Tag: natfak

Irina Kirchberger, doctoral candidate, probably has one of the most beautiful workplaces at FAU – right in the grounds of Erlangen Schloss. This is where the GeoZentrum Nordbayern is located. Having studied geosciences – where 50% of graduates were female – she is now conducting research into various types of cement within the Mineralogy Research Group. This is important for construction materials and buildings. Whether she will work in the construction industry some day or else stay in academia is a decision she’s leaving until after her doctoral degree. But one thing is already certain: research is close to her heart.

Ana-Sunčana Smith, 46, is professor for theoretical physics at FAU and head of the PULS Group (Physics Underlying Life Sciences). She is also a member of the administrative board of the FAU Competence Unit Engineering of Advanced Materials at FAU and of the research cluster New Materials and Processes. Her research interests include the application of statistical physics concepts to materials science and biophysics. Smith, who was educated and has worked in several countries on different continents, commutes between Germany and Croatia. Apart from her tasks at FAU she is also a senior scientist at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb. The researcher and mother of three children is a global citizen – not only because of her professional experience but also because of her French-Croatian roots and her family in Australia (her husband originates from there). Professor Smith speaks five languages, including Russian and German, but in her professional environment she prefers English.

Irina Kirchberger, doctoral candidate, probably has one of the most beautiful workplaces at FAU – right in the grounds of Erlangen Schloss. This is where the GeoZentrum Nordbayern is located. Having studied geosciences – where 50% of graduates were female – she is now conducting research into various types of cement within the Mineralogy Research Group. This is important for construction materials and buildings. Whether she will work in the construction industry some day or else stay in academia is a decision she’s leaving until after her doctoral degree. But one thing is already certain: research is close to her heart.

The German government is investing approximately 40 million euros in IZNF, a new interdisciplinary centre for nanostructured films. Construction of the new centre, which will be located on the Southern Campus in Erlangen, is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.

Many ice shelves in Antarctica have shrunk and some have disappeared entirely. Dr. Johannes Fürst from the Institute of Geography at FAU has used a complex model to show for the first time at what point the “buttressing” role of ice shelves is impaired due to their decline.

At the beginning of December, an international team of researchers, including members from FAU, celebrated the inauguration of the prototype Gamma-ray Cherenkov Telescope (GCT), which was developed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), at the Observatoire de Paris in Meudon.

In the early morning of December 3 scientists and engineers from nine European countries started the installation of KM3NeT, the largest detector of neutrinos in the Northern Hemisphere.