Prof. Dr Annette Upmeier zu Belzen has been awarded the Honorary Prize 2025 by the Didactics of Biology Section (FDdB) of the Biology, Biosciences & Biomedicine Association in Germany (VBIO). With this award, the FDdB recognises her outstanding scientific achievements in the field of biology didactics as well as her extraordinary commitment to the further development and visibility of the subject.
After studying biology, education and psychology and completing her doctorate at the Westf?lische Wilhelms-Universit?t Münster, Annette Upmeier zu Belzen also gained a Master of Arts in school management at the TU Kaiserslautern. Since October 2005, she has been Professor of Didactics and Teaching/Learning Research in Biology at Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin. One focus of her research is the modelling and assessment of skills in scientific knowledge methods - with a view to pupils, students and teachers.
Statement of the jury
In its statement, the VBIO jury particularly emphasised that Annette Upmeier zu Belzen has visibly anchored the research field of modelling competence in the community of science didactics as well as in educational standards and framework curricula. Her contribution includes the theoretical derivation of the competence model, the empirical measurement and analysis of modelling processes and the targeted promotion of modelling competence. In doing so, she has made a significant contribution to expanding the understanding of models in science lessons - away from their role as mere illustrative tools to a central component of scientific knowledge processes.
In addition, Upmeier zu Belzen was highly committed to promoting young scientists. Together with Dirk Krüger, she ran the FDdB Spring School for five years, which offers valuable guidance to doctoral students with limited support at their home locations. She also mentored postdocs in the IPN and FDdB's academy for young researchers, helping them to submit proposals to the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Commitment at the HU
The didactics expert has also provided significant impetus within Humboldt-Universit?t: she was a member of the founding directorate of the Professional School of Education, was a founding member of the Humboldt-ProMINT-Kolleg and acted as its co-spokesperson from 2013 to 2017. She also took on the role of spokesperson in the interdisciplinary doctoral programme ProMINTion on the topic of "Measuring processes and handling data", which was funded as part of the Excellence Initiative.