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 are delighted to congratulate our member Dominika Wylezalek, research group leader at the Centre for Astronomy (ZAH) of Heidelberg University, on winning one of the three Klaus-Georg and Sigrid Hengstberger Awards for early-career scientists.
Since 2004, the Klaus-Georg and Sigrid Hengstberger Prize has been awarded annually to excellent early-career scientists at Ruperto Carola. The award comes with a prize money of €12,500 and enables the prizewinners to hold a scientific symposium at the International Academic Forum Heidelberg (IWH).
The symposium led by astrophysicist Dominika Wylezalek will focus on the formation and evolution of galaxies – complex phenomena shaped by intricate interactions between stars, gas, dust, black holes, and supernovae. The symposium, titled “Quo Vadis Galaxy Evolution: How Galaxies Form and Evolve,” is scheduled for June 2025.
Weblinks:
We are delighted to congratulate Malek Alhajkhouder, member of the Young Researchers Convent (YRC) at STRUCTURESon being awarded the Rhodes Scholarship in recognition of his academic achievements in physics. Malek Alhajkhouder completed his master's degree with a focus on particle physics at Heidelberg University, where he conducted his master's thesis under the supervision of Prof. Jan M. Pawlowski at the Institute for Theoretical Physics.
Originally from Damascus, Syria, Malek Alhajkhouder is a physicist and former scholar of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. His experiences growing up in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and living across multiple countries have profoundly influenced his personality. He further enriched his international academic journey with a semester at La Sapienza University in Rome. At Oxford, Malek plans to pursue a DPhil (PhD) in Theoretical Physics and continue his research, seeking answers to questions regarding elementary particles. In addition, he aims to inspire more students, particularly from the Levant, to engage in fundamental research.
The Rhodes Scholarship is a fully funded, full-time, postgraduate award supporting students from around the world to study at the University of Oxford. It aims at developing public-spirited leaders and fostering international understanding and peace through its diverse, global community of scholars.
Weblinks:
The STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence is proud to announce that two of its members, Prof Dr Simon Anders and Dr Dylan Nelson, have been recognized as "Highly Cited Researchers" in the latest international evaluation conducted by the analytics company Clarivate. The “Highly Cited Researchers” list includes a total of 20 disciplines from the natural, life and social sciences as well as the cross-field category, recognizing researchers with an outstanding track-record of publications across several disciplines. The latest list of highly cited researchers assessed publications between 2013 and 2023. Highly cited publications are those in the top 1% by citations in their respective field and year of publication.
Prof Dr Simon Anders (Biology/Biochemistry):
Prof Dr Simon Anders is heading the Bioinformatics tools for omics data group at BioQuant and ZMBH. Within STRUCTUREShe is part of Comprehensive Project (CP) 3: From Molecules to Cells and Tissue, and involved in the Exploratory Project (EP): Mathematical modelling and model-based data analysis of structured stem cell systems. His research involves developing computational tools for biologists to analyse and interpret high-throughput assay data, particularly in sequencing, visual exploration of large datasets, and integrating transcriptomics and proteomics in functional genomics and systems medicine.
Dr Dylan Nelson (Astrophysics):
Dr Dylan Nelson is heading the "Computational Galaxy Formation and Evolution" Emmy Noether Junior Research Group at the Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics of the Center for Astrophysics (ZAH) at Heidelberg University. Within STRUCTUREShe is involved in Comprehensive Project (CP) 1: Cosmic Structure Formation. Dylan Nelson's research focus is developing and analyzing theoretical (computational) models of galaxy formation and evolution, with an emphasis on cosmic gas. He is also a leader within the IllustrisTNG Project, and Co-PI of TNG50: next-generation large-volume cosmological magnetohydrodynamical simulations of galaxy and large-scale structure formation and of the TNG-Cluster simulation.
We are happy to announce that the fifth workshop on embedded machine learning (WEML) will take place on November 29th, 2024. The workshop is jointly organized by Heidelberg University, University Duisburg-Essen, Graz University of Technology, and Materials Center Leoben, and embraces our joint interest in bringing complex machine learning models and methods to resource-constrained devices like edge devices, embedded devices, and IoT. The workshop is organized around a set of invited talks on topics associated with this interest. The workshop gears to gather experts from various domains and from both academia and industry, to stimulate discussions on recent advances in this area.
