Prize for Good Teaching 2024
On 12 May, the winners of the Faculty of Chemistry's Student Teaching Award were honoured for the fifth time.
Since 2020, the student council IG Chemie has organised this annual award for excellence in teaching. As of 2023, awards are presented separately in the Bachelor’s and Master’s programme categories. In the first round, students nominate up to three lecturers; in the second round, they vote to select the winners from the ten most frequently nominated candidates.
Dean Christian Becker opened the event by emphasising the importance of critical factual knowledge to help contextualise new data– even in an era of instant digital access to information. Especially in Bachelor's programmes, he noted, it is crucial to filter the abundance of material and focus on what students truly need to understand.
What makes good teaching?
Before the award ceremony, IG Chemie hosted a roundtable discussion with the nominees. Participants included Ellen Backus, Wolfgang Kandioller, Aron Igal Kropp, Michael Malarek, Katharina Pallitsch, Jessica Walker, and Elisabeth Hofer, who started as Professor of Didactics of Chemistry in April 2025. The central question was: What is the most important aspect of good teaching in 2024?
The panel unanimously agreed: teaching is successful when as many students as possible reach the learning objectives. Good teaching requires clear structure, accessible explanations, varied approaches, and a willingness to respond to individual needs. For Ellen Backus, it is particularly important to make her courses interactive and to respond to students' questions as fully as possible. Wolfgang Kandioller takes a similar view, even though this can be challenging in large lecture settings.
Participants expressed scepticism about the role of artificial intelligence in teaching. While AI may assist with repetitive tasks, it should not be used as a go-to reference, particularly by first-year students. Instead, students need to develop the skills to evaluate which answers they can trust. Aron Igal Kropp emphasised that we are still a long way from genuine artificial intelligence, and that current algorithms would require considerable resources to be trained and specialised for specific tasks to become a useful instrument for teaching. Elisabeth Hofer also warned of a potential decline in social interaction through the use of digital tools, noting that teaching and learning are deeply social processes.
To close the discussion, participants shared their personal experiences and advice for colleagues and future teachers. “Teachers should value feedback from students," urged Wolfgang Kandioller: "Only through this feedback ccan we improve and grow." Michael Malarek agreed: "You should never be fully satisfied with what you have achieved – and above all, pass on your enthusiasm for the subject to your students.”
And the winners are...
Roland Pantucek then announced the winners of the 2024 Prize for Good Teaching:
Master’s programmes category:
- 1st place: Samuel Meier-Menches (Assistant Professor of Translational Precision Analytics in Individualised Medicine) and Verena Pichler (Faculty alumna and Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences)
- 2nd place: Margit Cichna-Markl (Professor of Analytical Chemistry)
- 3rd place: Marc Pignitter (Professor of Analytical Food Chemistry and Food Development at the Institute of Physiological Chemistry)
Bachelor’s programmes category:
- 1st place: Wolfgang Kandioller (Senior Scientist, Institute of Inorganic Chemistry)
- 2nd place: Michael Malarek (Senior Scientist and Senior Lecturer, Institute of Inorganic Chemistry)
- 3rd place: Clemens Schmetterer (Senior Lecturer, Institute of Physical Chemistry)
Dean Christian Becker congratulated the winners on behalf of the Faculty, which is delighted to be supporting the award again this year in recognition of the importance of teaching excellence.
Interviews with the nominees, including those from previous years, can be found on the IG Chemie website.
Photo Gallery
Dean Christian Becker at the opening of the award ceremony. In 2025, the Prize for Good Teaching will celebrated its fifth anniversary. (© Ina Holzknecht)
The evening was hosted by Roland Pantucek from IG Chemie. The winners are chosen each year by a vote of chemistry students. (© Ina Holzknecht)
Before the award ceremony, IG Chemie invited participants to a panel discussion on what makes good teaching and the potential role of AI. (© Ina Holzknecht)
The nominees in the Master’s programme category (from left to right): Joel Walker, Jessica Walker, Ellen Backus, Angelika Menner (representing Robert Woodward, who was unable to attend in person), Astrid Slany, Samuel Meier-Menches, Katharina Pallitsch, and Marc Pignitter. Margit Cichna-Markl, Verena Pichler, and Benedikt Warth were unable to attend. (© Ina Holzknecht)
Third place went to Marc Pignitter, Professor at the Institute of Physiological Chemistry.(© Ina Holzknecht)
Runner-up Margit Cichna-Markl, Professor at the Institute of Analytical Chemistry, was unable to attend in person. Astrid Slany accepted the award on her behalf. (© Ina Holzknecht)
The first prize was awarded jointly: one recipient was Samuel Meier-Menches, Assistant Professor (tenure track) of Translational Precision Analytics in Individualised Medicine… (© Ina Holzknecht)
… and the other was Verena Pichler, a graduate of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and now Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, who teaches courses in Medical Radiochemistry and Medical Biochemistry. (© Ina Holzknecht)
The nominees in the Bachelor’s programmes category (from left to right): Michael Anton (represented by his successor at the Institute of Didactics of Chemistry, Elisabeth Hofer), Ellen Backus, Wolfgang Kandioller, Aron Igal Kropp, Michael Malarek, Nuno Maulide, Katharina Pallitsch, Clemens Schmetterer, and Jessica Walker. Christian Dank was unable to attend in person. (© Ina Holzknecht)
Third-place winner Clemens Schmetterer is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Physical Chemistry and Deputy Director of Studies at the Faculty. (© Ina Holzknecht)
Runner-up Michael Malarek is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Scientist at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry. (© Ina Holzknecht)
The winner in the Bachelor's category is also from the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry: Wolfgang Kandioller is a graduate of the Institute and has been a Senior Scientist since 2012. (© Ina Holzknecht)
Past award winners also joined the celebration: here, Wolfgang Kandioller with Katharina Pallitsch (Master’s programme winner 2023), Jessica Walker (2020 winner), and Peter Lieberzeit (2022 winner). In 2021, the award went to Christian Schröder, and in 2023, the Bachelor’s category was won by Norbert Kandler. (© Ina Holzknecht)