The city of Frankfurt honoured Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Volker Mosbrugger with the prestigious Goethe Plaque 2022, which is awarded annually to personalities of cultural life.

Mosbrugger, a palaeontologist, is chairman of the FIAS Board of Trustees (Stiftungsrat) since June 2022 as well as president of the Polytechnic Society in Frankfurt am Main since 2019; he was director general of the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung in Frankfurt until 2020. Previously, the Constance native had conducted research on ecological and climatic changes in the Earth's history at the universities of Freiburg, Bonn and Tübingen. The now 68-year-old promoted the hot topics of climate and environmental protection in research and at the Senckenberg Museum and brought biodiversity research into focus. Under his leadership, the museum and the research institute were rebuilt and expanded.

Together with him the pianist, singer, and actress Sabine Fischmann was honoured with the award. "Sabine Fischmann and Prof. Dr. Volker Mosbrugger have done a lot for Frankfurt," said Ina Hartwig, Frankfurt's Head of the Department of Culture and Science. Mosbrugger had rendered outstanding services to the city's museum and science landscape since he came to Frankfurt in 2005: "He was and is remarkably committed to research around the topics of biodiversity and sustainability, as well as to the welfare as President of the Polytechnic Society." FIAS Director Eckhard Elsen praises his current commitment: "The Goethe Plaque stands for a long tradition of creative activities and especially of communicative exchange. As Chairman of the FIAS Stiftungsrat, Mosbrugger has taken on a task that also promotes this spirit."