The Friedrich von Alberti Award, endowed with € 10,000.00, is awarded alternately to professional and amateur palaeontologists and private collectors for outstanding individual achievements or an important life's work in the field of palaeontology.
The Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees of the Alberti Foundation are supported in finding candidates by the Paläontologische Gesellschaft, to which approximately 1000 scientists and private palaeontologists from all over the world belong. It provides the Foundation with expertise and contacts, thus ensuring that the prize is always awarded to outstanding exponents of the subject.
The Friedrich von Alberti Foundation is a scientific foundation for the promotion of palaeontology. It was established in 1997 on the initiative of the Hohenloher Muschelkalkwerke by 20 companies from the gravel industry located in the Baden-Württemberg Franconia region. The aim is to promote palaeontology, the science that deals with prehistoric life, extinct animals and plants and their living conditions. The outstanding event of the foundation's activities is the award of the Friedrich von Alberti Award, which is endowed with € 10,000.00.
In addition, the foundation, which is based in Ingelfingen (Hohenlohe district, Baden-Württemberg), supports scientific research, preferably by young scientists, as well as the establishment, documentation and preparation of fossil collections, measures for the recovery, preservation and preparation of fossil finds, their presentation in museums and exhibitions and popular scientific presentations of the history of the earth and life.
Funding is provided for regional palaeontological projects and activities, primarily in the Franconian region of Baden-Württemberg (Hohenloher Land).
| 2023 | Prof. Dr. Christian Klug, Zürich |
| 2020 | Robert Noll, Tiefenthal (Rheinland-Pfalz) |
| Volker Dietze, Nördlingen | |
| 2018 | Prof. Dr. Michael Krings, Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie München |
| Rudolf Stockar, Museo cantonale di storia naturale Lugano | |
| 2016 | Monika Rothgaenger, Kallmünz |
| Manfred Schulz, Großenlüder | |
| 2014 | Dr. Andreas Kroh, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien |
| Prof. Dr. Jörn Peckmann, Universität Wien | |
| 2012 | Wolfgang Sippel, Ennepetal |
| 2010 | Dr. Rainer Schoch, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart |
| 2008 | Manfred Kutscher, Sassnitz/Rg. |
| 2006 | Dr. Ronny Rößler, Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz |
| 2004 | Dieter Heinrich Grüll, Germersheim |
| 2002 | Dr. Léa Grauvogel-Stamm, Institut de Géologie Strasbourg |
| Prof. Dr. Jean-Claude Gall, Institut de Géologie Strasbourg | |
| 2001 | Dipl.-Ing. Hans H. Stühmer, Helgoland |
| 2000 | Dr. Andreas Braun, Institut für Paläontologie Bonn |
| Dr. Günter Schweigert, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart | |
| 1999 | Werner Kugler, Crailsheim |
| 1998 | Dr. Jens Lorenz Franzen, Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg Frankfurt am Main |
The first prize winner in 1998 was the vertebrate paleontologist Dr. Jens Lorenz Franzen from the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt am Main. Werner Kugler from Crailsheim (Baden-Württemberg) was the first private collector and amateur paleontologist; he received the prize for his excavation work in the Lettenkeuper in 1999. 2000 the prize was divided between the two young paleontologists Dr. Andreas Braun from Bonn and Dr. Günther Schweigert from Stuttgart. 2001 the prize went to the private paleontologist Hans Stühmer from Helgoland. The 2002 prizewinners were Dr. Léa Grauvogel-Stamm and Prof. Dr. Jean-Claude Gall from the Université Louis Pasteur de Strasbourg, who were honoured for their research into the world-famous fossil deposits in the Triassic Voltzian sandstone of the Vosges mountains. Since then, the Alberti Prize has been awarded every two years, in 2004 to Dipl.-Ing. Dieter Heinrich Grüll from Gernsheim am Rhein for his varied activities in the Tertiary of the Mainz Basin, in 2006 to Privatdozent Dr. Ronny Rößler from the Museum of Natural History Chemnitz for his services to the study of the Permian floras of Saxony and their museum presentation in Chemnitz. The Alberti Prize 2008 was awarded to the private paleontologist Ing. Manfred Kutscher from Sassnitz on the island of Rügen for his research on fossil echinoderms and the design of the Gummanz Chalk Museum. In 2010, the Alberti Prize went to Dr. Rainer Schoch from the Natural History Museum in Stuttgart, the outstanding expert on Permian and Triassic amphibians and reptiles and successful excavator of vertebrates of the southern German Keuper. In 2012, the private paleontologist Wolfgang Sippel from Ennepetal was honoured for his decades of voluntary digging in the Devonian and Carboniferous regions of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Alberti Prize 2014 is awarded in equal parts to the sea urchin specialist Dr. Andreas Kroh from the Natural History Museum in Vienna and the geobiologist Prof. Dr. Jörn Peckmann from the University of Vienna.
In addition to the prize money, the winners will receive a reprint of Alberti's main work "Contribution to a monograph on the coloured sandstone, shell limestone and keuper, and the connection of these formations to a formation" from 1834, bound in half leather.
The award ceremony takes place in November each year in public event with a ceremony in Ingelfingen.
Paläontologische Gesellschaft e.V.
c/o Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung
Senckenberganlage 25
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Tel: +49 157 806 706 78
Email: info@palges.de
Internet: www.palges.de