Paul Langerhans Award

Eligibility

All ADF members who, as of November 1, 2026:

• are 50 years old or younger,

• lead their own scientific research group,

• are not yet directors of a department or clinic, and

• have not previously received an ADF award,

are eligible to apply.

Only the applicant, and not their co-authors, must be an ADF member.

Previous recipients of the Egon Macher Award and/or the Paul Langerhans Award are excluded from participation.

Requirements for the submitted publication

• Applications may be submitted by first or senior authors. Co-authors who are neither first nor senior author are not eligible to apply.
• Each applicant may submit a maximum of five publications.
  The majority of the scientific work must have been carried out at a dermatological research institution in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland.
• The submitted publications must have been published no more than five years prior to the application deadline.
• For publications that have not yet appeared in print, a letter of acceptance from the journal must be provided.

Selection Procedure

The ADF office reviews all applications for formal completeness and compliance with the applicable regulations. Applications that do not meet the formal requirements will be rejected.

Formally eligible applications are forwarded to the Scientific Board of Trustees, which recommends one candidate to the Executive Board of the ADF. The assessment takes into account the applicant’s overall scientific achievements, as well as the relevance, novelty, originality, and complexity of the scientific results. The scientific quality and impact of the publications, including factors such as journal impact factors and citation numbers, may also be considered.

Members of the Scientific Board of Trustees who are co-authors of a submitted publication or who belong to the same department or institute as an applicant are excluded from voting on the respective application.

The final decision is made by the Executive Board of the ADF, which generally follows the recommendation of the Scientific Board of Trustees unless substantial concerns are raised and discussed.

Obligation of the award recipient(s)

The Award recipient is required to publish a mini-review on their field of research in the ADF’s journal, Experimental Dermatology, citing the awarded publication. Acceptance of the award entails a commitment to fulfill this requirement.

Submission

Applications must be submitted by email as a PDF file to the ADF office at info@adf-online.de.
Submission deadline: November 1, 2026.

The application must include:

• the submitted scientific publication(s),
• a brief description of the applicant’s scientific career,
• a short CV, and
• a publication record.

The awardee will be chosen by an independent board of trustees that is elected by the ADF board every five years.

Scientific board of trustees:

• Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Alexander Navarini (Chair)
• Prof. Dr. med. Amir Yazdi
• Prof. Dr. med. Carola Berking
• Univ.-Prof. DDr. Wolfram Hötzenecker
• Prof. Dr. med. Stefan Weidinger
• Prof. Dr. med. Peter Wolf
• Prof. Dr. med. et phil. nat. Christoph Schlapbach
• Prof. Dr. med. Cyrill Géraud
• Prof. Dr. Steffen Emmert
• Prof. Dr. Stefanie Eyerich

Award Ceremony

The award ceremony, together with a brief presentation of the awarded publication by the prize recipient(s), will take place as part of the 53rd ADF Annual Meeting, to be held in Lübeck from March 11–13, 2027.