Today, Armin van de Venn successfully completed his doctorate under the supervision of FIAS Fellow Jürgen Struckmeier. His extension of established mathematical frameworks opens up new perspectives on the deep structure of spacetime and the origin of the cosmos.

The PhD symposium connected to the Bernstein Conference was once again held at FIAS. This year's spotlight was the topic of consensus: Where do we agree, where don’t we, and why does it matter? The path to this question was a hackathon in which participants analyzed a data set in small groups and discovered that different answers to a scientific question can be found depending on the perspective and interpretation.

Biological brains are extremely energy-efficient. Can artificial intelligence learn a few tricks from them? Researchers at FIAS and colleagues from France describe new findings on energy-efficient information processing in the journal Nature Communications.

FIAS Fellows Roberto Covino and Sebastian Thallmair introduced the audience at the FIAS Forum to the world of computer models. Using clear and vivid imagery, they described how digital twins open up new avenues for research into cellular and health-related processes.

Chen Li from the research group of FIAS Senior Fellow Horst Stöcker successfully defended his doctoral thesis on September 22, 2025. Using machine learning algorithms, he optimized decision-making problems in power grid models that arise due to fluctuations in renewable energies.

A team around doctoral student Francisco M. López from the group of FIAS Senior Fellow Jochen Triesch won the “Babybot Paper Award.” It was presented at the International Conference on Development and Learning in Prague and honors publications that establish a connection between developmental psychology and robotics and/or computer-aided modeling.

Shuai Han from the research group of FIAS Senior Fellow Horst Stöcker successfully defended his doctoral thesis on September 22, 2025. He investigated a novel integration of mechanistic epidemic models with modern deep learning to achieve both high predictive accuracy and crucial interpretability in epidemiological forecasts.

Nobel Prize winner Ben L. Feringa fascinated over 130 guests (and several online listeners) with his lecture “The Art of Building Small” on the occasion of the presentation of the Senior Fellow Laureatus Award. He took them on a journey into the tiny world of molecular motors in our bodies.

Seeing is more than light hitting the retina — it is the result of a finely tuned interplay between networks of neurons. A new study by researchers at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) and international partners shows how the brain learns to reliably process visual stimuli after the eyes open. With experience, incoming signals become more precise and increasingly aligned with internal circuits — a process that enables stable visual perception. These insights could inform advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and therapeutic approaches.

FIAS doctoral student Gianmarco Lazzeri achieved an outstanding victory a the Goethe Run 2025 on August 27! He finished the 5.6 km course in 18:33 minutes, securing first place. Also competing for FIAS was Artemiy Belousov, who finished 30th with a strong performance and great determination. We congratulate both runners on their outstanding results!

We warmly congratulate Mingjun Xiang on successfully defending her PhD at Goethe University Frankfurt and in the FIAS group of FIAS Fellow Kai Zhou.

FIAS is part of a successful application of Goethe University for the Hessian State Initiative for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence (LOEWE). The new LOEWE cluster Lipid Space investigates the role of lipophilic substances in tissue self-regulation and is funded with €4.3 million Euro.

Carlo Giersch, long-time supporter and sponsor of FIAS, visited FIAS on July 16 together with the Hessian Minister of Science and Research, Timon Gremmels.

Tom Reichert, postdoc at FIAS for the past two years, will be conducting research at Berkeley in the future. A Branco Weiss Fellowship will fund his research with CHF 600,000 over five years. Starting in January 2026 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California (USA), Reichert will work with Volker Koch to investigate the formation of the fastest rotating vortices of quarks and gluons, which are created in collisions of atomic nuclei and polarize matter.

From July 1, 2025, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johann-Dietrich “Jan” Wörner will be the new Scientific Director of FIAS. He succeeds Prof. Dr. Eckhard Elsen, whose three-year term of office ended in April.

For his great commitment to the Frankfurt International Graduate School for Science (FIGSS), FIAS Fellow Sebastian Thallmair received the Director's Award for Excellent Mentoring today. The award, endowed with 5,000 Euros, honors his innovative commitment to the graduate school.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) today approved 18 new Research Training Groups and extended ten others. These include the interdisciplinary Research Training Group on Imaging in the Life Sciences with FIAS participation.

On this wonderful summer evening, visitors were fascinated by the “Sight of Science” from the FIAS roof terrace as well as the hands-on experiments and the kicking robots. FIAS doctoral student Jonas Elpelt was the winner of the Goethe University Science Slam.

Nine FIAS runners took part in the J. P. Morgan Chase in Frankfurt - despite the bad weather. FIAS doctoral student Gianmarco was particularly successful: he achieved the eleventh best time - and 23rd place worldwide!

How the brain largely maintains its function when neurons are lost – this is what researchers at the Mainz University Medical Center, the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) and Hebrew University (Jerusalem) have deciphered. They show that neuronal networks in the cerebral cortex reorganize within a short period of time, with other nerve cells taking over the tasks of the lost neurons. These findings could form the basis for future research into natural ageing processes and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. The study was published in the renowned journal Nature Neuroscience.