Wübben Stif­tung Wis­sen­schaft enables six high-profile in­ter­na­tio­nal ap­point­ments from the US., the UK, France and Switz­er­land

How does matter behave under extreme con­di­ti­ons when its con­sti­tu­ents in­ter­act very stron­gly with one another? This is one of the major un­re­sol­ved ques­ti­ons in physics. To help answer it, Bie­le­feld Uni­ver­si­ty has ap­poin­ted theo­re­ti­cal phy­si­cist Gert Aarts from Swansea Uni­ver­si­ty. He uses the theory of Quantum Chro­mo­dy­na­mics (QCD) to explain the in­ter­ac­tions between the fun­da­men­tal buil­ding blocks of matter. However, the pre­dic­tions of QCD often cannot be cal­cu­la­ted using simple ma­the­ma­ti­cal methods. As a result, so­phisti­ca­ted si­mu­la­ti­ons on power­ful su­per­com­pu­ters are re­qui­red. More re­cent­ly, ar­ti­fi­ci­al in­tel­li­gence has emerged as a power­ful new tool in this field. Aarts is de­ve­lo­ping ge­ne­ra­ti­ve AI methods to com­ple­ment es­tab­lished Monte Carlo si­mu­la­ti­on tech­ni­ques, en­ab­ling new ap­proa­ches to stu­dy­ing stron­gly in­ter­ac­ting matter. At the same time, he ex­plo­res how ideas from theo­re­ti­cal physics can inspire the de­ve­lop­ment of next-ge­nera­ti­on AI methods, crea­ting a pro­duc­tive ex­chan­ge between fun­da­men­tal physics and ar­ti­fi­ci­al in­tel­li­gence.

Evo­lu­tio­na­ry bio­lo­gist Sinead English is moving from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bristol to Jo­han­nes Gu­ten­berg Uni­ver­si­ty Mainz. Her re­se­arch focuses on how en­vi­ron­men­tal con­di­ti­ons across life stages and ge­nera­ti­ons in­flu­ence health, re­pro­duc­tion, and disease trans­mis­si­on. Her work bridges evo­lu­tio­na­ry biology, public health, and climate science. By com­bi­ning theo­re­ti­cal models, ex­pe­ri­ments, and com­pa­ra­ti­ve studies, she in­ves­ti­ga­tes the evo­lu­tio­na­ry dy­na­mics of pregnan­cy, the effects of pre­na­tal stress, and the life his­to­ries of disease vectors. Her re­se­arch goals are, first, to develop new in­sights into life history evo­lu­ti­on and, second, to explore its re­le­van­ce for global chal­len­ges, in­clu­ding how animals will cope with rapid en­vi­ron­men­tal change.

The chemist Mat­thi­as Gro­te­vent de­ve­lops in­no­va­ti­ve na­no­ma­te­ri­als for the energy tran­si­ti­on and mi­nia­tu­ri­zed optical tech­no­lo­gies. His re­se­arch could fun­da­ment­al­ly sim­pli­fy the pro­duc­tion of na­no­ma­te­ri­als, enable more power­ful and cost-ef­fec­tive solar cells, and open up new ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons in weara­ble elec­tro­nics and small sa­tel­li­tes. Among other long-term goals, he plans to develop a fully mi­nia­tu­ri­zed in­fra­red spec­tro­me­ter that achie­ves the sen­si­ti­vi­ty re­qui­red for ever­y­day use and can be in­te­gra­ted into smart­pho­nes. Gro­te­vent com­bi­nes ex­cel­lent basic re­se­arch with in­dus­try ex­pe­ri­ence. He con­duc­ted re­se­arch at ETH Zurich, the Swiss re­se­arch in­sti­tu­te Empa, and the Mas­sa­chu­setts In­sti­tu­te of Tech­no­lo­gy (MIT) in the group of Che­mi­stry Nobel lau­rea­te Moungi G. Bawendi. Before moving to Dort­mund, he was Di­rec­tor of Re­se­arch at a U.S. startup company spe­cia­li­zing in fle­xi­ble solar modules.

