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Science Day - The science festival of the Vetmeduni
On 29 January 2026, the outstanding scientific successes of the past year were celebrated during Science Day - with a keynote speech by Andreas Bergthaler, Professor of Molecular Immunology at the Medical University of Vienna and Vetmeduni alumnus.
Every year, the Rectorate of the Vetmeduni honours employees and their excellent scientific achievements by awarding the Internal Science Prizes. Awards are presented for the most citations in scientific journals, for the highest third-party funding ratio and for the invention of the year. Scientists under the age of 35 are honoured in the "Young Scientists" sub-category.
Most cited scientist
Non-clinical area:
Maik Dahlhoff, Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine
Young scientists: Sara Ricci, Centre for Animal Nutrition and Animal Welfare Sciences
Clinical area:
Thomas Wittek, Clinical Centre for Ruminants, Camelids and Herd Management
Junior staff: Deianira Brühl, Clinical Centre for Small Animals
Invention of the year (Hard IP)
Martin Wagner and Kathrin Kober-Rychli, Centre for Food Science and Public Veterinary Medicine
Acquisition of third-party funding
Non-clinical area:
Megan Lambert, Messerli Research Institute
FWF ASTRA
Young scientists:Lucrezia Lonardo, Messerli Research Institute
FWF ESPRIT
Clinical area:
Andrea Buzanich-Ladinig, Clinical Department for Farm Animals and Transformation of Food Systems
FWF, BM, Ind, FFG
Junior researchers:Maria Belen Arteaga Paredes, Clinical Centre for Horses (represented by Iris Gerner)
ÖAW DOC
Special category large projects (over 1.5 million):
Patrick Mikuni-Mester, Centre for Food Science
Christian Doppler Laboratory
Poster Award
A total of 38 posters were submitted by Vetmeduni researchers in 2025 and judged by various expert juries. The winners in the "Science Journalism" category were chosen by specialist and science journalists - as with all juries, the criteria of relevance, design and comprehensibility were used to judge the posters. The Scientific Advisory Board of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, consisting of international scientists and experts from veterinary-specific disciplines, formed the jury for the "University Environment" category.
Vetmeduni congratulates the winners of this year's poster competitions:
Science journalism category
1st place: Svenja Capitain, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology
Paper: "Dogs show interindividual variability when smelling human fear chemosignals"
2nd place: Tatiana Marschik, Centre for Food Science and Public Veterinary Medicine
Paper: "Foot-and-mouth disease in Central Europe 2025: Model-based reconstruction, spread scenarios and validation approaches with the EuFMDiS simulation model"
3rd place: Christian Walter, Department of Biological Sciences and Pathobiology
Paper: "Model-free Detection of Fire Salamanders in Images"
University environment category
1st place: Nathalie Havranek, Department of Biological Sciences and Pathobiology
Paper: "CDK6 regulates extracellular vesicles in AML"
2nd place: Juan Odasso, Department of Biological Sciences and Pathobiology
Paper: "The Study of Host-Pathogen Interactions of Chlamydia in Transwell-Cultured Porcine Oviduct Epithelial Cells"
3rd place: Edina Nemesházi, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology
Paper: "Comparison of reproduction-related parameters between free-ranging sex-reversed and sex-concordant agile frog males"
Audience Award "Poster Walk"
1st place: Sina Bagheri, Clinical Centre for Population Medicine in Fish, Pig and Poultry
Paper: "Dietary fiber supplementation and Campylobacter jejuni effects the cellular immune response in the cecum of broiler chickens"
2nd place: Lucrezia Lonardo, Messerli Research Institute
Paper: "Do dogs show sensitivity to humans' perspective when they cannot rely on an egocentric strategy?"
3rd place: Tobias Hennes, Centre for Food Science
Paper: "Identification of optimal protective cultures in a holistic view of cooked ham production including sanitation"
Vetideas Challenge 2025
1st place: Shrunkhala Mahadik, Clinical Centre for Horses
"VetStrain"
2nd place: Stanislav Indik, Infectiology and Virology Unit
"Lentibot"
3rd place:Mathias Gosch, herd management for ruminants
"CalVision"
WMT article of the year 2025
"Veterinary communication from the perspective of agriculture: A questionnaire study among Austrian livestock farmers on the communicative skills of veterinarians"
Authors Silja Bürkle and Christian Dürnberger, Messerli Research Institute
