The Hector Fellow Academy supports the career devel­op­ment of outstand­ing scien­tists in the post-doc phase

For the third time, the Hector Fellow Academy has presented the Hector Research Career Devel­op­ment (RCD) Award. On January 28, 2023, the jury of experts selected three young scien­tists whose research careers the Hector Fellow Academy now supports: biolo­gist Sofia-Iris Biblis, neuro­sci­en­tist Anna Stöckl, and physi­cist Philip Willke.

"I am extremely grate­ful to receive this award, which recog­nizes not only my own achieve­ments but the support of my mentors and friends, and the hard work of my students and collab­o­ra­tors," says award winner Anna Stöckl. She is an assis­tant profes­sor of neuroethol­ogy and Emmy Noether group leader at the Univer­sity of Konstanz. As an expert in sensory physi­ol­ogy, her main research inter­est lies in under­stand­ing how insects take in infor­ma­tion from their environ­ment, process it and use it to control their behavior.

The award winner Sofia-Iris Bibli is a junior profes­sor of cardio­vas­cu­lar monitor­ing in the Depart­ment of Medicine at Goethe Univer­sity Frank­furt. Together with her team, she focuses on research into metabolic monitor­ing mecha­nisms that control vascu­lar regen­er­a­tion. In doing so, she uses multi­mi­cro­bial approaches to inves­ti­gate how nutri­ents can influ­ence and control the fitness of endothe­lial cells.

Philip Willke's research is conducted at the small­est level. He focuses on the resolu­tion and control of quantum systems on the micro­scopic scale. He is enthu­si­as­tic about receiv­ing the Hector RCD Award. "The award will allow my group to explore artifi­cially built assem­blies of atomic-scale magnets." Since 2022, Philip Willke has been a W1-Tenure­Track Profes­sor at the Insti­tute of Physics of the Karlsruhe Insti­tute of Technol­ogy. Here he also leads an Emmy Noether research group on "Quantum Coher­ent Control of Atomic and Molec­u­lar Spins on Surfaces" since 2020.

The Hector RCD Award is aimed at partic­u­larly talented young researchers from the natural and engineer­ing sciences, medicine or psychol­ogy who have already sharp­ened their scien­tific profile and taken their first career step. With the award­ing of the new awardees, eleven Hector RCD Awardees are currently members of the Hector Fellow Academy.