On July 15, 2017, at the yearly commencement day, the "Tag der Fakultät Maschinenwesen", Dr.-Ing. Christoph Meier was awarded the Rudolf Schmidt-Burkhardt award for his thesis entitled "Geometrically Exact Finite Element Formulations for Slender Beams and Their Contact Interaction". The RSB-award is the highest award for a PhD thesis in the department of Mechanical Engineering of the Technical University of Munich.