For the second time, the Frankfurt International Graduate School for Science (FIGSS) at FIAS awarded the ‘Best FIGSS Talk’ for summer and winter semester 2023(/24). The FIGSS was founded in 2004 and brings together FIAS doctoral candidates working on a wide range of research topics from nuclear physics to mathematical biology.

Johannes Lehrbach from Volker Lindenstruth's FIAS research group defended his PhD Thesis on July 5th, 2024. During his PhD, he was instrumental in building the computing infrastructure for the Event Processing Nodes (EPN) of the ALICE experiment at CERN.

Next Saturday, FIAS will be opening its doors to the public to celebrate its 20th anniversary: Anyone who wishes to control the football with their mind in front of the television - FIAS research makes it possible! More hands-on experiments, short, easy-to-understand presentations, a children's programme as well as coffee and cake will attract visitors to the striking red building on the Riedberg with a view of the skyline.

FIAS PhD student Armin van de Venn presented his work at the international conference "Metric-Affine Frameworks for Gravity 2024" in Estonia.

Jan Hammelmann completed his doctorate in the group of FIAS Senior Fellow Hannah Elfner.

FIAS PhD student Chen Li spoke as an invited speaker at the ‘Strommarkttreffen’ (Electricity Market Meeting) in Berlin. He presented his findings on optimising power dispatch using machine learning. Researchers at FIAS have developed a state-of-the-art AI system that balances out weather-dependent fluctuations in the electricity grid and thus ensures the efficient and reliable distribution of electricity from sources such as solar and wind (https://fias.news/en/news-publicity/ai-solution-avoids-weather-dependent-fluctuations-in-the-power-system/).

Can we trust AI - and where are the pitfalls? The first German professor of ethics in information technology, Judith Simon (Hamburg University), addressed these complicated questions in the FIAS Forum public lecture series.

The cortex allows us humans to think, perceive our environment and act purposefully. Certain patterns of brain activity enable this; they emerge early in brain development through dynamic processes of self-organisation. This is shown by researchers from the University of Minnesota (UoM) and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) in a study published in Nature Communications. They found that the networks of the young cortex convert unstructured input into highly organised activity patterns. The organisation of these patterns is therefore not determined externally (e.g. by sensory input), but arises through interaction between the nerve cells and follows dynamic laws.

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 2004, 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.