Professor André Anders
Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering (IOM), Leipzig
Director and CEO
Professor of Applied Physics at Leipzig University

Website

Contact: andre.anders(at)iom-leipzig.de

André Anders has a joint appointment as the Director and CEO (Vorstand) of the Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering, Leipzig, Germany, and Professor of Applied Physics at Leipzig University. From 1992 to 2017 he worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA, USA, and from 1987 to 1991 at the Academy of Science in East Berlin. He studied physics in Wroclaw, Poland, Berlin, (East) Germany, and Moscow (Russia, then Soviet Union), to obtain his PhD degree from Humboldt University in Berlin in 1987. André is a specialist in applied plasma physics and materials sciences, especially on thin film deposition by plasma-based methods. He has authored 3 books and more than 350 peer-reviewed journal papers (about 23,000 citations). His work was recognized by several awards and election to Fellow of APS, AVS, IEEE, and InstPhys (UK). Since 2014 he is the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Applied Physics, published by AIP Publishing, Melville, NY.

Professor Sören Auer
TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, Hannover
Director
Head of research group "Data Science and Digital Libraries"
Professor for Data Science and Digital Libraries at Leibniz University Hannover

Website

Contact: auer(at)tib.eu

Sören Auer is Professor of Data Science and Digital Libraries at Leibniz Universität Hannover and Director of the TIB. He has made important contributions to semantic technologies, knowledge engineering and information systems. He is the author (resp. co-author) of over 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications. He has received several awards, including an ERC Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council, a SWSA ten-year award, the ESWC 7-year Best Paper Award, and the OpenCourseware Innovation Award. He has led several large collaborative research projects, such as the EU H2020 flagship project BigDataEurope. He is co-founder of high potential research and community projects such as the Wikipedia semantification project DBpedia, the Open Research Knowledge Graph ORKG.org and the innovative technology start-up eccenca.com. Prof. Auer was founding director of the Big Data Value Association, led the semantic data representation in the Industrial/International Data Space, is an expert for industry, European Commission, W3C, the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

Dr Uwe Bandelow
Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics (WIAS), Berlin
Head of research group "Laser Dynamics"

Website

Contact: uwe.bandelow(at)wias-berlin.de

since 2021  Scientist in Charge in research center MATH+
since 2010 Priv.-Doz., Humboldt University of Berlin
2009 Habilitation (theoretical physics), Humboldt University of Berlin
since 2005 Head of research group "Laser Dynamics" at WIAS
since 2001 Project Management at WIAS
since 1997 Interdisciplinary research seminar "Mathematical Models in Photonics"
1996 - 2001 Research Fellow at WIAS
1994   PhD (theoretical physics), Humboldt University of Berlin
1991 - 1996 Research Fellow, Humboldt University of Berlin
1991  Diploma (physics), Humboldt University of Berlin

Research focus: Nonlinear Dynamics in Photonics, Quantum Technologies

Dr Armaghan Fakhfouri
Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (IFW)
Research fellow at Institute of Emerging Electronic Technologies, Group "Acoustic Microsystems", SAWLab Saxony

Contact: a.fakhfouri(at)ifw-dresden.de

I was awarded my PhD in April 2019 in Mechanical Engineering from Monash University. Since then, I have undertaken postdoctoral research at Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research (IFW) Dresden in Germany. I was awarded the "Eigene Stelle" fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG) in December 2022. Starting from April 2023, this three year fellowship has enabled me to pursue independent research as a Fellow at Leibniz-IFW-Dresden. My research focuses on bridging physics underlying acoustically driven microsystems to applications, aiming at developing practically viable acousto-microfluidic technologies for enabling new sample handling capabilities. With a prolific track record of high quality publications in leading journals, I have been involved across 7 separate projects to date. These projects are highly interdisciplinary, at the interface of physics, micro/nano engineering, biology and chemistry, ranging from the fundamental to the applied.

