Alumni

Dr. Sebastian Biba

JQYA Fellow 2021

Sabbatical Fellowship Award

Research area: Political Science

Research focus: China’s foreign policy and international relations; China’s international river politics; US-China-Europe triangular relations; responsibility in International Relations.

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Dr. Sofia Iris Bimpli

Dr. Sofia Iris Bimpli

W1 Professor for Cardiovascular Surveillance at the Institute for Vascular Signalling and the Cardiopulmonary Institute

JQYA Member 2021, Emmy-Noether Programme

Research area: Metabolic surveillance of vascular homeostasis and aging

Research focus: Endothelial cells coat the inside of blood vessels and are directly exposed to the blood. These cells are, however, much more than a protective lining as they are metabolically active and contribute to the development and preservation of a healthy vasculature and thus are vital for organ maintenance in adulthood. Endothelial senescence is the dominant unmodifiable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and strategies to rejuvenate the endothelium remain far away from the clinic. Our team studies how metabolic intermediates can impact on cell signalling via the post-translational modification of proteins and epigenetic mechanisms to control endothelial cell senescence and reparative responses. The overall aim is to unravel novel metabolic based therapies for the preservation of endothelial cell function.

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Dr. Eva Buddeberg

JQYA Fellow 2018

Sabbatical Fellowship Award

Research area: Political Science

Research focus: French philosophy and phenomenology, social and political philosophy, normative ethics/moral philosophy, methodology, critical theory, philosophy of language.

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Dr. Tomás Cano

JQYA Fellow 2021

Sabbatical Fellowship Award

Research area: Social Sciences

Research focus: His project investigates family polarization and its relation with the diverging skill developments of children in Germany. Children in families from the lower-class are facing higher prevalence of critical life events. In addition, once they suffer these events, they also have more negative consequences. On the contrary, children from the upper-class have less prevalence of critical life events and their penalties are smaller. One key reason behind differences in prevalence and penalties are parental compensations: upper-class families follow strategies to protect and invest in their children. But what exactly families do to make a difference in their level of resilience is a black box. This project aims to uncover this black box, studying how parenting strategies of compensation vary by social class, and how they affect child development. 

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Dr. Rikki Dean

JQYA Fellow 2021

Sabbatical Fellowship Award

Research area: Social Sciences

Research focus: His research combines democratic theory, public administration theory and empirical social science to understand issues in participatory governance. His current work is focused on: developing a systemic conception of democracy; evaluating participatory governance projects; understanding the opportunities for democratic innovation represented by new online technologies; and analysing preferences for democratic governance.

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Jun.-Prof. Dr. Sandra Eckert

JQYA Fellow 2018

Sabbatical Fellowship Award

Research area: Social Sciences

Research focus: In her research, Sandra studies issues related to European integration, comparative public policy and international political economy.

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Dr. Philipp Erbentraut

JQYA Fellow 2019

Sabbatical Fellowship Award

Research area: Political Sociology

Research focus: political parties, elites and parliaments; comparative politics; history of democracy; political ideas in Germany, Great Britain and USA in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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Dr. Federico L.G. Faroldi 

International Academy Program Fellow

I am a researcher of the Flanders Research Foundation (FWO) at the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science of the Ghent University, where I direct a three-year project. I was recently awarded with a Lise Meitner prize by the Austrian Research Fund (FWF) for a project on normative language.

E-Mail: federico.faroldi@ugent.be
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Project

I study normativity and normative phenomena with formal methods coming from mathematics, decision and game theory, and philosophy.
My research interests are in logic (esp. deontic and modal, algebraic semantics), metaphysics (hyperintensionality, supervenience), metaethics (reasons) and philosophy of law (responsibility). My current research is on a hyperintensional theory of normative phenomena, on identity and indiscernibility in higher-order languages, and on the scale of moral adjectives.

Dr. Susanne Fehlings

JQYA Fellow 2021

Academy Fellowship Award

Research area: Ethnology

Research focus: The project investigates economic activities of Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) such as bazaar and shuttle traders in post-Soviet Eurasia from a grassroots perspective. These activities are usually not or only partly regulated by state institutions and therefore classified as “informal”. They are shaped by social, cultural and political transformations that took and take place since the 1980s. In particular, I focus on the different forms of interethnic exchange between Armenian, Russian, Georgian and Chinese traders and businesspeople. 

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Dr. Nadine Flinner

JQYA Fellow 2019

Academy Fellowship Award

Research area: Bioinformatics

Research focus: Understanding the correlation between cell morphology, function and the underlaying molecular features. To link different features to morphology deep learning and quantitative image segmentation are used.

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Dr. Jasmin Kim Hefendehl

Group Leader Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences

JQYA Member 2018, Emmy-Noether Programme

Research area: Neurovascular Disorders

Research focus: Alzheimer’s Disease as well as vascular cognitive impairment are major health problems on our society. In fact, up to 80% of all dementia cases present themselves in a co-morbid manner with both AD and vascular cognitive impairment present in the patient. Hence, we are conducting basic research on the coocurrence of the two diseases to investigate underlying mechanisms and potential biomarkers. The neurovascular unit consist of multiple different cells that work in close coordination to regulates blood flow and blood brain barrier integrity and is of particular interest to us, as it is a common target in both diseases.

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Dr. Benesh Joseph

Group Leader

JQYA Member 2018, Emmy-Noether Programme

Research area: • Membrane transport mechanism • Membrane biogenesis and • In-situ / cellular structural biology

Research focus: The survival of bacterial pathogens requires several membrane-embedded heterooligomeric macromolecular machines. Many of them are potential targets for novel antibiotics to combat the multiple drug resitance. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we characterize the structural transitions, conformational equilibria, and the thermodynamic parameters to elucidate the mechanistic basis of their function.

