Bavarian Teaching Award for Daniela Lorenz

04/10/2024

Würzburg management professor Daniela Lorenz receives one of the prizes for good teaching from the Bavarian Ministry of Science. She achieves top rankings in her faculty's teaching evaluations.

Würzburg Professor Daniela Lorenz receives her prize for good teaching from Bavaria's Minister of Science Markus Blume. (Image: Thomas Riese / Bayerisches Wissenschaftsministerium)

Professor Daniela Lorenz, Chair of Corporate Finance at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU), has received a "Prize for Good Teaching" from the Bavarian Ministry of Science. The prize is endowed with 5,000 euros and is awarded annually.

Daniela Lorenz was presented with the prize by Minister Markus Blume at a ceremony at Nuremberg Institute of Technology on 10 April 2024. Blume honoured a total of 20 lecturers from Bavarian universities.

Heroes and Heroines of Good Teaching

"They are the heroes of good teaching! You make the difference as to whether teaching and learning is fun, whether enthusiasm for a subject is really conveyed and whether we turn the talents of tomorrow into the outstanding experts of tomorrow. We are proud that you teach in Bavaria," said the Minister.

"I am delighted to receive this award," says Daniela Lorenz. "The award and the positive evaluations from students confirm that my teaching approaches and methods are appreciated. This motivates me to continue my commitment to excellent teaching and to continuously develop new teaching methods."

E-learning Elements Enrich Teaching

Daniela Lorenz's teaching programme covers a wide range of content for students of economics. Among other things, it is characterised by the fact that the professor enriches her lectures and seminars with various e-learning elements. She has taken part in several university didactics training courses. She has learnt about activating methods for large events with several hundred students as well as tools for virtual teaching, such as survey tools and interactive quizzes.

The prizewinner is constantly developing her teaching content. To achieve the right balance between theory and application, she involves experts from the field in her teaching. She discusses practical professional problems with the students, presents them with new research work and assigns final year projects and seminar papers on current, often research-relevant topics.

Top Rankings in the Evaluation of Teaching

"Since she started working at JMU, Daniela Lorenz has been an extremely committed, competent and successful member of the Faculty of Management and Economics," says Dean of Studies Frédéric Thiesse. The consistently positive teaching evaluations prove that the professor succeeds in conveying her enthusiasm for the subject matter. In an internal comparison of the faculty's evaluations, she took the top spot in the last two years.

The students see it the same way. Felix Schmitt, Chair of the Faculty Student Council, who was involved in the nomination process for the "Prize for Good Teaching": "Her evaluation results clearly show that the students are convinced by her teaching. I can only confirm this from my own experience in the 'Investment and Finance' module."

Career of the Award Winner

Daniela Lorenz studied Business Administration at the Free University in her home city of Berlin and received her doctorate there in 2011. This was followed by a junior professorship in finance and business taxation, which she held until 2018. She then moved from Berlin to Würzburg to take up the JMU Chair of Corporate Finance. In the course of her career, the professor has completed research stays at New York University, Yale University and the University of Cape Town.