Vision

The estab­lish­ment of the Hector Fellow Academy in 2013 was the contin­u­a­tion of an idea that Dr. h.c. Hans-Werner Hector and his wife Josephine Hector, the founders of the Hector Founda­tions, had already been pursu­ing since 2008 with the Hector Science Award: recog­niz­ing outstand­ing profes­sors in research and teach­ing in order to strengthen the public profile of these person­al­i­ties and their research.

The Hector Fellow Academy was founded with the aim of inten­si­fy­ing the collab­o­ra­tion of the Hector Science Award recip­i­ents. By connect­ing Hector Fellows, the inten­tion was and is to facil­i­tate inter­dis­ci­pli­nary projects between them that other­wise would not have occurred.

The inter­dis­ci­pli­nar­ity of the researchers is a key element, as Dr. Hector empha­sized during the found­ing ceremony of the Hector Fellow Academy: "The conver­gence of high-ranking scien­tists from the broad­est range of disci­plines and even from differ­ent univer­si­ties ought to trigger new ideas and thus research that transcends the bound­aries of the fields. And perhaps it will then become the rule. That would then fulfill my desired goal that I had associ­ated with the Fellow idea."

Since then, the range of activ­i­ties of the Hector Fellow Academy has expanded. Today, the Academy uses a variety of funding formats to promote not only the network­ing of Hector Fellows but also promis­ing young scien­tists working with the Hector Fellows. Since 2020, the Hector Research Career Devel­op­ment Award supports W1 profes­sors and junior research group leaders.

Research Areas

The Hector Fellow Academy brings together scien­tists in the STEM subjects — mathe­mat­ics, computer science, biology, chemistry, physics, engineer­ing — as well as medicine and psychol­ogy. The focus areas of the Hector Fellows include diverse fields such as astro­physics, molec­u­lar cell biology, machine learn­ing, nanotech­nol­ogy, deep-sea research, neuro­science, materi­als mechan­ics and bioinformatics.

The Academy connects its members and offers funding oppor­tu­ni­ties for inter­dis­ci­pli­nary research projects. This opens up new approaches to solutions for impor­tant issues facing society.