Professor Nikolaus Rajewsky of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin is to receive Germany’s most prestigious research award, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize. The announcement was made by the German Research Foundation (DFG) on Thursday, December 8, 2011. In 2002 Professor Carmen Birchmeier of the MDC received the award. Altogether, three Leibniz prizewinners are currently conducting research at the MDC. Professor Thomas Jentsch of the MDC/Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) received the prize while working at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology of the University of Hamburg (ZMNH). The DFG named eleven researchers, two women and nine men as recipients of the 2012 award. They were selected from among 131 nominations. The Leibniz Prizes, each endowed with up to 2.5 million euros, will be presented in an award ceremony in Berlin on February 27, 2012. 

Nikolaus Rajewsky of the MDC to Receive the Leibniz Prize – the Highest Honor Awarded in German Research

Professor Nikolaus Rajewsky of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin is to receive Germany’s most prestigious research award, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize. The announcement was made by the German Research Foundation (DFG) on Thursday, December 8, 2011. This is the second time the prize will go to the MDC. In 2002 Professor Carmen Birchmeier received the award. In 2012 the prize will be awarded to a total of eleven scientists: two women and nine men were selected from among 131 nominations. The Leibniz Prizes, each endowed with up to 2.5 million euros, will be presented in an award ceremony in Berlin on February 27, 2012.

Nikolaus Rajewsky of the MDC to Receive the Leibniz Prize – the Highest Honor Awarded in German Research

Open access, the free access to scientific information, is an advanced publication strategy that has been officially promoted by the Helmholtz Association since 2004. To facilitate straightforward funding of scientific publications in open-access journals, the Helmholtz Association is now supporting the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE).

Helmholtz Association supports open-access publishing

Under Their Program for More Quality in Teaching, the Federation and Federal States Support the KIT Proposal for an Early Integration of Students in Research Projects

Millions for Research-oriented Teaching

Leipzig/Helsinki/Lund. As European leaders struggle to avert a second recession a new study finds that future economic growth and the sustenance of the continent’s ecosystem services may be incompatible, unless political priority setting focusses on sustainable development with a special emphasis on biodiversity conservation. The research, published in a special issue of Global Ecology and Biodiversity, combines socio-economic, land use, climate and biodiversity models with other approaches to consider three possible routes for the future of Europe’s economy. The scientists explore the multiple impacts on biodiversity within the next century.

Economy and Ecology: Reconciling economic development and the conservation of Europe’s Biodiversity

Wissenschaftler aus dem HZDR haben mit internationalen Kollegen einen wichtigen Baustein zum Verständnis des derzeit intensiv erforschten Materials Graphen hinzugefügt: sie haben die Lebensdauer von Elektronen in Graphen in niedrigen Energiebereichen bestimmt. Dies ist für die künftige Entwicklung schneller elektronischer und optoelektronischer Bauteile von großer Bedeutung. Die Ergebnisse sind vor Kurzem in der Onlineausgabe der Zeitschrift Physical Review Letters (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.237401) erschienen.

How Long Do Electrons Live in Graphene?

People with acertain form of inherited hearing loss have increased sensitivity to lowfrequency vibration, according to a study by Professor Thomas Jentsch of theLeibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP)/Max Delbrück Center forMolecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch and Professor Gary Lewin (MDC), conductedin cooperation with clinicians from Madrid, Spain and Nijmegen, theNetherlands. The research findings, which were published in Nature Neuroscience (doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.2985)*,reveal previously unknown relationships between hearing loss and touchsensitivity: In order to be able to ‘feel’, specialized cells in the skin mustbe tuned like instruments in an orchestra.

People with DFNA2 Hearing Loss Show Increased Touch Sensitivity

With dog food and a pack of huskies Dr. Veit Helm would not get far on his Antarctic expeditions. Instead, the geophysicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association conducts research on the icy continent from on board an aircraft and successfully completed the first measurement campaign of the new Polar 6 research plane a few days ago.

Via research aircraft instead of dog sled: 100 years after conquest of the South pole geophysicists of the Alfred Wegener Institute conduct survey of glaciers in Antarctica on board Polar 6

Can new types of engine make spaceflight easier and more economical? This question is being investigated by researchers at the German Aerospace Center using one of Europe's leading hypersonic wind tunnels, located in Göttingen.

DLR tests Australian spacecraft

Professor Peter Sanders from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is awarded the renowned Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) for the year 2012. The Leibniz Prize in the amount of EUR 2.5 million is the science award in the highest amount worldwide. Since 2004, Sanders has been conducting research and teaching at KIT. The scientist is one of the key characters in algorithm engineering in Germany and internationally.

Leibniz Prize for Peter Sanders