Professor Matthias Gunzer
Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften – ISAS – e.V., Dortmund
Head of Department Biospectroscopy
Director of the Institute of Experimental Immunology and Imaging at the University Hospital Duisburg-Essen

Website

Contact: matthias.gunzer(at)uk-essen.de

1990-1995 Diploma in Biochemistry (U Würzburg & Witten/Herdecke), 1996-1999 PhD in Immunology (U Witten/Herdecke), 1999-2002 Postdoc (U Münster), 2003-2007 Junior Research group "Immunodynamics" (Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig), 2007-2011 Assistant Professor for Molecular Immunology (U Magdeburg), since 2011 full Professor for Experimental Immunology (U Duisburg-Essen), since 2019 also Director of Biospectroscopy at the Leibniz Institute ISAS, Dortmund.
Main research interests: dynamics of immune cells (especially neutrophil granulocytes) under healthy and diseased conditions (human and mouse), investigation of this with advanced microscopy in vitro and in vivo as well as molecular analysis of isolated primary cells with mass spectrometry

Junior Professor Sven Heiles
Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften – ISAS – e.V., Dortmund
Team Leader Lipidomics
Junior Professor in Analytical Chemistry at University of Duisburg-Essen

Website

Contact: sven.heiles(at)isas.de

The group 'Lipidomics' focuses on the structural and spatial localization of lipids in biological samples. My research aims to use these methodologies to characterize and analysis lipidomic alterations during diseases, in particular cardiovascular disease, cancer, and parasitic infections. For this purpose, my group develops and employs mass spectrometry imaging methods with down to cellular resolution and custom-made mass spectrometric technologies for detection lipid structure changes. This will facilitate linking downstream lipid changes to affected metabolic pathways during disease progression. I was hired as junior PI with affiliation to the University Duisburg-Essen in August 2022. Additionally, I serve as head of the ‘Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie’ (GBM) interest group ‘Bioanalytic’ and as head of the interest group ‘MS Imaging’ of the ‘Deutsche Gesellschaft für Massenspektrometrie’ (DGMS).

Dr Kalaga Madhav
Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP)
Section Head – Astrophotonics (innoFSPEC)

Website

Contact: kmadhav(at)aip.de

Dr. Kalaga Madhav received his PhD in Instrumentation from Indian Institute of Science in January 2008. During his graduate studies, he established India’s first fiber Bragg grating fabrication facility and patented a new fiber optic sensor. Subsequently, after receiving his doctorate, he joined Nanyang Technological University as project officer, where he developed genetic and evolutionary algorithms for optimizing fiber optics sensor arrays. He moved back to his alma mater as a research associate and developed an indigenous optical system for the qualitative analysis of aircraft windscreen. Later on, he joined the Dublin Institute of Technology as postdoctoral fellow to work on low-cost disposable fiber optic temperature sensors for use in the electrical industry. At the Singapore Eye Research Institute and Singapore General Hospital as a scientist he worked on developing a novel non-contact imaging system for monitoring angle closure symptoms in the eyes of potential glaucoma patients. In 2011 he joined the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, as Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, where he taught undergraduate courses such as, Communication Engineering Engineering Electromagnetics, and instrumentation, and PhD course Optical Engineering. During this time, he also served on various administrative committees and as an outside expert on Board of Studies at various universities. Later on, he joined Eaton Corporation and established the Sensing Material Technology Lab where he developed and patented an oxygen sensor for use in fuel tank inerting system (FTIS) onboard commercial aircrafts and also patented a sensor for monitoring H2S gas in biogas industries. In 2014 he joined the Bigtec Labs in Bangalore where he introduced and implemented six sigma methodologies and advanced the technology and manufacturability readiness of the indigenously built medical diagnostic systems. Returning to academics, he joined CMR Institute of Technology Bangalore as full Professor, in the Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering. In addition to regular teaching, leading to the autonomous status of the institute, he spearheaded the National Board of Accreditation (signatory to Washington Accord) for 6 departments, designed the 4-year undergraduate course for Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering and laid the guidelines for course design for 5 departments.

