12 October 2011, No. 31/2011

New Alexander von Humboldt professors selected

Germany’s highest valued international research award goes to four researchers from abroad.

A biophysicist, a communications engineer, a medical scientist and a mathematician are the new Alexander von Humboldt professors. The International Award for Research in Germany, worth up to five million EUR, is granted by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. With the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, the Foundation honours world-leading researchers of all academic disciplines working abroad. In the long term, these researchers will then conduct cutting-edge research at German universities.

The selected award winners are currently entering into appointment negotiations with the German universities that nominated them:

Biophysicist Jochen Guck (38), currently conducting research at the University of Cambridge, UK, is to work at TU Dresden.

Robert Schober (40) is a communications engineer at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and is to conduct research at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg.

Medical scientist Matthias Tschöp (44), currently at the University of Cincinnati, USA, is to transfer to Technische Universität München and the Helmholtz Zentrum München.

Mathematician Michael Weiss (55) of the University of Aberdeen, UK, was nominated by the University of Münster.

The Humboldt Foundation’s selection committee had ten applications to consider. Five of the candidates currently work in the UK, two in the USA, one in Canada, one in Sweden and one in Hungary. The award amount is earmarked for funding the first five years in Germany. The award gives universities the opportunity to offer international top-class researchers competitive conditions and the prospect of long-term work in Germany as well as the opportunity to raise their profiles. The awards will be presented to the Humboldt Professors in May 2012 in Berlin.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time researching in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 25,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 130 countries worldwide – including 47 Nobel Prize winners.