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Dr. Philipp Dominik Keidl

JQYA Fellow 2020

Academy Fellowship Award

Research area: Film and Media Studies

Research focus: Philipp’s current research focuses on fan cultures and their production of nonfiction media. This includes fan-made documentaries, podcasts and blogs on issues such as film and media history, the justice system and the environmental crisis. Moreover, his writing and teaching engages with research-creation as a critical and pedagogical method in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Dr. Laura McAdam-Otto

JQYA Fellow 2022

Academy Fellowship Award

Research area: European Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology

Research focus: The research project ethnographically examines how the arrival of Sargassum algae is governed along the Caribbean coast, with a focus on Mexico. Laura focuses on how touristified coastal zones transform, how responsibility for anthropogenic climate change is negotiated in everyday situations, and how humans and non-humans shape coastal futures.

Dr. Daniel Merk

JQYA Fellow 2018

Academy Fellowship Award

Research area: Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Research focus: Daniel’s research focuses on the medicinal chemistry of nuclear receptor ligands, multi-target drug design and natural product inspired drug discovery.

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Dr. Muriel Moser-Gerber

JQYA Fellow 2019

Sabbatical Fellowship Award

Research area: Ancient History

Research focus: social memories in the Greek cities of Achaea during late Hellenistic times and the early Empire (100 BC to AD 100) and changes under the influence of Rome. Muriel is also interested in political scandals in Roman culture. General topics are the construction and exercise of political power and imperial authority; uses of the past, social memory; taxation, administration and law; epigraphy and prosopography.

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Dr. Christian Münch, JQYA Member 2018, Emmy Noether Programme, ERC Starting Grant

Dr. Christian Münch

Group Leader

JQYA Member 2018, Emmy Noether Programme, ERC Starting Grant

Research area: Protein quality control

Research focus: Proper folding of proteins in cells is required for cellular function and survival. My laboratory studies how cells respond to protein misfolding as observed in diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration. We particularly focus on the specific stress responses induced to overcome protein misfolding in mitochondria.

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Dr. Sophie Nolden

Dr. Sophie Nolden

JQYA Fellow 2023

Academy Fellowship Award

Research area: Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience

Research focus: Attention and memory over the lifespan with a specific focus on sensory processing. A multi-method approach, including auditory virtual reality, behavioural measurements, and measures of brain activity.

Dr. Cornelia Pokalyuk, JQYA Member 2020, Emmy Noether Programme

Dr. Cornelia Pokalyuk

JQYA Member 2020, Emmy Noether Programme

Research area: Stochastic dynamics of host parasite processes, population genetic processes with spatial structure and selection, coalescing and branching processes

Research focus: The evolution of parasites is strongly influenced by the parasites dependence on their hosts. For instance, the spread of the parasite population over the host population can imply a hierarchical structure of the parasite population and the spatial structure of the host population can carry over to the parasite population. In exchange with experimental groups we develop in my group individual-based models that represent host parasite dynamics and analyse these with the help of genealogical processes and a separation of scales in time and space.

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Dr. Magnus Ressel

JQYA Fellow 2021

Academy Fellowship Award

Research area: Early Modern History

Research focus: Magnus’ research focusses on the transatlantic slave trade and its impact the European economic fabric. The concurrent rise of the ‘industrious revolution’ as well as a phenomenon that is best called ‘technological enlightenment’ during the 18th century are studied via the focus on specific key actors in on both sides of the Atlantic who were massively engaged in the transatlantic slave trade – and its undoing.

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Dr. Torben Riehl

JQYA Fellow 2019

Academy Fellowship

Research area: Marine Geobiodiversity Research

Research focus: In his research Torben investigates the origins of the deep-sea biodiversity, especially the evolution of seafloor-inhabiting crustaceans. He is particularly interested in historical and ongoing colonization and distribution-range shifts, the drivers of diversification, and the ecological drivers of coexistence at depths > 3500 m (abyssal and hadal zones). Torben‘s current projects are dedicated to the influence of seafloor topography on biogeography, population differentiation and speciation as well as the effects of habitat heterogeneity on abyssal biodiversity.

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Dr. Hanieh Saeedi

JQYA Fellow 2018

Academy Fellowship Award

Research area: Marine Zoology

Research focus: understanding the driving ecological and evolutionary process which shape the biodiversity patterns and biogeography of the marine species (shallow and deep-sea), and also in predicting how species richness and distribution ranges will shift under future climate change.

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Prof. Dr. Florian Sprenger

Since April 2020 Professor for Virtual Humanities (W2-TT-W3) at the Ruhr-University Bochum

JQYA Fellow 2018-2020

„Sabbatical fellowship“ award

Research area: Media and Cultural Studies

Research focus: His research covers topics such as the history of artificial environments, media of immediacy, and the internet of things.

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Dr. Peter Smith

Since March 2021 Senior Technical Writer at Wärtsilä

Linguist and writer.

JQYA Fellow 2018-2020

„Academy Fellowship“

Dr. Marco Tamborini

JQYA Fellow 2021

Academy Fellowship Award

Research area: History and Philosophy of Science

Research focus: His research focuses on the history and philosophy of biology from the 19th century onward. Tamborini is particularly interested in the history and philosophy of evolutionary morphology and paleontology, and in the history and philosophy of technoscience. In his current project, Tamborini radically reconstructs the history and theory of 20th and 21st century morphology as a practice and material circulation of techniques, methods, objects, people, and ideas.

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Dr. Camelia-Eliza Telteu

JQYA Fellow 2019

Academy Fellowship Award

Research area: Hydrology, Physical Geography

Research focus: impact of climate change on freshwater resources, floods, droughts, hydrological modelling, science communication.

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