In 2017, he joined the Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP) as a senior scientist developing complex fiber Bragg grating filters for suppressing the sky emission lines that saturate the highly sensitive scientific detectors of spectrographs used in ground-based telescopes. In 2018, he took charge of the astrophotonics research as research group leader at AIP, that develops NIR and visible wavelength photonic instruments for ground-based astronomy. Since 2018, he is teaching the astronomical instrumentation and astrophotonic courses at the Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam.

Since 2023, as the Section Head of Astrophotonics (innoFSPEC) at AIP, he is leading the development of astrophotonic instruments for both ground-based astronomical observatories and space applications, such as compact spectrographs, frequency combs, multi-telescope beam combiners, ultra-fast laser inscription, complex sky emission fiber filters, photonics lanterns, adaptive optics, scientific detector technologies as well as technology transfer from astronomy to diverse applications.

Professor Thomas Schröder
Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung (IKZ), Berlin
Scientific Director and Head of Department Application Science
Professor in Crystal Growth at Humboldt University Berlin

Contact: thomas.schroeder(at)ikz-berlin.de

Thomas Schroeder is Scientific Director of the ´Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung (IKZ)` in Berlin and Professor in Crystal Growth at the Institute of Physics of the ´Humboldt University zu Berlin`. His R & D interests are focused on innovations in crystalline materials (numerical simulation, plant engineering, growth techniques etc.) and innovations by crystalline materials (crystal preparation techniques, applications of crystalline materials in electronics and photonics etc.). Since 2004, Thomas Schroeder worked in the Materials Science Department of the Leibniz- Institute for innovative Microelectronics (IHP) in Frankfurt (Oder) where he became department head in 2009 and full professor in semiconductor physics at the Technical University of Brandenburg in Cottbus in 2012. The PhD thesis was carried out from 1998 to 2001 at the Fritz- Haber-Institute of the Max-Planck Society in Berlin on catalytic processes. He received a diploma degree in Chemistry in 1996 and a diploma degree in Physics in 1998 from the University of Tübingen. He passed several research and PostDoc stays in European institutes in Italy, Spain and France.

Professor Matthias Steinmetz
Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP)
Scientific Chairman
Director of the Research Branch "Extragalactic Astrophysics"
Professor for Astrophysics at University of Potsdam

Website

Contact: msteinmetz(at)aip.de

• PhD at MPI for Astrophysics (MPA) in Garching (1993)
• Postdocs at MPA (1993-96) and UC Berkeley (1996)
• Assistant Professor/Associate Professor at Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson (1997-2001)
• Director Extragalactic Astrophysics at AIP (2002-)
• Professor at University of Potsdam (2002-)
• Scientific Chairman of the AIP (2004-)
• Sloan Fellow, Packard Fellow
• PI of the RAVE survey (a spectroscopic survey performed at Australia’s UK-Schmidt Telescope) (2003-2013)
• Former President of German Astronomical Society (2014-2017)
• Lead author of the German Decadal Report for Astronomy and Astrophysics (2017-2030)
• Scientific Member of the German Delegation to ESO Council (2021-)
• Co-Initiatior and Co-PI of the German National Center for Astrophyics, currently being established in Goerlitz (total budget: 1.4 billion Euro)

Science Interests: Cosmology, galaxy formation, formation of the Milky Way, computational astrophysics, spectroscopic surveys

Professor Tim-Wolf Gilberger
Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), Hamburg
Head of Department Cellular Parasitology
Professor for Cell Biology of Human Pathogenic Parasites at University of Hamburg

