The Stefan M. Gergely Prizes and Fellowships of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) were awarded in 2026 to two researchers and three journalists. One of the researchers is Emma Shih Mendez – a PhD student from our group.
Emma received the fellowship for her research project “Protected Areas and Temporal Vegetation Trends in Europe.” Her work combines the temporal vegetation database ReSurveyEurope and the World Database on Protected Areas, with the aim to analyze how protection status, duration of protection, and habitat type affect long-term vegetation dynamics in protected areas. The project provides important insights into the effectiveness of the European protected area network in mitigating biodiversity loss.
The other prizes and fellowships were awarded to Markus Milchram, Peter Illetschko, Sebastian Lang, Julia Breitkopf and Jana Mack. We congratulate all the awardees and thank the Austrian Academy of Sciences for their support.