Further information:
- Workshop webpage at deepchip.org
- Local organizer: Holger Fröning (Website)
We are excited to welcome James Lauer Green, former NASA Chief Scientist, to Heidelberg for a public talk about Exploring Mars with Perseverance and Ingenuity on November 4, 2024, at 5:00 PM. The event will take place at the great lecture hall at Im Neuenheimer Feld 308 (HS1) and is organized and presented by Agustin Moreno (IMa) and the STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence.
Participation is free of charge, but for organizational reasons, we kindly ask attendees to register via this link at your earliest convenience. More information on the talk can be found below:
Talk Abstract:
Mars orbiters, landers, and rovers have made extraordinary discoveries about the evolution of Mars and its potential for life. At this time, it is clear, that the potential of ancient life on Mars has increased based on several discoveries. There have been many observed signs of ancient liquid water: surface and underground. There are past geological environments on Mars that had reasonable potential to have preserved the evidence of life, had it existed. The detection of complex organics by Curiosity has increased the potential for preserving “fingerprints of life” that may be locked away in the rock record. These and other factors have led NASA, with the support of other space agencies, to mount a Mars sample return (MSR) campaign. The first mission of MSR is the Perseverance rover. Designed to core and store rock, soils, and atmospheric samples in sealed tubes for later return, Perseverance landed in Jezero crater in February 2021 near an extensive ancient river delta. Other missions will follow to bring these samples back to Earth for further analysis. In addition, Perseverance carried the Ingenuity helicopter as a technology demonstration which has been tremendously successful and may lead to other future ariel missions on the Red planet.
In addition, on November 5, the symplectic working group at Research Station Geometry & Dynamics will host A Stellar Afternoon in Symplectic Dynamics, featuring a specialized talk by James Green for an expert audience. The event aims to explore aspects of the science behind space exploration, both from a theoretical and a practical viewpoint, with symplectic geometry playing a pivotal role. More information on this event can be found here.
James Green has worked at NASA for 42 years before retiring in December 2022. He has been NASA’s Chief Scientist and was the longest serving director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division with the overall programmatic responsibility for the New Horizons spacecraft flyby of Pluto, the Juno spacecraft to Jupiter, and the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars, just to name a few. James has received the Exceptional Achievement Medal for the New Horizons flyby of the Pluto system and NASA’s highest honour, the Distinguish Service Medal. He has written over 125 scientific articles in refereed journals and over 80 technical and popular articles. In 2015, James coordinated NASA’s involvement with the film The Martian. In 2017 Asteroid 25913 was renamed Jamesgreen in his honour.
Weblinks:
- Event Webpage and Registration
- Agustin Moreno's Website
- STRUCTURES Contact: office@structures.uni-heidelberg.de
We are delighted to announce the workshop Physics of Intelligence and Machine Learning 2024 taking place from 14th to 18th October 2024. The workshop will bring together researchers from diverse fields to explore cutting-edge developments in machine learning theory and applications and to pursue the possibility of utilizing insights from theoretical physics, including quantum field theory, the classification by topological invariants, etc. for improving machine learning. The workshop will take place at the STRUCTURES Oberstübchen (Seminar room INF 225a). More details and registration information can be found on here. This workshop is jointly organized by the STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence and the Japanese Cluster MLPhYs: Foundation of Machine Learning Physics.
Weblinks:
We are happy to present the 17th volume of the STRUCTURES Newsletter, featuring research news, background articles and interviews. The topics of this edition are:
- Ultracold Atoms for Machine Learning
- STRUCTURES Welcomes Eight New Members
- STRUCTURES YAM Initiative – A Year in Review and Looking Ahead
- We Are STRUCTURES
- Insights from the GenHET Meeting at CERN
- STRUCTURES Asks: Tilman Plehn
The STRUCTURES Project Management Office is happy to answer questions.