Website

Contact: gilberger(at)bnitm.de

Together with AIDS/HIV and tuberculosis, human malaria represents one of the three most dangerous infectious diseases of humankind. Given the global distribution of multi-drug resistant parasites and the absence of a vaccine, the identification and validation of new therapeutic targets is a research priority. One key process in the parasite life cycle is the invasion into and egress of human erythrocytes. These processes rely on an unknown number of proteins mediating cell adhesion, motility and modulating of membrane composition and characaterics. Some of these proteins are of high interest in drug and vaccine development because any interference with this crucial biological process disrupts the parasite life cycle. The objective of this research avenue is the identification of essential molecular control mechanisms for erythrocyte invasion and egress. My laboratory focuses on the Plasmodium falciparum blood stage and exploits its straightforward usage in cell culture, genetic manipulation and imaging. Using a range of cell biological and biochemical approaches, my laboratory is engaged in the establishment of a molecular invasion map that may lead to the identification of essential pathways or molecules which will be exploitable for therapeutic intervention. Key questions currently driving this research are: How many parasite proteins are involved in invasion and what are their precise functions during the process? Which kinases function as molecular control switches in this process and can we target them with small molecule inhibitors? And: What is the role of parasite phospholipases during the egress of the erythrocyte? My laboratory is using system biology approaches to identify protein networks that govern this crucial process. We are using medium through-put GFP tagging and tracking approaches in combination with high resolution and video imaging techniques to validate these protein networks. For functional assessments, my laboratory uses gene knock-out, knock-down and complementation assays that allow phenotypic description of putative gene functions.

Professor Jürgen May
Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), Hamburg
Member of the Board of Directors
Head of the Dept. Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Professor for Tropical Medicine at University of Hamburg

Website

Contact: may(at)bnitm.de

Jürgen May is Full Professor for Epidemiology of Tropical Diseases at the University of Hamburg, Member of the Board of Directors at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), and Head of the Dept. Infectious Disease Epidemiology. His research focus is the epidemiology and control of communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. This includes the planning, preparation, supervision, performance and analysis of studies that combine classical, molecular and clinical epidemiology. Main questions are the advanced diagnosis of poverty-related and neglected diseases and co-infections in resource-poor settings, the definition of health priorities, and the investigation of infectious agents and their transmission conditions. This includes the analysis of genetic, environmental, socio-economic, demographic, and spatio-temporal risk factors on the site of host, pathogen and vector. The vision of Dr. Mays work is the translation of results to the implementation of diagnostics, treatment, prevention and capacity building in endemic countries. Currrently, he is co-ordinator of the Unit African Partner Institutions at the German Center of Infectious Disease Research, and nominated representative of Germany and Luxemburg at the Joint Coordination Board (JBC) of the WHO Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR).

Professor Klaus Lieb
Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research (LIR), Mainz
Scientific Director
Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Mainz

Website

Contact: klaus.lieb(at)lir-mainz.de

Prof. Klaus Lieb is the Scientific Director of the Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research (LIR) since 2020 and since 2007 also Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Medical Centre in Mainz, Germany. His fields of expertise are systematic reviews and meta-analyses on resilience mechanisms and interventions as well as the development of psychotherapeutic, pharmacological, and other methods for promoting resilience on the basis of resilience mechanisms that are investigated in long-term studies. Moreover, his clinical research interests are the neurobiology and psychopharmacotherapy of affective disorders and disorders of impulse control including borderline personality disorder. Prof. Lieb studied medicine and philosophy at the Universities of Ulm, Tübingen and Los Angeles, USA, became a medical doctor in 1992, worked at the universities of Ulm and Freiburg and became vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Freiburg, Germany, in 2001. Since 2007, he works in Mainz as a Professor for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy.

Dr Tamara Schikowski
IUF – Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf
Head of Working Group "Environmental epidemiology of lung, brain and skin aging"

Website

Contact: tamara.schikowski(at)iuf-duesseldorf.de

Tamara Schikowski is an Environmental Epidemiologist and is currently head of the research group ‘Environmental epidemiology of lung, brain, and skin aging’ at the IUF-Leibniz Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Duesseldorf, Germany and Associate Professor at the University of Düsseldorf. Her research is directed at understanding how long-term exposure to air pollution and other environmental influences such as climate change can cause health effects in populations, in particular in vulnerable groups such as the elderly and children. She has published more than 170 research and review articles. She is the PI of several large-scale cohort studies (SALIA, GINI-LISA  & NAKO) and is involved in many national and international projects in China, India, and Japan. She is an executive board member of the NAKO German National Cohort in Germany.

