Ewa Merz is researching the coexistence of plankton
Prix Schläfli 2025 for Biology: She has been fascinated by the sea ever since childhood. But as Switzerland is landlocked, she started with lakes. Ewa Merz has now been awarded the Swiss Academy of Sciences’ Prix Schläfli in Biology for her work on the fragile coexistence of species of plankton.
Image: Ewa Merz
Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen gives turtles a voice
Prix Schläfli 2024 Biology: For a long time, turtles were regarded as largely voiceless creatures. In his dissertation, Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen has shown that they definitely do communicate acoustically – and his discovery is revolutionising evolutionary biology. He has been awarded the Prix Schläfli Biology for his work.
Image: Basil Minder
Joël Bloch – Exploring unknown worlds with the microscope
Prix Schläfli 2023: Structural biology is, he believes, the "most attractive" of sciences. Joël Bloch has been awarded the Prix Schläfli in Biology for the dissertation he submitted to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich on special sugar molecules in cell membranes.
Anna-Katharina Pfitzner – Seeking fundamental answers
Prix Schläfli 2022: Small biological building blocks are her thing: biologist Anna-Katharina Pfitzner has researched a mechanism that is key to many processes in cell biology.
Image: Anna-Katharina Pfitzner
Gregor Weiss – Conquers mountains and bacteria
Prix Schläfli 2021: Gregor Weiss has two passions: mountain sports and biology. What connects the two? You can only reach your goal with perseverance and team spirit. This also applies to his work on the body's own defence against urinary tract infections, which earned him the Prix Schläfli award in biology.
Image: Miki Feldmüller
Alice Berhin – A new chapter in plant anatomy
Prix Schläfli 2020: People thought that there was nothing new to be discovered in plant anatomy. Au contraire, Alice Berhin discovered a kind of protective layer on the root tips of seedlings. This got her the Prix Schläfli award in Biology.
Image: Alice Berhin