We congratulate our long-time supporter and friend Margarete Puschmann on her 100th birthday, which she celebrates today in Oberursel on March 15, 2021.

When Magarete Puschmann and her husband Herbert, who has passed away since then, read about the founding of FIAS in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung about 15 years ago, they were immediately enthusiastic about the idea of an interdisciplinary research institute. After a visit to FIAS and a meeting with FIAS founding father Prof. Walter Greiner, the couple established the Margarete and Herbert Puschmann Foundation on April 28, 2006, with the purpose of promoting science and research at Goethe University and FIAS in particular. 

Since then, the foundation has made possible a large number of doctoral theses at FIAS. In recent years, the focus of support has been on enabling young scientists to spend research periods at FIAS, thus promoting international exchange. 

Magarete Puschmann has been an indispensable member of the FIAS family for the past 15 years. In addition to her generous donations, she participated in FIAS social activities, scientific lectures, award ceremonies, and summer festivals until the beginning of the pandemic, despite her advanced age. 

For her 100th birthday, which she will celebrate at Kursana Villa Oberursel, FIAS Board Member Prof. Dr. Horst Stöcker will surprise her with a video message from the PhD students she currently supports, David Benisty, from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be'er Scheva, Israel and Omar El Sayed from FIAS. 

Ms. Puschmann is particularly proud of helping to bring together young people from very different cultural backgrounds on scientifically interesting, exciting modern topics. David Benisty recently completed his dissertation, "Unified Dark Energy and Dark Matter from Dynamical Spacetime Cosmology," and was awarded one of the prestigious Blavatnik and Rothschild Fellowships for postdoctoral residence at the University of Cambridge. The Margarete and Herbert Puschmann Foundation has enabled him to spend several extended research periods at FIAS over the last years and thus contributed essentially to his successful work.