At the academic ceremony of the Jubiläumsfonds of the City of Vienna on 13 March 2026, Anna Florentina Lehrhofer and Nora Fasching received the BOKU Talent Awards for outstanding research in cellulose chemistry and sustainable bio-based resources.

At the academic ceremony of the Jubiläumsfonds of the City of Vienna held at BOKU University on 13 March 2026, Anna Florentina Lehrhofer and Nora Fasching received the BOKU Talent Awards. The awards recognise two early-career researchers whose work contributes important new perspectives on renewable materials and sustainable resource use.

In her dissertation, “A critical perspective on mechanisms and chirality in cellulose chemistry,” Anna Florentina Lehrhofer re-examined key mechanistic questions in cellulose chemistry and challenged established reaction concepts through selected case studies. A particular focus was placed on the chirality of cellulose derivatives. Her work showed that switching from D- to L-cellulose not only inverts molecular chirality, but also changes macroscopic interaction behaviour. This dissertation was supported by GFF Niederösterreich within the framework of the NFB Chirality project and supervised by Ass.Prof. Hubert Hettegger and Prof. Thomas Rosenau.

In her master thesis, “Waterplant Biorefinery: Analysis and Utilization of Danubian M. spicatum for Value-Added Applications,” Nora Fasching explored innovative ways to use aquatic plants as a sustainable raw material source. Against the background of climate-related changes and increasing eutrophication, her research shows how aquatic plant biomass can be used materially to replace fossil resources with bio-based alternatives. The thesis was supported by the Jubiläumsfonds of the City of Vienna and supervised by Dr. Marco Beaumont, Dr. Armin Winter and Prof. Thomas Rosenau.

07.04.2026