RMU Awards Ceremony: Announcement of the award winners
Prof. Dr. C. Katharina Spieß (left; photo: Peter-Paul Weiler) and Dr. Tamer Butto (right; photo: Claudia Scalera)
On 20 October 2026, it’s RMU Awards time again: The Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) cordially invite you to the RMU Awards ceremony, followed by a performance by the three university choirs, at Goethe University’s Westend Campus in Frankfurt. We are delighted to announce this year’s recipients of the RMU Awards in the RMU profile areas Health and Society!
Winners of the RMU Awards 2026
Dr. Tamer Butto
The RMU Award for Pharmaceutical Research & Innovative Medical Therapies, sponsored by Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines, recognizes Dr. Tamer Butto, junior professor at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz since July 2026, for his innovative research idea aimed at improving the diagnosis of rare genetic disorders. The novel approach combines cutting-edge RNA sequencing with the aim of gaining a better understanding of individual disease mechanisms and, in the longer term, opening up new avenues for targeted therapies. His research thus strengthens the RMU Area of Potential Emerging Targets and Transformative Therapies.
Prof. Dr. C. Katharina Spieß
This year’s Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose RMU Award recognizes Prof. Dr. C. Katharina Spieß of Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz for her outstanding body of scholarly work in education, family, and population research. Her research has not only had a lasting impact on these fields and helped create important foundations for future research, but has also been particularly successful in bringing scientific evidence into policy and society. With her research, she contributes to the RMU Research Focal Area Challenging Societal Orders.
As director of the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), Spieß also plays an important role in the regional research network and strengthens collaboration within it.
Background: The RMU Research Profile
The RMU research profile is based on the recognized, complementary strengths within RMU. We classify our internationally leading fields as Research Focal Areas and high-potential topics as Areas of Potential. We map both of these onto the four cross-cutting domains of Data,Health, Matter, and Society.
The RMU Awards are presented in the Profile Areas of Health and Society.
HEALTH
The research domain Health encompasses research groups from life sciences and medicine and their cooperation partners at NURIs. There are two Research Focal Areas Dynamics of Cell Structure and Function and Inter- and Multi-Organ Communication as well as one Area of Potential Emerging Targets and Transformative Therapies. In the profile domain Health excellency is reinforced by two Cluster of Excellence: SCALE and CPI (Cardio-Pulmonary Institute).
The Area of Potential Emerging Targets and Transformative Therapies focuses on drug discovery and biotechnology with the goal of developing novel therapeutic strategies for diseases where there is a high unmet medical need. Research spans new modalities such as proximity-inducing drugs, multispecific biotherapeutics, tailored microbiota- and RNA-based approaches, as well as tailored small molecules, all directed at targets previously considered undruggable.
SOCIETY
The Profile Area Society comprises research groups in the humanities and social sciences. It includes one Research Focal Area Challenging Societal Orders and two Areas of Potential Doing Cultures: Historic and Linguistic Perspectives and Finance and Markets.
The area Challenging Societal Orders comprises several high-level collaborative research units and ERC projects, addressing some of the most pressing social and political challenges of our time such as diversity in societies, increasing economic pressures, accelerated social and geographical mobility as well as immigration, widening social inequality, growing employment insecurity, declining family stability, secularization paired with religious tensions, and demographic shifts marked by falling birth rates and aging populations.
You can find more information about the RMU's research profile here.
More information about the RMU Awards ceremony
The event will start at 6:00 pm with the presentation of the RMU Award for Pharmaceutical Research & Innovative Medical Therapies of Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines and the Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose RMU Award for the Humanities and Social Sciences. A saxophone ensemble of Frankfurt University will provide musical accompaniment.
Following the awards ceremony, we want to round off the evening together: After last year’s highly successful premiere, the three university choirs from the Rhine-Main universities will once again join forces and perform together. The RMU choirs not only invite everyone to listen, but also to sing along together. The concert will be held at Festsaal Casino.
Schedule:
- from 5:15 pm: check-in and get together
- 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm: presentation of the RMU Awards
- 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm: joint appearance of the three RMU university choirs
Registration:
- Please register here to participate in the presentation of the RMU Awards. Registration will be open until 13 October 2026. If you would like to use a shuttle bus for the round trip from Darmstadt and Mainz, you can also sign up for this during the registration process.
- No registration is required for the joint concert of the three university choirs.
