Newsroom
Stay informed with our latest news and announcements on this page. For more in-depth content, we also encourage visitors to explore our bimonthly STRUCTURES Newsletter magazine, which features a variety of articles, interviews with members, and background information on our latest research and activities.
We congratulate our member Alicia Castro on receiving funding through the Olympia Morata Programme of Heidelberg University, following a competitive selection process.
Dr. Alicia Castro is a postdoctoral researcher at STRUCTURES and a member of the STRUCTURES Young Researchers Convent (YRC). Her research at the Institute for Theoretical Physics explores the fundamental structure of spacetime at the smallest scales, where familiar notions such as distance, volume and dimension break down. Using methods from random geometry, her work examines how these classical properties emerge in the context of quantum gravity and how they fluctuate.
In this approach, quantum spacetime is modelled as a collection of many possible geometries rather than a single fixed one. This makes it possible to capture microscopic fluctuations of spacetime expected in quantum gravity, and lays the foundation for more detailed studies of the microscopic structure of the universe. “I aim to connect the mathematical ideas of random geometry with the physical behaviour of spacetime, offering a clearer picture of how the universe behaves under extreme conditions,” Alicia Castro says.
“With the support of the Olympia Morata Programme, I will establish the foundations of an independent research agenda that positions me to apply for grants to start my own group,” she adds.
The Olympia Morata Programme supports excellent postdoctoral researchers with outstanding qualification projects, as they work toward higher academic qualifications (e.g. habilitation or equivalent achievements). The programme targets female and gender-diverse researchers, aimed at supporting their academic career progression as part of Heidelberg University's commitment to promoting equitable opportunities in academic careers. As part of the programme, recipients are appointed to two-year fixed-term positions and benefit from additional training and career development opportunities. The programme is named after Olympia Fulvia Morata, a 16th-century humanist scholar who taught in Heidelberg.
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We are delighted to announce the first edition of the Geometry Space Surrey workshop, which will take place June 8-10, 2026 at the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK. Supported by the STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence at Heidelberg University, the workshop is the first event of its kind, bringing together researchers working at the interface of symplectic geometry and astrodynamics.
The aim of the meeting is to bring together researchers from both communities to discuss recent developments at the intersection of these two fields, identify promising directions for future research, and foster new collaborations. By creating a dedicated forum for exchange, the workshop seeks to encourage sustained dialogue between mathematicians and researchers working in space dynamics.
Over three days, the programme will feature six plenary lectures, 15-20 contributed research talks, and a poster session for early-career researchers. In addition, a social dinner in Guildford is planned for the evening of the second day. Interested participants may also choose to stay on the morning of Thursday, June 11 for a guided tour of the SSTL (Surrey Satellite Technology Limited) facilities, to see first-hand how satellites are being built for specific missions.
“The goal is to see how symplectic geometry, a branch of abstract mathematics aimed at understanding physics in a geometric way, can influence space mission design and optimization,” said Dr Arthur Limoge, a STRUCTURES YRC alumnus at the Surrey Space Centre, who is organizing the workshop with Dr Nicola Baresi of Surrey Space Centre and University of Surrey mathematicians Prof David Lloyd and Prof Tom Bridges. “We want to enable space engineers to interact with mathematicians and space industry experts to see how we can gain understanding of complex space mission design problems such as trajectory design and surveillance in the Sun-Earth-Moon system," added Nicola Baresi.
Registration is now open on the workshop website. Early-bird rates are available until 14 April 2026, and registration closes on 14 May. During the registration process, participants will be able to submit abstracts for the research talks and poster session. Submissions are welcome on any topic relating to astrodynamics, symplectic/differential geometry, Hamiltonian dynamics, geometric mechanics, geometric integrators, geometric optimal control, and related areas.
The workshop is supported by the STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence at Heidelberg University, which promotes interdisciplinary research into the mathematical and physical structures underlying complex systems. By encouraging dialogue between mathematics and space dynamics, the meeting reflects STRUCTURES’ broader interest in fostering connections between fields that rarely interact directly.
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On Thursday, April 23, 2026, various institutes across Heidelberg University will open their doors for Girls'Day, a nationwide initiative aimed at inspiring girls to explore career paths in IT, craftsmanship, natural sciences, and technology – fields where women are still underrepresented. Several STRUCTURES members and participating institutions are offering an engaging course programme for the Girls'Day.
