Ekkehardt Sättele stepped down from the FIAS Foundation Board at the end of his term of office at the Foundation Board meeting on 16.05.2024. Since 2009, his expertise as an auditor and his extensive experience in the foundation sector have been invaluable to FIAS.

The new director of the Giersch Museum at Goethe University, Ina Neddermeyer, suggested joint activities with FIAS. After initial contacts, the FIAS administrative team visited the museum on Schaumainkai.

The research project ‘Investigation of compact stars with heavy baryons and quarks’ by FIAS Fellow Armen Sedrakian entered its third funding period in May 2024. The German Research Foundation (DFG) approved the application for research funding for a further two years.

Planting activity at FIAS: students and staff helped to turn a new area on the FIAS site green.

FIAS Fellow Roberto Covino has become a W3 professor at Goethe University Frankfurt in May 2024. The scientist was appointed to the Institute of Computer Science. At the same time, he will retain his position as research group leader at FIAS.

The format "Frankfurt hat Hirn - live" (Frankfurt has brains) proved to be a big success. The casual presentation of knowledge about the brain caught an enthusiastic audience in the Jugendkirche, which was completely packed.

The first CMMS doctoral student successfully completed his doctorate. On 19 April 2024, Pierre Ekelmans defended his doctoral thesis in the field of computational biosciences at the University of Bonn. He conducted his research in the laboratory of FIAS Fellow Tatjana Tchumatchenko, which focuses on the theoretical analysis of neuronal dynamics.

Physicist Shriya Soma successfully defended her thesis on 16th April. Her PhD on constraining the neutron star equation of state using deep learning techniques was supervised by FIAS Fellows Horst Stöcker and Kai Zhou.

Images from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team show that the black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) in the centre of our Milky Way is surrounded by strong, spiral-shaped magnetic fields. The team led by FIAS Senior Fellow Luciano Rezzolla played a key role in this study.

On 13/14 March, FIAS presented itself to the Scientific Advisory Board - in talks, posters and intensive discussions.

A technology developed at FIAS to stabilise the use of renewable energies in the grid was presented by Markus Schlott on behalf of the group in the programme "Alle Wetter" on HR television on 12 March.

From doctoral students to Senior Fellows, featuring events, projects, and highlights: The annual report reflects the multifaceted activities of FIAS.

At FIAS, 133 people from 23 countries are working and researching peacefully and productively on our future together with international guests.

Recently, the students at FIAS elected their new representatives for this year. 20 students voted in favour of Petros Vlachos and Santiago Gallela, who were the only ones running for election.

The high amount of solar and wind energy makes it difficult to ensure a stable power supply. A state-of-the-art AI system developed by FIAS researchers compensates for these weather-dependent fluctuations. It ensures efficient and reliable distribution of electricity from sources such as solar and wind to meet energy needs even in changing weather conditions while minimising costs.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the prestigious journal "Cell," FIAS Fellow Roberto Covino and his co-authors published an article discussing the future of structural and cellular biology. This piece delves into the limitations currently facing structural biology and shines a light on emerging technologies poised to revolutionize our understanding of molecular functions within cells. The authors introduce the concept of the virtual 4D reality of cells, poised to become a pivotal tool in the evolution of structural cell biology, , which is also at the centre of their SCALE excellence concept, which has just been selected for the next application stage..

FIAS researchers are part of the cluster initiatives that were successful in the first application step: SCALE will develop radically new experimental techniques to map and simulate the inside of cells and predict their behaviour. TAM aims to understand fundamental processes of human perception, thought and behaviour that enable us to adapt to constantly changing conditions. The next step is the full proposal in August.

The direct observation of cosmic events such as the merging of black holes or neutron stars has long been a scientific challenge. Electromagnetic radiation (like light) can be affected by dust, gas and other objects in the universe, but gravitational waves penetrate these obstacles. This allows us to obtain more precise information about distant events.In a new study, doctoral student Shriya Soma, together with Dr. Kai Zhou and Prof. Dr. Dr. hc mult. Horst Stöcker from the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) made progress in our understanding of gravitational waves by successfully using deep learning (DL) to analyze gravitational waves from binary mergers.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration – including the group led by FIAS Fellow Luciano Rezzolla - has released new images of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87. They confirm predictions of the general theory of relativity.

Gustavo Hernandez Mejia from Esteban Vargas' FIAS research group, supervised by FIAS Fellow Franziska Matthäus, defended his doctoral thesis on 18 December. During his doctorate, he studied affinity mechanisms of broad protection against influenza infections and developed strategies that contribute to the paradigm of personalized medicine.