Outstanding achievements of the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics honoured
Outstanding academic achievements were honoured at Paderborn University's New Year's reception on Sunday, 18 January 2026. The event with around 400 guests from academia, business and politics took place in the Auditorium maximum and provided the setting for the presentation of numerous awards.
Outstanding doctoral dissertations honoured
The Faculty of Business Administration and Economics was also represented among the award winners: Dr. Livia Boerner from the field of organisational, media and sports economics received a doctoral dissertation prize worth 2,500 euros for her dissertation on "Cognitive Decision Bias among Entrepreneurs and Investors in Televised Startup Pitch Competitions".
In his laudatory speech, Prof Dr Bernd Frick emphasised the importance of the work for research as well as its empirical foundation and the knowledge gained for science and practice.
Prizes for special theses
Nicole Grieger was honoured for her outstanding Master's thesis in the field of Information Systems entitled "Explainable Classification of Vehicle Maneuvers using Transformer-based Models in the Context of Autonomous Driving - An Experimental Approach".
In his laudatory speech, Prof. Dr. Dennis Kundischemphasised the high quality of the work, its methodological depth and its strong practical relevance. The Master's thesis contributes to the further development of explainable AI models in the context of autonomous driving and combines technical modelling with user-centred evaluation.
