The best young researchers come from Cologne. This is confirmed once again by the recently published Handelsblatt VWL Ranking 2021. Five WiSo academics positioned themselves in the category "Researchers under 40 (overall research performance)", more than from any other German university.
Prof. Dr Erik Hornung achieved an outstanding result. According to the ranking, the WiSo economic historian is the third-best researcher at a German university, after Davide Cantoni from LMU Munich and Florian Zimmermann from the Briq Institute at the University of Bonn. In an international comparison, Professor Hornung thus achieved an equally impressive 13th place. In addition, Prof. Dr Dominik Wied achieved 33rd place, Prof. Dr Alexander Westkamp 34th place, Prof. Dr Christopher Roth 42nd place and Prof. Dr Christoph Schottmüller 47th place.
Professor Roth was also able to establish himself in 64th place in the category "Current Research Achievement (in the last five years)". In the same category, Professor Dr Axel Ockenfels took 32nd place.
In the Lifetime Achievement Ranking (category "Lifetime Achievement (Overall Research Achievement)"), Axel Ockenfels now occupies 80th place. Prof. Dr Patrick Schmitz in 41st place and Prof. Dr Matthias Sutter in 39th place also excelled here.
In national and international rankings, the WiSo Faculty has always occupied high positions for a long time, not least in the field of researcher rankings. The good ranking results underline the outstanding quality of research and teaching at WiSo, which results not least from the unique approach of interdisciplinary integration of economics, social and political sciences. This manifests itself not least in the Key Research Initiatives, which provide a platform for joint research between the chairs and institutes of the WiSo Faculty.
We want to offer our academics ideal conditions and support them in their internationally oriented top-level research in a fruitful research climate characterised by interdisciplinary networking. In this respect, we see ourselves confirmed by the results of the Handelsblatt VWL ranking and congratulate our colleagues warmly.