Fritz Frank Award for Markéta Kaucká and Alexandros Vezyrakis

Both of this year’s Fritz Frank Awards went to researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön. Markéta Kaucká and Alexandros Vezyrakis were honoured by the German Society for Mammalian Biology for their research. The awards were presented at the society’s annual meeting in Berlin, which marked its centenary.

Markéta Kaucká received the award for her research into how variation in mammalian facial shape arises during embryonic development. Her work explores how evolutionary changes in developmental processes contribute to the diversity of facial forms. She leads the Evolutionary Developmental Dynamics research group at the institute.

Alexandros Vezyrakis was recognised for his doctoral thesis, “Understanding individual differences in problem-solving behaviour in wild mice”. His research examined how individual wild mice differ in the way they solve problems. He carried out this work in Anja Guenther’s research group at the institute.

The Fritz Frank Award recognises outstanding scientific work across all areas of mammalian biology.