In honour of Albert W. Overhauser's pioneering research work, the GDCh Magnetic Resonance Division has been awarding the Albert Overhauser Prize since 2019. The prize honours an outstanding scientific publication by a young researcher (PostDoc). The award is usually presented annually and includes an award certificate and prize money of 750 euros. The award is decided by a panel of experts appointed by the division's executive committee.

Awarding of the Albert Overhauser Prize: Selection process

Deadline: 31 March 2026

Objective
Since 2019, the GDCh Magnetic Resonance Division has generally awarded the Albert Overhauser Prize every year in recognition of an outstanding publication by young scientists in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The research results described should further develop the methodology of magnetic resonance, advance its theoretical understanding or describe important experimental applications; they are characterised by particular methodological quality, innovation and creativity.

The prize
The award comes with an award certificate, prize money of 750 euros and participation in the 47th FGMR Annual Discussion Meeting, which will take place from 14 to 17 September 2026 in Mainz The prizewinner will present the award-winning work in a short lecture at the conference. The costs of attending the conference will be borne by the specialist group. The prize will be awarded by a selection committee appointed by the specialist group's executive committee.

Submission
Please send your proposal electronically and summarised in a PDF file to the GDCh office for the attention of Maike Fries.

The Albert Overhauser Prize was awarded during the 46th FGMR Lecture Conference on 17 September 2025 in Bonn to Dr. Vrinda Sant (Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Natural Sciences Göttingen) for her publication Lipidic folding pathway of α-Synuclein via a toxic oligomer (Nat. Commun. 2025, 16, 760) lent.

The Albert Overhauser Prize was awarded during the 45th FGMR Lecture Conference on 10 September 2024 in Rostock to Dr. Andrei Kuzhelev (Goethe University Frankfurt) for his publication Solid-Effect Dynamic Nuclear Polarisation in Viscous Liquids at 9.4 T Using Narrow-Line Polarizing Agents (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 10268) lent.

The Albert Overhauser Prize was awarded during the 44th FGMR Lecture Conference on 18 September 2023 in Constance to Dr. Leif Antonschmidt for his publication "The clinical drug candidate anle138b binds in a cavity of lipidic α-synuclein fibrils" (Nature Communications)

The Albert Overhauser Prize was awarded during the 42nd FGMR Lecture Conference on 28 September 2021 to Dr. Angeliki Giannoulis for her publication "Two closed ATP- and ADP-dependent conformations in yeast Hsp90 chaperone detected by Mn(II) EPR spectroscopic techniques" (National Academy of Sciences) awarded.

The first Albert Overhauser Prize was awarded during the 41st FGMR Lecture Conference (EUROISMAR; Berlin) on 28 August 2019 to Dr. Tomas Orlando for his publication "Dynamic Nuclear Polarization of 13C Nuclei in the Liquid State over a 10 Tesla Field Range" (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.)