The Max Planck Society and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation are this year honouring three researchers who have achieved extraordinary things at the boundaries of law, political science, and history
Surabhi Ranganathan, Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge, receives the Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award 2025, endowed with 1.5 million euros. The expert in international and environmental law focuses on the political challenges of ocean governance and the law of the sea. Prerna Singh from Brown University is awarded a Max Planck-Humboldt Medal for her research on the development of welfare states in the Global South, as is Jamie Kreiner from the University of California, Los Angeles, for her contributions to history at the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. All three awards will be presented on December 2 in Berlin.
Surabhi Ranganathan, Prerna Singh and Jamie Kreiner (from left to right)
© MPG/ David Ausserhofer
Between Hawaii and Mexico - in the depths of the Pacific Ocean - lies the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. The area is known for its manganese nodules. In addition to manganese, these contain iron oxides, metals such as nickel, copper, and cobalt, and rare earth elements. This means that they are highly sought after by the electronics and energy industries. However, the international law of the sea has so far successfully prevented specialized companies from cutting a swathe through the seabed, "harvesting" the manganese nodules, and destroying the sensitive ecosystem of the deep sea.
Rethinking the law of the sea
For Surabhi Ranganathan, the race for resources such as manganese nodules reveals information about international law, geopolitical interests, and the consequences of colonization. The lawyer, who is currently conducting research at the University of Cambridge (UK), has been working for many years on the legal regulation of deep-sea mining, visions of global competition, and fair collaboration, as well as the libertarian utopias of modern economic systems. Her interdisciplinary approach, which combines international law with history and international political science, was considered to be extraordinarily novel, topical, and highly relevant to society.
Ranganathan intends to use her prize money to realize a project with HU Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. "Ways of Worldmaking: The Global South and the (Re)Imagination of Global Ocean Governance" is the name she has given to it. The aim is to rethink and reassess the law of the sea in a global context and in the light of decolonization.
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Prerna Singh has had an impressive academic career: After a doctorate and an assistant professorship in political science, she is currently a professor of political science and international studies at Brown University (USA). Her book "How Solidarity Works for Welfare: Subnationalism and Social Development in India" (2015, Cambridge University Press) is considered an outstanding contribution to research on the role of solidarity in the development of social welfare policies. She impressed by the interdisciplinary nature of her academic biography and the fact that she crosses the boundaries between political science, sociology, and public health.
She is also pursuing an interdisciplinary approach in her latest research project on vaccination hesitancy, approached as a case of state-society interactions. She will be working on this together with colleagues at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and the Robert Koch Institute. The 80,000 euros in prize money from the Max Planck-Humboldt Medal will go toward this research project in particular.
Cognitive practices in the Middle Ages
Jamie Kreiner, Wellman Chair in Medieval History at UCLA (USA), who is also being awarded a Max Planck-Humboldt Medal, specializes in the cultural, social, and intellectual history of the early Middle Ages. Her important works include "The Social Life of Hagiography in the Merovingian Kingdom" (2014, Cambridge University Press), "Legions of Pigs in the Early Medieval West" (2020, Yale University Press), and "The Wandering Mind: What Medieval Monks Tell Us About Distraction" (2023, Liveright/Norton). Her current research explores the interface between cognitive science and history and the ways that early medieval cognitive tools, habits, and ethics can change our understanding of the present.
About the prize
Every year, the Max Planck Society and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation award the Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award, which is endowed with 1.5 million euros, to a researcher from abroad. The award is linked to a research project and a flexible stay at a German university or research facility. The prize, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), is awarded alternately to research projects in natural and engineering sciences, life sciences, and the humanities, social sciences, and human sciences.
Up to two other people can be awarded a Max Planck-Humboldt Medal. This is endowed with prize money of 80,000 euros.
