Networking with the world’s best – Helmholtz hands out International Fellow Awards

Five more scientists from abroad have received the Helmholtz International Fellow Award for their outstanding research. This brings the total number of awards bestowed for 2015 by the Helmholtz Association to ten. Each award provides funding of €20,000 and is combined with an invitation for the recipient to conduct research at one or more of the Helmholtz centres. The duration of their research is flexible.

“It gives me great pleasure to grant the Helmholtz International Fellow Award to five researchers who are making outstanding contributions in their fields,” said Otmar D. Wiestler, President of the Helmholtz Association. “By bringing internationally leading scientists together, we can pool existing expertise in selected fields of research and greatly enhance innovative power.” The fellows thus function as ambassadors for collaborations between the Helmholtz Association and research institutions in their own countries.

The Helmholtz International Fellow Award was first granted in 2012 and is now held by 53 scientists. Fourteen candidates from nine countries were nominated in the latest selection round. The prize is intended for both researchers and science managers based outside Germany who have excelled in fields relevant to Helmholtz. Candidates are nominated by a Helmholtz centre that conducts research in similar fields. However, the research period granted in conjunction with the award may be carried out at a different Helmholtz centre. The award is financed by the Helmholtz President’s Initiative and Networking Fund, and the prize winners are selected by the Helmholtz Executive Committee. The quality of the candidates’ research is the most important criterion for the award. A total of ten prizes can be awarded every year and candidates may be nominated at any time.

The following researchers have received a 2015 Helmholtz Fellow Award:

Prof. Javier Arístegui, Professor of Biological Oceanography and Ecology and Director of “Marine Technology Services” (SITMA) at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain), nominated by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel

Prof. Jenny Nelson, Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics at Imperial College London (UK), nominated by Forschungszentrum Jülich

Prof. Karen Nelson, President of the J. Craig Venter Institute (USA), nominated by Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health

Prof. Ulrik Ringborg, Director of the Cancer Center Karolinska and Professor of Oncology at Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), nominated by the German Cancer Research Center

Prof. John C. H. Spence, Richard Snell Professor of Physics at the Arizona State University Department of Physics and Director of Science for the NSF’s Science and Technology Center “Biology with X-ray Lasers” (USA), nominated by the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron