Research beyond borders – winners of Helmholtz International Fellow Awards selected

The Helmholtz Association has chosen seven outstanding international scientists as recipients of the Helmholtz International Fellow Award. In addition to receiving funding of €20,000 each, the Fellows are invited to conduct research at one or more Helmholtz Centres over a flexible time period. The award paves the way for new cooperative research projects with international institutions.

“We are networking with some of the best brains in the world,” says the President of the Helmholtz Association, Jürgen Mlynek. The award not only rewards researchers for their achievements, but also invites them to work in Germany for a certain period of time. “The Helmholtz Association benefits from this, as does the research landscape in Germany as a whole.”

Including the winners from this selection round, a total of 43 Fellows have received awards since 2012. The prize is awarded by the Helmholtz President’s Initiative and Networking Fund and is intended for both researchers and science managers who conduct their research activities abroad and who excel in research subjects relevant to Helmholtz. Candidates must be nominated by a Helmholtz Centre working in a similar research field as the respective candidates. The quality of the candidates’ research is the most important criterion for the award. The Helmholtz Executive Committee selects the award winners. Nominations may be made at any time, and the next selection meeting is in June 2015.

The following researchers have received a 2014 Helmholtz International Fellow Award:

• Prof. Trevor William Clyne, Professor in the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge (UK), nominated by Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ)
• Prof. Larry Raymond Dalton, Professor Emeritus for Chemistry and Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington (USA), nominated by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• Prof. Yuri Estrin, Director of the Centre for Advanced Hybrid Materials in the Department of Materials Engineering at Monash University Melbourne (Australia), nominated by Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Centre for Materials and Coastal Research (HZG)
• Prof. Amanda Gay Fisher, Director of the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre and head of division in the Institute of Clinical Science at Imperial College London (UK), nominated by the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch
• Prof. Kazuhisa Kakurai, Senior Consultant and former General Director of the Quantum Beam Science Center of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (Japan), nominated by Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ)
• Prof. John H. Perepezko, Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA), nominated by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• Prof. Jadwiga Anna Wedzicha, Professor in the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London (UK), nominated by Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health (HMGU)