Ernst Schmitz Price

The Ernst Schmitz Prize is awarded annually by GFKT to young plastics technicians.

What is the Ernst Schmitz Prize?

This award is intended to keep the memory of Ernst Schmitz alive, as a great pioneer of training engineers in plastics technology and the founder of the Laboratory for Plastics Technology (LKT GmbH).

“The focus is on the person”

This guiding principle of Wilhelm Exner, the founder of the Technological Trade Museum (TGM), was Ernst Schmitz’ first and most important motto throughout his career. Schmitz’ life was characterized by an eye for the essentials of technical development, by moral courage and initiative – even without orders or instructions. His credo “Priority of the organic over the organizational, of life over the formalism” lives on in the Ernst Schmitz Prize which is awarded to young plastics technicians who successfully work for harmony between man and technology.

The Ernst Schmitz Prize is intended to encourage young technicians to work for great values that serve people and the planet:

Trust, confidence, and humanity.

The GFKT Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees are the jurors for the prize.

More about Ernst Schmitz

Award winners

  • 1987          Ing. Rudolf Schwaminger
  • 1988          KR Ing. Leopold Katzmayer
  • 1989          Ing. E. Seitl
  • 1990          Dipl.-Päd. Ing. Kurt Umgeher
  • 1992          DI Ernst Thun
  • 1993          DI Andrea Ecker
  • 1994          Ing. Helmut Tesar
  • 1995          Ing. Karl Bohaty
  • 1996          Ing. Christian Glück
  • 1997          Ing. Thomas Rhomberg
  • 1998          Ing. Franz Kaes
  • 1999          DI Egon Brenner
  • 2000          Ing. Wolfgang Huszar
  • 2001          Ing. Rainer Kaltenbrunner
  • 2002          Dipl.-HTL Ing. Peter Pokorny
  • 2003          DI (FH) Reinhard Zimmel
  • 2004          DI (FH) Martin Klempa
  • 2005          DI Beate Guschal
  • 2006          Ing. Frank Böhler
  • 2007          Dipl.-HTL-Ing. Markus Wersonig
  • 2008          DI (FH) Martin Lehner
  • 2009          Ing. Martin Schlager
  • 2010          Ing. Andreas Eder BSc
  • 2011          DI (FH) Stephan Pieringer
  • 2012          Ing. Mag. Markus Brunnthaler
  • 2013          Ing. Andreas Steurer
  • 2014          DI (FH) Wolfgang Roth MSc
  • 2015          Ing. Thomas Mallinger
  • 2017          Joachim Kragl und Ing. Michael Winkler
  • 2018          Ing. Martin Baldauf
  • 2019          Ing. Luana Köttler

Borealis Innovation Award

Since 2017, the Borealis Innovation Award has been received annually by the best diploma thesis from the Technical College for Plastics Technology at the TGM in Vienna, which recognizes the achievements of young and future professionals and the importance of training for the industry.

Supporting young talents and recognizing innovative achievements in the areas of material development, recycling, plastics chemistry, process engineering, and materials testing is very important to Borealis.

The ceremonial presentation of the awards, which are highly regarded in the industry, takes place, in good tradition, by representatives from Borealis in the presence of numerous representatives from the industry and members of GFKT.

Award winners

    • 2006
      • 1st place: Christof Haas, Florian Pecher and Andreas Wallner
      • 2nd place: Christine Lastufka and Angelika Süss
      • 3rd place: Ingrid Harrant, Cornelia Koch and Nadine Turtenwald
    • 2007
      • 1st place: Martin Angerer, Matthias Gürtner and Alexander Halper
      • 2nd place: Martin Roschitz and Martin Steiner
      • 3rd place: Christian Haberreiter and Stefan Scheibrein
    • 2008
      • 1st place: Christopher Fischer and Florian Thallinger
      • 2nd place: Iris Grüneis, Thomas Scheibrein and Clemens Steffel
      • 3rd place: Florian Aumair and Robert Hladky
    • 2009
      • 1st place: Thomas Pulker and Bernhard Steyrer
      • 2nd place: Christian Frank and Christian Kohlhofer
      • 3rd place: Raphael Balogh and Georg Ude
    • 2010
      • 1st place: Lukas Schubtschik and Markus Schwab
      • 2nd place: Dominik Strommer and Paul Werner
      • 3rd place: Stefan Maier and Benjamin Steigl
    • 2011
      • 1st place: Dominic Masz and Mihael Petrovic
      • 2nd place: Engelbert Hirner and Markus Resel
      • 3rd place: Manuel Grossfurtner and Christopher Protz
    • 2012
      • 1st place: Matheo Filz and Matthias Palmetshofer
      • 2nd place: Elisabeth Neudeck, Philipp Rechberger and Christoph Schattauer
      • 3rd place: Nemanja Dimitrijevic and Thomas Wolf
    • 2013
      • 1st place: Sabine Ott and Miriam Wirnig
      • 2nd place: Raphael Lang and Alexander Lehner-Jettmar
      • 3rd place: Roman Epp and Julian Havel
    • 2014
      • 1st place: Christoph Bruckner and Alexander Kugler
      • 2nd place: Sandra Czaker, Matthias Frühwirth and Michael Singer
      • 3rd place: Kim Baumann, Johann Glawar and Stefan Zehetmayer
        also  Lukas Motloch and Roman Staudigl
        also  Sebastian Wasylewski and Johannes Winkler
    • 2015
      • 1st place: Christina Buchberger and Christina Mejavsek
      • 2nd place: Peter Boga and Nick Kiszner
      • 3rd place: Sabrina Strobel and Katrin Wustinger
    • 2016
      • 1st place: Theresa Geyer and Zorana Hrgovic
      • 2nd place: Lisa Eichler and Michael Ludwig
      • 3rd place: Dominic Bischof and Jasmin Weilinger
    • 2017
      • 1st place: Sebastian Hummer and Sebastian Parcer
      • 2nd place: Daniel Manlig
      • 3rd place: Tobias Weberhofer and Jovan Zecevic
    • 2018
      • 1st place: Jasmine Bremser and Peter Graser
      • 2nd place: Kevin Jurkivič and Jakob Reindl
        also  Andreas Kenthol and Katharina Lechner
        also  Samantha Onderka and Katharina Schleinzer
    • 2019
      • 1st place: Maximilian Hartmann and Viraj Rath
      • 2nd place: Vanessa Pichler and Paul Weiss
      • 3rd place: Anna-Maria Monks and Judith Nachbagauer
    • 2020
      • 1st place: Sebastian Fembek and Stefan Kommer
      • 2nd place: Natalie Draxler and Dennis Gettinger
      • 3rd place: Niklas Kanovsky and Paul Koll
    • 2021
      No placing in this year

      • Mehmed Mehmedi and Ahmed Soliman
      • Emil Ramsauer and Felix Syrch
      • Nico Paunovic and Lukas Wilhelm
      • Corinna Schadler and Arabella Schmid
    • 2022
      • 1st place: Marie Dekan and Klara Hummer
      • 2nd place: Felix Petutschnig and Xaver Roßnagl
      • 3rd place: Teodora Aleksic, Carina Bachmayer and Marko Cilek
    • 2023
      • 1st place: Hannah Parapatics, Elissa Wieland
      • 2nd place: Sebastian Fuchs, Lorenz Matzinger
      • 3rd place: Moritz Dittenbach, Nik Heß