nobel Prize after winning the Leibniz Prize.
Further information:
Dr. Hans-Herwig Geyer, University of Stuttgart, Head of University Communication and
Spokesperson,
Tel. 0711/685-82555, Email: hans-herwig.geyer [at] hkom.uni-stuttgart.de