Stefano Mint­chev, a ro­bo­tics expert, is moving from ETH Zurich to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bonn. His re­se­arch focuses on robots capable of ope­ra­ting au­to­no­mously in complex natural en­vi­ron­ments. Using soft ma­te­ri­als, tactile sensing, and in­tel­li­gent control, he creates aerial robots that can detect ob­sta­cles, to­le­ra­te col­li­si­ons, and in­ter­act safely with de­li­ca­te plants, fruits, and leaves. At the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bonn, he will advance in­ter­ac­tive drone tech­no­lo­gies for agri­cul­tu­re, en­vi­ron­men­tal mo­ni­to­ring, and bio­di­ver­si­ty re­se­arch. These systems will be de­si­gned to collect en­vi­ron­men­tal DNA (eDNA), detect plant-emitted vo­la­ti­le com­pounds di­rec­t­ly in the field, and gather high-re­so­lu­ti­on in­for­ma­ti­on from crops and natural eco­sys­tems. In the long term, this work is ex­pec­ted to improve bio­di­ver­si­ty mo­ni­to­ring, fa­ci­li­ta­te the early de­tec­tion of pests, and enable new ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons in pre­cisi­on agri­cul­tu­re, such as tar­ge­ted har­ve­s­ting and the au­to­ma­ted mo­ni­to­ring of crop health and quality.

Un­der­stan­ding ther­mo­dy­na­mics un­lo­cked the steam engine and powered the First In­dus­tri­al Re­vo­lu­ti­on. Today, ar­ti­fi­ci­al mole­cu­lar ma­chi­nes point toward a pos­si­ble “nano-in­dus­tri­al re­vo­lu­ti­on.” Yet the theory needed to design them is still missing. Es­tab­lished models de­scri­be che­mi­stry at equi­li­bri­um, whereas mole­cu­lar ma­chi­nes, like living cells, func­tion only far from it. Pro­gress, the­re­fo­re, still depends largely on se­ren­di­pi­ty and in­tui­ti­on. Ema­nue­le Penoc­chio is coming to Mainz to close this gap. Joining from the In­sti­tu­te of Su­pra­mole­cu­lar Science and En­gi­nee­ring in Stras­bourg, where he holds a Marie Skło­dow­s­ka-Curie Post­doc­to­ral Fel­low­ship, and after several years at Nor­thwes­tern Uni­ver­si­ty in the United States, he will develop methods to predict and program che­mi­cal pro­ces­ses far from equi­li­bri­um. He will develop the theo­re­ti­cal and com­pu­ta­tio­nal methods re­qui­red to sys­te­ma­ti­cal­ly predict, design, and program che­mi­cal pro­ces­ses under no­ne­qui­li­bri­um con­di­ti­ons. The payoff ranges from more ef­fi­ci­ent ca­ta­lysts and cleaner, elec­tri­fied che­mi­cal ma­nu­fac­tu­ring to ma­te­ri­als that harness energy from their en­vi­ron­ment. In short, Penoc­chio aims to write the first design rules for a che­mi­stry that, like life, never settles down.

Marine geo­phy­si­cist Masako Tomi­na­ga from the re­now­ned Woods Hole Ocea­no­gra­phic In­sti­tu­ti­on is joining the Faculty of Geo­sci­en­ces and the MARUM Center for Marine En­vi­ron­men­tal Sci­en­ces at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bremen as Pro­fes­sor in Marine Geology. MARUM hosts the Ocean-Floor Cluster of Ex­cel­lence, which will stron­gly benefit from Tomi­na­ga’s ex­per­ti­se. In ocea­no­gra­phy, our know­ledge remains limited, as less than 30 percent of ocean basins have been mapped and their data de­ci­phe­red. Even in the era of big data, AI and machine lear­ning, as well as so­phisti­ca­ted la­bo­ra­to­ry ex­pe­ri­ments, we still depend on new data ob­tai­ned in the deep sea. Tomi­na­ga is one of the leading and most de­di­ca­ted marine re­se­ar­chers in her field and has logged one of the highest numbers of days at sea among re­se­ar­chers of her ge­nera­ti­on. Her re­se­arch focuses on the struc­tu­re of the seaf­loor and sub-seaf­loor, and on deep-ocean pro­ces­ses that in­flu­ence the oceans, the climate, and marine eco­sys­tems. At the heart of her work is the ques­ti­on of how heat, water, and che­mi­cal sub­s­tan­ces are trans­por­ted through the Earth’s crust beneath the ocean, and what en­vi­ron­men­tal con­se­quen­ces these pro­ces­ses have across dif­fe­rent scales of space and time. Using ad­van­ced deep-sea tech­no­lo­gies as well as geo­phy­si­cal and geo­che­mi­cal mea­su­rements, she aims to uncover pre­vious­ly hidden pro­ces­ses in the deep ocean and other extreme en­vi­ron­ments. These include hy­dro­ther­mal vents, ice-covered polar regions, and even ocean worlds beyond Earth. Her studies deepen our un­der­stan­ding of fun­da­men­tal Earth-system pro­ces­ses while also driving tech­no­lo­gi­cal in­no­va­ti­on in ocean re­se­arch.