Numerous working groups at FIAS work with methods of machine learning. In order to intensify the scientific exchange between the many scientists involved, the FIAS PhD students and Postdocs have created an exchange platform on their own initiative with the installation of the Journal Club.

The annual FIAS summer party, which was attended by numerous FIAS members, served as a worthy platform to award Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder with the newly established prize.

The Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS), a unique think tank in Germany for cross-linking the natural sciences, has a new board of directors.

How can complex biological systems be described theoretically and how can their functions be precisely predicted? The new LOEWE focus "CMMS - Multi-Scale Modelling in the Life Sciences" at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies will investigate this.

The FIAS and the Chinese Xidian University have confirmed the idea to establish a 'Joint Research Center' in AI research during a visit of the FIAS delegation under the leadership of the chairman of the FIAS board of directors, Prof. Dr. Enrico Schleiff.

With his article "Model Brain - Boundary Conditions for a Cognitive Architecture" FIAS Senior Fellow Christoph von der Malsburg has contributed a chapter to the book "Cognitive Computing - Theory, Technology and Practice" recently published by Springer Verlag.

Efficient power grids are an essential prerequisite for a successful conversion of the energy system. In order to support work on the power grids of the future, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is extending the funding of an interdisciplinary research project by three years, in which seven institutes, including the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies with Professor Stefan Schramm, are involved. The joint project is funded by the BMBF with a total of 2.5 million euros.

One of the outstanding mysteries of the cerebral cortex is how individual neurons develop the proper synaptic connections to form large-scale, distributed networks. Now, an international team of scientists has gained novel insights from spontaneously generated patterns of activity by local networks in the early developing visual cortex. Apparently these form the basis for long-range neural connections that are established through brain activity over the course of cortical development. The scientists report their findings in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

The unique ability of cuttlefish, squid and octopuses to hide by imitating the colors and texture of their environment has fascinated natural scientists since the time of Aristotle. Uniquely among all animals, these mollusks control their appearance by the direct action of neurons onto expandable pixels, numbered in millions, located in their skin. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research (MPI Brain Research), and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) and Goethe University (GU) used this neuron-pixel correspondence to peer into the brain of cuttlefish, inferring the putative structure of control networks through analysis of skin pattern dynamics. The scientists report their findings in the journal Nature.

FRANKFURT. How do neighboring synapses interact during learning? Frankfurt scientists have proposed a new mathematical model describing a competition of neighboring synapses for limited resources during learning. The scientists report their findings in the current issue of eLife.

On September 3, 2018, the STIFTUNG GIERSCH and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) invited to the ceremony marking the appointment of Prof. Dr. Edvard Moser as a FIAS Senior Fellow Laureatus. This honorary award is given to outstanding international scientists who are not only distinguished by their excellent research, but are also committed to the scientific community.

The human brain consists of a highly complex network of about 85 billion nerve cells (neurons) that constantly exchange information. To function, all these cells have to organise the production, transport, storage and recycling of countless different molecules such as neurotransmitters, mRNA and proteins - a gigantic logistical challenge at the molecular level. So how do they organize these processes to be both robust and efficient? How do problems in solving these logistical challenges relate to brain diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease? To discuss these questions, neuroscientists from all over the world will meet from 28 August for the 3rd Giersch International Symposium at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS).

How large is a neutron star? Previous estimates varied from eight to sixteen kilometres. Astrophysicists at the Goethe University Frankfurt and the FIAS have now succeeded in determining the size of neutron stars to within 1.5 kilometres by using an elaborate statistical approach supported by data from the measurement of gravitational waves. The researchers’ report appears in the current issue of Physical Review Letters.

Every year, the Friends of the University award prizes for the best PhD theses from various fields. The prize for the best scientific dissertation was awarded this year to former FIAS doctoral student Volodymyr Vovchenko.

This year, the Hessian Minister for Social Affairs and Integration, Stefan Grüttner, honoured personalities with a migration background from all over Hesse for outstanding achievements in the fields of education, business and science at a ceremony in Schloss Biebrich in Wiesbaden. One of them is Hanna Kamyshanska, a former PhD of the Frankfurt Institute for Avanced Studies (FIAS).

In an exhibition of a different kind, Frankfurt bioinformatician Prof. Franziska Matthäus and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) show that basic theoretical research does not only consist of series of numbers and formulae, but can also be beautiful. For the "Night of Science" on Friday, June 8. 2018, large-format works of art will decorate some buildings on the Riedberg campus of Goethe University.

FIAS Fellow Hannah Petersen has been awarded the Zimanyi Medal of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The award recognizes her work in the field of relativistic heavy ion collisions. The theoretical physicist has been a Fellow at FIAS since 2013, heads a Helmholtz junior research group at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research and teaches as a professor at Goethe University in Frankfurt.

In its programme of 26.05.2018, the broadcasting station of Hesse reports about the FIAS initiative "Wissenschaft zum Anfassen", which has been regularly inspiring the public at major events about research at FIAS, since 2013.