The Friede-Gard-Preis 2024 was awarded to Prof. Dr. Günter Haag. The prize awarding ceremony was held at Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld on October, 9th 2024.
Günter Haag -> CV -> Publications
Professor Haag received the prize for his outstanding contributions to the modeling and analysis of nonlinear processes in the social and economic sciences, predominantly by using the master equation; especially for
- the foundation of a “Quantitative Sociology” (“Sociodynamics”) together with Wolfgang Weidlich,
- the groundbreaking modeling of business cycles via the “Schumpeter Clock” (with Wolfgang Weidlich und Gerhard Mensch),
- the innovative Modeling of interregional migration including nonlinear interdependencies (“Weidlich-Haag-migration model”), which is able to exhibit phase transitions (“tipping points”).
The prize awarding ceremony started with welcome adresses from the university: Vice-President Prof. Dr. Beate Massa and Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Law, Prof. Dr. Klaus Helling. This was followed by an introduction of the founder of the Friede-Gard-Foundation, Gerd Schuster, reflecting on the mission of the Friede-Gard-Foundation, the previous prize-winners and the present state of sustainability, which is far from sufficient from the ecological, economic and social perspective, and mostly at risk from the social side (as two of the prize winners, Peter Flaschel and Jørgen Randers have also made it explicit).On the positive side are the contributions of Professor Günter Haag, with his modeling methods inspiring for many further applications.
The laudations were held by Prof. Dr. Heiner Lasi (Universität Stuttgart und Ferdinand Steinbund Institut) and Prof. Dr. em. Denise Pumain (Universität Paris Sorbonne) . Professor Lasi showed the development of Günter Haag’s career to a theoretical physicist and beyond, to a practical thinking scientist and gifted innovator in the social sciences. Professor Pumain (in English) detailed his international career and contributions, starting with the scientific scoop of the Weidich-Haag-migration model in the San Miniato conference of 1982, which initiated a series of international scientific stays and collaborations.
In his prize speech Professor Haag gave insight in his work for a general audience, especially into his modeling work with the master equation. He explained the master equation in general, its ability to use the stochastics of a very large number of individual decisions as a micro foundation for the resulting constellation on the macro level, which in turn influences the individual decision processes (feedback). Then he showed its use with three examples: the modeling of business cycle with the „Schumpeter-Clock“ model, the interregional migration with the Weidlich-Haag-model, and the evolution of long economic waves (Kondratieff cycles).
The seminar on October, 11th gave a deeper insight in all this topics, including the mathematics involved. He also demonstrated his software for the application of the Weidlich-Haag-migration model with up-to-date data from population statistics for Germany and Austria, showing the possible insights.
The recording of the prize awarding ceremony and the seminar are available on YouTube.