Every year, the Friends of the University award prizes for the best PhD theses from various fields. The prize for the best scientific dissertation was awarded this year to former FIAS doctoral student Volodymyr Vovchenko.

Dr. Volodymyr Vovchenko received the "Prize of the Association of Friends and Sponsors of Goethe University for Young Scientists" for his dissertation "Quantum statistical van der Waals equation and its QCD applications", which was successfully defended in March 2018. During his PhD time Volodymyr Vovchenko has published more than thirty refereed publications, more than two thirds of them as first author. 

His supervisor Prof. Dr. Horst Stöcker held the laudatory speech at the ceremony in the Kaisersaal of the Römer. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Friends and Sponsors of the University, the award ceremony was held there in the presence of the Lord Mayor of Frankfurt.