Cardinal Innitzer Prize
The Cardinal Innitzer Study Fund, established in 1962 and named after Cardinal Theodor Innitzer (1875–1955), supports scholarly excellence in Austria through annual awards. Initiated by the Archdiocese of Vienna, the Cardinal Innitzer Prize recognizes outstanding achievements across fields including theology, the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences/medicine, and journalism, and also includes promotion awards for early-career researchers. It is regarded as one of Austria’s most prestigious academic honors.
Prof. Andreas Kugi, Scientific Director of the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) and Professor of Complex Dynamic Systems at TU Wien, was awarded the 2025 Kardinal-Innitzer Würdigungspreis (Recognition Prize) in the Natural Sciences category. The award recognizes Kugi’s fundamental contributions to systems engineering and control engineering, with a particular focus on the mathematical modeling and optimization of complex industrial processes. His research spans energy and manufacturing systems, robotics and automation, autonomous systems, and machine learning, and is widely regarded as pioneering in its ability to connect theory, simulation, and industrial application. tuwien.at
With more than 350 scientific publications and 149 patents, and memberships in the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, ÖAW) and acatech (Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften), Kugi has built a research portfolio that combines academic excellence with tangible technological impact.
