17 August 2026

Photo: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung

From left to right: Marko Naoki Lins, Auswärtiges Amt | Prof. Kay Peters, University of Hamburg | Prof. Prasad A Naik, University of California, Davis, USA | Prof. Robert Schlögl, Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has awarded Prof. Prasad A. Naik of the University of California a Humboldt Research Award. The nomination was coordinated primarily by Prof. Kay Peters, Endowed Professor of Marketing and Dialog Marketing at the University of Hamburg Business School.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has awarded a Humboldt Research Prize to Prof. Prasad A. Naik of the University of California. The nomination was coordinated primarily by Prof. Kay Peters, Endowed Professor of Marketing and Dialog Marketing at the University of Hamburg Business School. Naik conducts research and publishes at the intersection of business administration, operations research, statistics, and econometrics. As part of the award, which comes with a grant of €80,000, he will undertake several research stays at the University of Hamburg this year and next, and will also carry out projects at universities in Aachen, Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Mannheim, Munich, and Münster. Plans include workshops, a lecture tour through several regions of Germany, and new interdisciplinary projects—particularly with researchers in applied physics.

Through Prof. Naik’s perspective, key insights from physics will be examined for their potential applications in economics. Possible examples include applying gravitational models to how brands attract customers or applying the Schrödinger equation to the probability that a customer relationship is still intact or has already been lost.

Each year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awards up to 100 Humboldt Research Prizes to internationally leading scientists from abroad across all disciplines. The prize is part of the 1000-Köpfe-plus initiative of the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space.