Young bridge builder from Würzburg
11/14/2025Hannes Keiling won the first prize of 12,000 euros at the Mexican Science Day in Berlin and can now start planning a scientific workshop in Mexico.
As part of Berlin Science Week, the Mexican Embassy hosted the Mexican Science Day "Science connects: Mexico & Germany - Beyond Now" on 4 November 2025, together with the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). A science slam was the final highlight on the programme after lectures and panel discussions on AI in science and art as well as on international scientific cooperation.
Hannes Keiling
One of the participants was Hannes Keiling from the University of Würzburg. Less than a year ago, in January 2025, he started his doctoral project at the Institute of Organic Chemistry under Professor Jürgen Seibel. He is working on a process that can be used to decode disease mechanisms. Right at his first appearance in front of an international audience, Hannes impressed the jury with his clear and engaging presentation style as well as with the scientific details of his presentation "Building Bridges in Vaccine Chemistry: Smart Multifunctional Linkers for Viral Capsid-Based Vaccines".
Building Bridges
Bridges are actually being built here in two senses, both molecular and geographical. The prize money of 12,000 euros is earmarked for Hannes Keiling to travel to Mexico and organise a workshop that will continue and expand the scientific links that have been established for years between the Seibel working group and Mexican researchers. Among other things, he will be working on the development of the next generation of vaccines. The aim is to design a system that drastically reduces the costs and time needed to develop new vaccines.
