Every year, the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts awards the Prize for Excellence in Teaching to outstanding teachers at universities in the state. The prize, which is endowed with 5,000 euros, recognizes lecturers who are nominated by their home university together with the students on the basis of their special commitment to teaching. Today, it was awarded to 15 university lecturers – including TUM’s Prof. Dr. Claudia Eckert and PD Dr. Friederike Schmidt-Graf.
As head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security (AISEC), Claudia Eckert is a proven specialist in the various areas of IT security, which she teaches at the highest technical and didactic level. Her focus is on close practical relevance and an intensive exchange with the students. It is therefore hardly surprising that the students regularly evaluate Claudia Eckert's courses with excellent results.
This also applies to Friederike Schmidt-Graf. Her students appreciate the neurologist's lively discussions, collaborative work and innovative teaching formats such as the "Flipped Classroom". But Schmidt-Graf is also committed to good teaching at the TUM School of Medicine beyond her own courses, whether as part of the TUM MEC OPEN hackathon or with her involvement in the studies and curriculum committees.
The Prize for Excellence in Teaching underscores the central role of teaching as an equal task of universities alongside research. After all, it is the teachers who, together with the students, create the basis for a future-oriented education of the next generation of academics. Claudia Eckert and Friederike Schmidt-Graf are two lecturers who are particularly passionate about this.
