The "Best FIGSS Talk " was awarded for the first time by the Frankfurt International Graduate School for Science (FIGSS) at FIAS. The FIGSS was founded in 2004 and brings together the doctoral students at FIAS who work at a broad variety of research topics ranging from nuclear physics to mathematical biology. In the bi-weekly FIGSS Seminar, doctoral students present their research to a broad scientific audience including their fellow doctoral students at FIAS.

The high-performance computer "Goethe NHR", developed by FIAS Fellow Volker Lindenstruth, achieved second place among the most energy-efficient mainframe computers in Germany and sixth place among the fastest.

Family atmosphere at the family winery: At the end of April, Lucia Baltz invited to her family winery - she had just left the Covino group for her PhD in Mainz.

Biomolecular function unraveled by the computational microscope - or how computer-based simulations - playing an increasingly important role in the study of cellular processes - can be used.

Josephine Naa Ayeley Tetteh, from the group of Esteban Hernandez-Vargas, defended her doctoral thesis virtually on April 11th 2023. Her doctoral studies focus on the application of mathematical and computational techniques to model the development of resistance in infectious diseases.

Lightning is a natural phenomenon that has fascinated humans for centuries. However, understanding the complex structures of lightning has been a challenge for scientists due to the vast amount of data involved. In a recent study, researchers from FIAS and University of Groningen have developed a novel method to understand lightning structures using machine learning. This knowledge will also help us to avoid lightning dangers in the future.

KISS enables faster, more flexible and more efficient evaluation of research data based on AI simulations. With Dr. Kai Zhou as PI, FIAS is participating in the joint project "Artificial Intelligence for the Fast Simulation of Scientific Data" (KISS) funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

FIAS has been able to recruit the neuroinformatician Prof. Dr. Gordon Pipa as a new Fellow. The Chair of Neuroinformatics and Director of the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabrück focuses on information processing in the brain. In doing so, he uses methods ranging from mathematical description and computer-based methods to machine learning and artificial intelligence.

In his new book, Luciano Rezzolla takes us on a voyage of discovery to black holes. In doing so, he manages to reach readers of all knowledge levels and to draw a fascinating arc from the basic principles of gravity to the modern research results of relativistic astrophysics. The popular science book was published in German by C. H. Beck; the English version by Cambridge University Press is available since March 2023.

A mathematically inspired extension of Einstein's general theory of relativity provides new insights into space and time. In their recent publications, David Vasak et al. of Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) describe how the torsion of spacetime can explain the dark energy of standard cosmology.

We welcome two new PIs, each with a postdoc, to the CMMS team: Dr. Cornelia Pokalyuk and Prof. Dr. Gemma Roig.

The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Bogolyubov Institute of Theoretical Physics has awarded an honorary doctorate to Prof. Horst Stöcker.

Charles Wilmot defended his doctoral thesis on behavioural learning in robotics (Jochen Triesch’s group) on December 2nd 2022.

With a wonderful lecture on the physics of snowflakes, Franziska Matthäus enchanted her audience at the public Christmas Lecture at FIAS - entirely in rhymes.

A few drops of blood could be enough to predict the course of influenza infection. This is suggested by a study conducted by the team of Esteban Hernandez-Vargas at FIAS, together with immunologists from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and the University Hospital Magdeburg.

Pavel Kisel from Ivan Kisel's research group defended his thesis on Nov 3rd. In his doctorate, he studied "strange particles".

Theoretical physicist first woman and youngest member of FIAS Faculty

Neutron stars are extremely dense inside: They reach masses comparable to twice that of the sun - having a size equivalent to the city of Frankfurt (10-14 km radius). Therefore, these compact objects serve as unique laboratories for studying the properties of dense matter. A research group at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) now deployed deep learning techniques to add further constraints on the stars’ interiors.

A significantly improved model for earlier earthquake detection is described in two recent publications of Nishtha Srivastava’s group at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS). Their model detects earthquakes more reliably and faster than previous studies, which can simplify advance warnings, especially in less developed regions of the world.

Franziska Matthäus' group is happy to have won three poster prizes at the European Conference on Mathematical and Theoretical Biology, https://ecmtb2022.org/. This large conference in the research field, with 750 participants, awarded 13 poster prizes. Three of these went to the FIAS group: Zoë Lange for the Best Poster in Developmental Biology, Gustavo Hernandez-Mejia for the Best Poster in Epidemiology, and Marc Pereyra received the Lewis Wolpert Prize for Best Poster. "I'm super-proud of all three of them," says Matthäus.