27.11.2008 Helmholtz Head Office

17 New Helmholtz Young Investigators Groups

Berlin, 27 November 2008 – From a large number of excellent applications, the Helmholtz Association has selected 17 outstanding young scientists who will now receive funding to set up research groups of their own at Helmholtz Research Centres. As each of these posts has a budget of at least €250,000 p.a., extending over five years, and offers the possibility of a permanent post (“tenure track”), they are attractive even to those junior researchers already working at institutions of world renown in other countries. For three German scientists, the new opportunity prompted their decision to return from the United States.

Prof. Jürgen Mlynek, President of the Helmholtz Association, comments: “The leader of a Helmholtz Young Investigators Group can research on his or her own initiative, following up on original ideas while benefiting from the lab facilities and the ideal working conditions provided by a Helmholtz Centre. Another important factor for scientists at this stage of their life, between the ages of 30 and 40, is the possibility of obtaining a permanent post in due course.”

The 17 scientists had to prove their credentials in a competition extending over several stages, submitting external professional references and delivering presentations before an interdisciplinary selection board. The work of all the groups will come up for interim evaluation after three to four years. If the outcome of this review is favourable, tenure is granted.

This programme will also benefit existing networking between Helmholtz Centres and the partner universities. While the young scientists will use the Helmholtz Centres for their research, they will also take on academic responsibilities at their respective partner universities, e.g. running seminars and lecturing. This also helps qualify them for a university career.

The 17 scientists now chosen to lead Helmholtz Young Investigators Groups include seven from other countries of origin who wish to carry out their research in Germany, and five women, all of whom have children. The Helmholtz Association provides a family-friendly working environment, because the most important career decisions tend to coincide with the phase when young people are starting a family.

With these new awards, the Helmholtz Association is now supporting 97 groups of junior scientists. Half the costs involved are borne by the Association’s own Initiative and Networking Fund, which in turn is fed by income from the Pact for Research and Innovation. The other half of the funding for the Young Investigators Groups comes from the Helmholtz Centres. In most cases funding is sufficient for the group leader to finance three further scientist posts and equip the laboratory.

The Helmholtz Association contributes to solving major challenges facing society, science and the economy with top scientific achievements in six research fields: Energy, Earth and Environment, Health, Key Technologies, Structure of Matter, Transport and Space. With 26,500 employees in 15 research centres and an annual budget of approximately 2.35 billion euros, the Helmholtz Association is Germany’s largest scientific organisation. Its work follows in the tradition of the great natural scientist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894).

Übersicht über die Nachwuchsgruppenleiter/innen, die beteiligten Helmholtz-Zentren sowie die Universitäten

Dr. Katja Metfies
Assessing Climate Related Variability and Change at the Base of Planktonic Food Webs in Regions and the North Sea
Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Jacobs Universität Bremen

Dr. Isabell-Alissandra Melzer-Pellmann
Supersymmetry at the Terascale
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Universität Hamburg

Dr. Alexei Raspereza
Probing electroweak Symmetry Breaking at LHC: Higgs Physics with the CMS detector
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Universität Karlsruhe

Dr. Sven Diederichs
MicroRNA Biogenesis, Regulation and Function in Cancer
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Universität Heidelberg

Dr. Markus Feuerer
Mechanisms of peripheral Tolerance in Autoimmunity and Anti-Tumor-Immunity
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum

Dr. Richard Dwight
Pervasive Uncertainty Quantification and Error Estimation in Computational Science and Engineering
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, TU Braunschweig

Dr. Manuel Angst
Complex ordering phenomena in multifunctional oxides
Forschungszentrum Jülich, RWTH, Aachen

Dr. Yuryi Mokrousov
Topological nanoelectronics group
Forschungszentrum Jülich, RWTH, Aachen

Dr. Ruslan Temirov
Complex transport regimes in scanning tunneling microscopy
Forschungszentrum Jülich, RWTH, Aachen

Dr. Bernhard Wolfrum
Nanotechnology Tools for chip-based communication with cells
Forschungszentrum Jülich, RWTH, Aachen

Prof. Dr. Bodo Bookhagen
The hillslopes are alive - how climate, tectonics and human-impact affect erosion rates and landscape-shaping processes on different time scales
Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam - Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum-GFZ, Universität  Potsdam

Dr. Zahie Anka
Quantification of thermogenic greenhouse gas (Methane) emissions and its influence on global Carbon budget and paleoclimate. A multi-scale approach.
Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam - Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum-GFZ, Berlin TU

Dr. Katja Matthes
Quantification of Natural Climate Variability in the Atmosphere-Hydrosphere System with Data Constrained Simulations (NATHAN)
Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam - Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum-GFZ, Berlin FU

Dr.-Ing. Mady Elbahri
Nanochemistry and Nanoengineering
GKSS-Forschungszentrum Geesthacht, Universität Kiel

Dr. Stefan Kunis
Fast algorithms for biomedical imaging
Helmholtz Zentrum München – Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt, München TU

Dr. Maximiliano Gutierrez
Intracellular trafficking of phagosomes and immunity: lessons from mycobacteria
Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover

Dr. Annelie Pernthaler
Microbial Ecosystem Services
Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung – UFZ, Universität Uppsala

Contact