FIAS Scientific Report 2010 - Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies ...

Preface
In the year 2010 the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies has successfully continued to follow its agenda
to pursue theoretical research in the natural sciences. As stipulated in its charter, FIAS closely collaborates
with extramural research institutions, like the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and
the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research, Darmstadt and with research groups at the science
departments of Goethe University. The institute also engages in the training of young researchers and the
education of doctoral students. This Annual Report documents how these goals have been pursued in the
year 2010. Notable events in the scientific life of the Institute will be presented, e.g., teaching activities in
the framework of the Frankfurt International Graduate School for Science (FIGSS), colloquium schedules,
conferences organized by FIAS, and a full bibliography of publications by authors affiliated with FIAS. The
main part of the Report consists of short one-page summaries describing the scientific progress reached in
individual research projects in the year 2010.
As far as funding is concerned, FIAS has been able to attract further grants for research projects. In the field
of neuroscience the Hertie Foundation has decided to grant an additional amount of 440.000 EUR over three
years. FIAS will also benefit from the new LOEWE project NeFF (Neuronale Koordination Forschungsschwerpunkt
Frankfurt). The year 2010 has also seen the beginning of operations of the NanoBiC initiative
(“Nano, Bio, Chemistry and Computing”) financed by the Beilstein Institute, with FIAS participation. Also
in 2010 the European Union has initiated the European Concerted Research Action “Nano-scale insights in
ion beam cancer therapy” (Nano-IBCT) in which FIAS plays a leading role. In the field of nuclear and highenergy
physics the cooperation with the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research, with the Helmholtz
International Center for FAIR (HIC for FAIR), and with the Extreme Matter Institute (EMMI) provides for
a stable framework of collaboration and funding. Several new Fellows and Junior Fellows in this field have
started their work at FIAS in the year 2010.
The standing of FIAS in the scientific community is demonstrated by the fact that many of its scientists
have received attractive offers from other institutions. After the former Fellows Christian Holm and Robert
Berger had been appointed to professorships at the universities of Stuttgart and Darmstadt, respectively,
in the year 2010 it was FIAS Fellow Michael Meyer-Hermann’s turn. He assumed a professorship at the
Technical University of Braunschweig and simultaneously became head of the Department of Systems Immunology
at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research. Furthermore, his collaborator, Junior Fellow
Marc Thilo Figge, was offered a professorship at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and
Infection Biology associated to the University of Jena.
These appointments impressively bear witness to the quality of researchers and research at FIAS, but they
also exacerbate a structural imbalance which had been recognized already earlier. While the disciplines of
physics and neuroscience thrive at FIAS, receiving substantial funding and prevailing in terms of personnel
and number of publications, the fields of biological and chemical sciences are not as well represented,
particularly now, after many of the group leaders have left the institute. It is an ongoing concern of the leadership
of FIAS to maintain a sufficiently broad diversity of research and an interdisciplinary spirit. Under
discussion are both the establishment of new junior research groups and the appointment of senior scientists
to leading positions. This can be realized together with Goethe University by making joint appointments to
professorships at the Department of Biochemistry, Chemistry and Pharmacy and/or the Department of Life
Science. FIAS is in the fortunate position that the member and former president of its Board of Trustees, Dr.
Helmut Maucher, has pledged a substantial amount to finance such a new endowed professorship. Intense
efforts are under way to put this into practice and thus to allow FIAS to continue with its ambitious plans of
fostering top-level interdisciplinary research.
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