Meet the Winners: GESS 2025 Awards

We proudly present the doctoral candidates whose accomplishments in teaching and research have earned them the GESS Awards. The awards ceremony took place at the annual GESS Welcome Reception.

The graduate school’s Teaching Awards recognize the central part GESS doctoral students play in enriching learning across the Business School, the Department of Economics, and the School of Social Sciences. This year’s awardees are:

• Management doctoral candidate Erika Ni (CDSB) for her teaching of 'Well-being along the entrepreneurial journey' held at the University of Mannheim in the academic year 2024/2025.
• Economics doctoral candidate Pablo Zarate Cisternas (CDSE) for his teachings of 'BE 511 Business Economics' held at the University of Mannheim in the academic year 2024/2025.
• Economics doctoral candidate Lukas Kübek (CDSE) for his teachings of 'E703 Advanced Econometrics' held at the University of Mannheim in the academic year 2024/2025.
• Political Science doctoral candidate Julius Diener (CDSS) for his course 'PS Einführung in die Vergleich­ende Regierungs­lehre: Democratic Representation in Parliament' held at the University of Mannheim in the academic year 2024/2025.
• Psychology doctoral candidate Fabienne Partsch (CDSS) for her course 'Seminar Q3: Diversität und Gleich­stellung in der Arbeits­welt' held at the University of Mannheim in the academic year 2024/2025.

Complementing our teaching awards, the GESS community celebrates outstanding research publications that demonstrate significant scholarly impact. The Publication Awards were presented to the following doctoral students:

• Accounting doctoral candidates Johannes Gaul and Pascal Schrader, both CDSB, earned the CDSB Best Paper Award for their article “Beyond Content: Investors’ Chatter, Interaction, and Earnings Announcement Returns“.
• Management doctoral candidates Lena Rudat and Nils Schweikard, both CDSB, earned the CDSB Interdisciplinarity Award for their paper “Striving for Performance, Struggling for Satisfaction: An Experimental Study of Decision-Making Structures in Virtual Teamwork“.
• Lisa-Marie Müller, Hannah Rajski, and Malena Ullrich, all doctoral candidates in the CDSS political science track, earned the Young Scholar Award for their project “Women’s Square: Mannheim Network of Female Social Scientists“.
• Sociology doctoral candidate Leonard Wendering (CDSS) earned the Young Scholar Award for his project “Triadic Competition: An Experiment on Triadic Contact among East, West, and Turkish-Germans”.
• Sociology doctoral candidate Johanna Hölzl (CDSS) was awarded the Publication of the Year Award for her work “The (mis)use of Google Trends data in the social sciences – A systematic review, critique, and recommendations” (co-authored with F. Keusch & C. Sajons) and published in 'Social Science Research'.

We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to ABSOLVENTUM, the University of Mannheim’s alumni organization, whose generous support helped make the Welcome Reception possible.

Applause to our winners! Your commitment and excellence speak for themselves!

Editor’s note (4 Nov 2025): This news item was updated to include additional award recipients from the CDSB announced after initial publication.