As part of the full-day program “Physics Up Close” at Heidelberg University's Department of Physics & Astronomy, numerous research groups will open their doors and provide female students with exciting insights into current research topics – ranging from quantum physics and astrophysics to environmental physics, computer science, and artificial intelligence. The courses are complemented by the initiative “MINTmachen!”, hosted by the Department of Mathematics & Computer Science and DKFZ, which offers a diverse programme consisting of lectures and workshops on the topics of mathematics and computer science.
A few places are still available. Registration for the workshops is possible at the following webpages:
- Physics Up Close Webpage: https://www.physik.uni-heidelberg.de/girlsday/programm?menuid=274
- MINTmachen!: https://www.mathinf.uni-heidelberg.de/de/outreach/mintmachen/girlsday-2026-mintmachen
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We are delighted to announce that Heidelberg University has convincingly defended its status as a University of Excellence. The announcement came today (Wednesday, 11 March 2026) from the German Science and Humanities Council and the German Research Foundation. The continued status as a University of Excellence means that the university will receive funding for another seven years in order to continue strengthening its scientific and scholarly performance capability based on a strategic concept for the whole institution.
Prof. Dr Frauke Melchior, Rector of Ruperto Carola, states: “We are proud and happy to have brought about this significant success for our university and for Heidelberg as a research location. It is the result of a fantastic joint effort in which many members from all areas of our university have collaborated with enthusiasm and perseverance over a long period.”
A long-term programme of the federal and state governments, the “Excellence Strategy” pursues the goal of promoting research excellence in internationally competitive fields; it also seeks to strengthen universities in Germany institutionally and to optimize the German system of higher education. The current decision was about extending funding for universities that have already achieved excellence status. What tipped the balance here – unlike in previous competition rounds – was an evaluation of measures to date and evidence of a capacity for self-renewal. To that effect, Heidelberg University was assessed on site on the basis of its self-evaluation report by an international group of reviewers and members of the Committee of Experts. Together with the science ministers of the federal and state governments, this committee formed the Excellence Commission that has now taken the funding decisions. The funding for the Universities of Excellence starts on 1 January 2027.
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From 7–10 April 2026, the 56th Heidelberg Physics Graduate Days will once again bring together doctoral researchers of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Heidelberg. The Graduate Days, which take place biannually, offer advanced students and researchers a biannual spring/autumn school featuring different topics from various fields of physics.
The Graduate Days reflect the breadth of modern physics, shaped by outstanding speakers and their fields of expertise: from the evolution of the Dark Universe with John A. Peacock, primordial gravitational waves explored by David James Weir, and future perspectives on the Higgs Boson presented by Freya Blekman, to quantum simulations with ultracold atoms by Christian Groß, holographic dualities introduced by Johanna Erdmenger, and the physics of field theories discussed by Dr. Aaron Held.
The programme further spans applied and interdisciplinary perspectives: from magnetic materials for sustainable energy with Katharina Ollefs, fusion research with Felix Warmer, soft matter and biophysics explored by Jan Kierfeld, to environmental and ocean physics using isotopic tracers with Anne-Marie Wefing.
A special highlight of the program is the Hans Jensen Invited Lecture, delivered by Jesse Thaler on “Centaur Science: Adventures in AI + Physics”.
As a public lecture, this talk opens the Graduate Days beyond HGSFP and invites a wider audience to engage with the growing interplay between artificial intelligence and fundamental physics.
Further perspectives connecting fundamental research and real-world applications are contributed by Martin Pauly of exnaton in the industry lecture.
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A new study led by STRUCTURES YRC member Pedro G.S. Fernandes has presented stationary and axially symmetric black hole solutions to Einstein's field equations of General Relativity incorporating gravitational effects of the black hole's astrophysical environment.
Black holes are a central prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. In their simplest form, they were theoretically described already in 1916 by physicist and astronomer Karl Schwarzschild, who discovered an exact vacuum solution of Einstein's field equations describing a static, spherically symmetric, non-rotating black hole. In contrast, astrophysical black holes are expected to spin, since they form from the collapse of rotating stars or from mergers of compact objects carrying angular momentum. An appropriate description for such objects is given by the Kerr metric, a stationary, axially symmetric vacuum solution discovered by Roy Kerr in 1963.