PD Dr Martin Steinhaus
Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich (LSB)
Head of Section "Sensory Systems Chemistry (ad interim)"
Head of Research Group "Food Metabolome Chemistry"

Website

Contact: martin.steinhaus(at)tum.de

Studied chemistry and food chemistry at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Received a Ph.D. and the venia legendi in food chemistry from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Employments with different academic institutions. Expert in molecular sensory science and specifically in gas chromatography-olfactometry. Currently head of section Sensory Systems Chemistry at the Leibniz-LSB@TUM in Freising, Germany. Lecturer in food chemistry and in cosmetics chemistry at TUM. Chair of the Working Group "Aroma Compounds" of the German Chemical Society. Research focuses on odor-active compounds. Research interests include the identification of key food odorants and their changes along the value chain, molecular decoding of off-flavours and their mitigation, molecular background of odor problems in non-food materials such as synthetic polymers and development of strategies for odor reduction.

Professor Markus Weckmann
Research Center Borstel - Leibniz Lung Center (FZB)
Head of the University Liaison Group "Epigenetics of Chronic Lung Diseases"
Professor for Epigenetics in Chronic Lung Disease at University of Lübeck

Contact: mweckmann(at)fz-borstel.de

In 2008, I earned my Doctorate from the Children's Hospital Freiburg, Max-Planck-Institute for Immuno- Biology, and the University of Freiburg, Germany, under the guidance of Prof. Dr. M. Reth and Dr. J. Mattes. My academic journey led me to Post-Doctoral fellowships at the CRC for Asthma and Airways, University of Sydney, Australia (2007-2010), under the mentorship of Prof. Judith L. Black and Dr. Janette Burgess, and at the University Children's Hospital Lübeck, Germany (2010-2015), under the supervision of Prof. Matthias V. Kopp.
Since 2021, I have held the position of Full Professor of Epigenetics in Pneumology (W2) at the University of Lübeck, where I also lead the University Liaison Group 'Epigenetics in Chronic Lung Disease' with the Leibniz Lung Research Center Borstel. Additionally, I serve as the Deputy Head (Research) at the Department of Pediatric Pneumology and Allergology at the University Children's Hospital Lübeck.
As a Principal Investigator in the German Center for Lung Research since 2014, I have made significant contributions to cutting-edge research in endotyping of chronic lung diseases. My engagement with the American Thoracic Society, as a member of the Planning Committee of the Respiratory Structure and Function Assembly, commenced in 2019. Notably, my work has been published in top tier journals, including Nature Medicine, AJRCCM, ERJ, and NEJM Evidence.

Professor Raimund Bleischwitz
Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen
Scientific Director
Professor for Global Sustainable Resources at the University of Bremen

Website

Contact: raimund.bleischwitz(at)leibniz-zmt.de

Raimund Bleischwitz is Scientific Director of the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Bremen since January 2022. Till then he has been Chair in Sustainable Global Resources at University College London (UCL) and Director of the UCL Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources. He holds a full professorial position at University of Bremen and an honorary professorship at University College London. His research interests cover ocean and sustainable resource governance, blue economy, circular economy, and the resource nexus. He is also interested in ocean scenarios and modelling the ocean-climate-nexus. With a background in economics and social sciences, more than 300 publications and an h-index of 46 (google scholar), he is also among the top 2% of the world’s most cited scientists (‘Stanford List’).

Dr Bernd Heinold
Senior scientist
Deputy Head of department "Modeling of Atmospheric Processes"
Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS), Leipzig

Contact: heinold(at)tropos.de

Bernd Heinold graduated with a diploma (equivalent to a master's degree) and Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of Leipzig, Germany in 2004 and 2008. During his Ph.D., he worked as a research assistant, and then began work as a research fellow at the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) in Leipzig, Germany. In year 2011, Bernd Heinold joint the School of Earth and Environment of the University of Leeds, United Kingdom as a research fellow for two years. Since 2013, he has held a position as senior scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) in Leipzig, Germany and finally became deputy head of the Modeling Department at TROPOS in 2023. Bernd Heinold’s research interests include tropospheric aerosol particles and their impact on climate and air quality, with particular focus on mineral dust, marine aerosol, and black carbon. He develops and evaluates representations of aerosol processes in atmospheric models from large-eddy to global scale.