Rolf Tarrach Award 2025

On Wednesday, 9 July, the 14^th edition of the Rolf Tarrach Award took place at the Chambre de Commerce in Kirchberg. Following a warm welcome by Dr Gérard Hoffmann, Chairman of Les Amis de l’Université du Luxembourg, Professor Giovanni Peccati gave a brief introduction of the 2025 awardee, Dr Tara Trauthwein, for whom he had served as doctoral supervisor. The Luxembourger Dr Trauthwein then took to the stage to present her doctoral thesis, entitled Quantitative CLTs on the Poisson Space via p-Poincaré Inequalities. In addition to her remarkable mathematical skills, she is also an outstanding speaker. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Statistics at the University of Oxford and will soon be joining the University of Münster as an Independent Postdoctoral Research Associate within the Mathematics Excellence Cluster. Les Amis already wish her every success in her future endeavours. Mara Kroth, the evening’s moderator, then introduced the following five former award winners:

• Mads Weber – Award Winner 2017, PhD in Physics. He is now an Associate Professor at Le Mans University, where he conducts research on laser-based material properties for microelectronics and teaches physics. He previously held research positions at ETH Zurich after completing his PhD at the University of Luxembourg.
• Léo Perrin – Award Winner 2018, PhD in Cryptography. He is currently a junior researcher at Inria in Paris, focusing on symmetric cryptography. His research is supported by an ERC grant (ReSCALE), continuing the trajectory initiated during his doctoral studies.
• Véronique Cornu – Award Winner 2019, PhD in Psychology. She works as a clinical neuropsychologist at the Centre pour le développement des apprentissages (CDA), supporting children and adolescents with learning disorders. She also collaborates with the University of Luxembourg to bridge clinical practice and scientific research.
• Fatima Chaouche – Award Winner 2020, PhD in Law. She currently works at the Cour administrative and lectures part-time at the University of Luxembourg. In addition, she serves as editor-in-chief of the Cahiers de fiscalité luxembourgeoise et européenne, contributing to legal and tax scholarship.
• Carsten Ullrich – Award Winner 2021, PhD in Law. He manages circular economy projects at Digital Inclusion asbl, promoting IT accessibility in Luxembourg. He also teaches part-time at the University of Luxembourg and will soon return as a Research Scientist, resuming his work on ethics and regulation in the digital era.

The five former winners joined Professor Jens Kreisel, Rector of the University of Luxembourg, on stage for a moderated conversation. He asked them a series of questions reflecting on their most formative experiences during their doctoral studies, the skills they acquired, the influence of their research on their career paths, and the advice they would offer to today’s doctoral candidates. The roundtable discussion, entitled Turning Knowledge into Action, was followed by several questions from the audience. Professor Simone Niclou, Vice-Rector for Research, then joined the stage to deliver thoughtful closing remarks and invited all attendees to a cocktail reception held in the foyer of the Chambre de Commerce.

The sponsors of the evening, who generously provided the prize money for the Award, were Intesa Sanpaolo Wealth Management Luxembourg and the Luis y Antonio Portabella Foundation. The Chambre de Commerce also graciously offered both the conference venue and the cocktail reception.

Next year, Les Amis de l’Université du Luxembourg will celebrate the 15^th edition of the Award, which was known from 2012 to 2014 simply as the Best Doctoral Thesis of the University of Luxembourg. Since 2015, the award has been renamed by Les Amis, under the initiative of Erna Hennicot-Schoepges and Germain Dondelinger — two emblematic figures involved in the founding of the University — in honour of Rector Rolf Tarrach (in office from 2005 to 2014), hence the current name: Rolf Tarrach Award.

The association Les Amis de l’Université was chaired from 2008 to 2018 by Erna Hennicot-Schoepges, from 2018 to 2024 by Rolf Tarrach, and since March 2024, by Gérard Hoffmann, CEO of Proximus Luxembourg, who has taken up the baton as Chair. Les Amis de l’Université continues to promote the work of researchers and support students, while broadening its activities into new fields, in close collaboration with the Rectorate of the University of Luxembourg. Below are some visual impressions of the evening.