Most commonly, stellar or galactic black holes are modelled using the Kerr solution, while neglecting the gravitational influence of their surroundings. While this description has been extraordinarily successful, in realistic contexts, black holes are not isolated objects, but generally thought to be embedded in complex matter-rich environments. Aside from accretion disks, these consist of the galaxy's dark matter halo, which contributes small background gravitational effects that are typically neglected.
In a recent study by Pedro G. S. Fernandes et al., the authors went beyond this idealized description by constructing rotating black hole solutions that explicitly incorporate such a surrounding matter distribution. Generalizing Kerr's vacuum solution, their model utilizes an anisotropic fluid to source a stationary, axially symmetric spacetime geometry. The particular shapes of these spacetimes incorporate both the black hole – characterized by its mass and its spin – and its astrophysical environment. The gravitational influence of the latter, modelled in the framework of the so-called Einstein cluster model, results in additional functions compared to the Kerr metric. These functions determine how the dark matter halo alters the radial and angular geometry of spacetime, as well as frame-dragging effects and they need to be solved numerically.
The researchers computed the physical properties of these solutions and studied the gravitational impact of the surrounding matter on characteristic observables. They found that characteristic orbits of matter and light around the black hole are shifted and that the apparent size of the black hole shadow – a key observational property – can become substantially larger than predicted by the Kerr model. Moreover, these effects grow with increasing spin of the black hole and weaken when the surrounding halo of matter is more diffuse. Interestingly, the study also shows that black holes surrounded by matter can spin faster than the maximum allowed for an isolated black hole in vacuum, which is called the Kerr limit. In vacuum, exceeding this limit would remove the event horizon and violate the so-called cosmic censorship hypothesis. In the presence of surrounding matter, however, the bound is shifted to higher spin values.
The results indicate that environmental effects need not always be merely negligible corrections, but can play an important role in the interpretation of high-precision studies of black holes. As black hole imaging continues to improve in accuracy, properly accounting for astrophysical environments will be essential to avoid misinterpreting observational signatures as genuine deviations from general relativity itself. Similarly, environmental effects may have implications for future gravitational-wave observations.
The findings were published in Physical Review Letters.
Original Publication:
Fernandes, P. G. S. and Cardoso, V., “Spinning Black Holes in Astrophysical Environments”, Physical Review Letters, vol. 135, no. 21, Art. no. 211403, APS, 2025. doi:10.1103/9shv-5d21.
The STRUCTURES Young Researchers Convent (YRC) has elected Thalia Traianou, Fabius Krämer, and David Maibach as its new speakers for 2026 in its recent General Assembly. We warmly congratulate the new speaker team and wish them a successful start!
Reflecting on her motivation to run for the position, Thalia Traianou says: “I have benefited enormously in my academic path from communities that made me feel visible and connected as an early-career researcher, and I want to help shape that for others.” Fabius Krämer emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary exchange: “I am committed to encouraging and enabling young researchers to broaden their knowledge beyond their primary research area. STRUCTURES provides an excellent environment for this, and I would be glad to actively support this mission.” David Maibach, who previously served as a YRC speaker during his PhD in Heidelberg, adds: “I have already been a speaker during my PhD here in Heidelberg and thoroughly enjoyed the work that comes with this position. For me, there lies great potential in having an overarching organisation for young scientists through which they can discuss, exchange, and actively contribute to the cluster's future.”
The new speaker team succeeds the previous speaker trio, Ricardo Waibel, Freya Jensen, and Marvin Sipp, whom we warmly thank for their exceptional commitment and outstanding service to the Young Researchers Convent. Their dedication, approachability, and sustained engagement significantly contributed to fostering a vibrant and supportive community.
The Young Researchers Convent (YRC) is the dedicated early-career platform within the STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence. It brings together Bachelor's and Master's students, PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers who are either funded by STRUCTURES or working on research topics that align with the cluster’s mission. The YRC supports early-career researchers in realizing their own projects – ranging from travel funding for conferences and workshops worldwide to the organization of seminars and talks. Any early-career researcher working in a field connected to STRUCTURES can apply for YRC membership.
The YRC speakers take responsibility for organizing funding calls, evaluating applications for travel and event support, processing membership requests, and representing the YRC as full members of the Steering Board – ensuring that the perspectives of early-career scientists help shape the future direction of the cluster. In this way, the YRC plays a central role in strengthening early-career independence and support, while fostering exchange, collaboration, and a strong sense of community across all career stages within STRUCTURES.
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