In 2025, the GDCh Division of Photochemistry of the German Society Chemical (GDCh) will for the first time award a prize for an outstanding master's thesis in the field of photochemistry/spectroscopy to promote young scientists.

The award comes with an award certificate and prize money of 500 euros and will be presented at an Online Symposium, which will take place in mid-November 2025 for the final identification of the award winner. After an initial review of the application documents by the selection committee, up to four young researchers will be invited to this symposium to present their Master's thesis to a wider audience. A selection committee appointed for this purpose, representing the Division of Photochemistry, will decide on the award after the online presentations. The prize can be shared.

The prize has not yet been announced.

The Master Awards 2025 were presented to Annika Pax and Maximilian Schick at the "Master Award 2025" Online Symposium on 5 November 2025.

Annika Prax
In recognition of her outstanding Master's thesis entitled "Time-Resolved Vibrational Absorption Spectroscopy of Electronically Excited Pyrimidine Nucleobase Derivatives", which she wrote in the working group of Prof Dr Maria Wächtler at Kiel University.

Annika Prax
In recognition of her outstanding Master's thesis entitled "Time-Resolved Vibrational Absorption Spectroscopy of Electronically Excited Pyrimidine Nucleobase Derivatives", which she wrote in the working group of Prof Dr Maria Wächtler at Kiel University.

Maximilian Schick
In recognition of his outstanding master's thesis, completed in the working group of Prof Dr Jens Bredenbeck at Goethe University Frankfurt, entitled: "The Lipid and The Light: Probing Ultrafast Dynamics in Photoswitchable Membranes using VIS-Pump IR-Probe Spectroscopy".