News

2024

Laura Hendriks awarded prestigious Ambizione grant for research at HEIA-FR

18.03.2024 16:18

Branco Weiss Fellow Dr. Laura Hendriks has been honored with the esteemed Ambizione grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Laura is a scientific assistant at the Fribourg School of Engineering and Architecture (HEIA-FR). Her research project focuses on the dating of cultural heritage objects using chemistry. The Ambizione grant, awarded annually by the SNSF, supports promising young scientists in leading independent research projects.

Gabriele Manoli puts a price on the health cost of urban heat islands

08.02.2024 13:02

The heat islands found in many European cities have a clear impact on human mortality risk comparable to air pollution, says a study co-authored by Branco Weiss Alumnus Gabriele Manoli and Researchers from Singapore, the UK and the US that was published recently in Nature Communications. Looking at 85 European cities over the course of three full years, the study has produced the first cost estimate of the impact that urban heat islands have on human health.

Lea Haller appointed Co-Head of the General Secretariat of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences

07.02.2024 13:45

Branco Weiss alumna Lea Haller has been appointed Co-Head of the General Secretariat by the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW). She will take up this position together with the current Deputy Secretary General Beat Immenhauser on March 1, 2024. Most recently, Dr. Lea Haller was Editorial Director of the magazine “NZZ Geschichte”.

Daniel Bojar receives three grants for his research on the role of glycomes in lung cancer and breast milk

09.01.2024 14:17

Branco Weiss Fellow Daniel Bojar has been awarded grants from three Swedish foundations. The Lundberg Foundation supports Dr. Bojar’s research on cancer-specific glycans with 4 million SEK (approx. 384’000 USD). An additional grant of 600’000 SEK (approx. 57’000 USD) comes from the Jeansson Foundations. The third grant is given to Dr. Bojar by the Hasselblad Foundation.

2023

Patrícia Chrzanová Pecnerová receives substantial funding for research into the elephant diversity

15.12.2023 17:08

The Swedish agency FORMAS, a research council for sustainable development, has granted Branco Weiss Fellow Patrícia Chrzanová Pecnerová additional research funding of 4 million Swedish kronor (about 335,000 euros). The four-year project at Lund University is entitled “A Genomic Investigation of the Diversity Lost to the Elephant Ivory Trade”. Patrícia will use the Swedish Museum of Natural History’s extensive ivory collection to conduct a genomic investigation of samples from the colonial period to the present day.

Branco Weiss Fellows and Alumni met for the Symposium and the Lecture 2023

29.11.2023 14:47

Almost all Branco Weiss Fellows met again this year for the symposium, which took place from November 18 to 21, 2023. During his lifetime, Branco Weiss had decreed that the Fellows should meet in person once a year because he knew how fruitful these encounters would be. In addition to the 41 Fellows assembled, the three members of the Board of Directors, the two administrators and the communications officers were of course also present, as well as two former Fellowship directors, Olaf Kübler and Peter Chen.

Genetic recycling drives the diversification of cichlid fishes in Lake Victoria, says Joana Meier

20.11.2023 13:59

Science magazine has published a paper by Branco Weiss Fellow Joana Meier as lead author. The paper demonstrates that the extraordinary diversity of cichlid fishes in Africa’s Lake Victoria – where 500 species of fish emerged in just 16,000 years – was made possible by “genetic recycling”: new species evolved and adapted to a multitude of food and habitats not from new mutations, but pre-existing genetic variants that got mixed and matched into many different species.

Tomas Fiala receives Spark Grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation

11.11.2023 15:35

Branco Weiss Fellow Tomas Fiala has been awarded a Spark Grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). In his grant application, Dr. Fiala proposed a novel mode of supramolecular catalysis with a macrocyclic compound called Bambusuril to achieve the selective sulfation of aromatic alcohols with high functional-group tolerance.

Renana Gershoni-Poranne introduces GaUDI for de novo molecular design

08.11.2023 08:53

Nature Computational Science magazine has published a paper from the group of Branco Weiss Fellow Renana Gershoni-Poranne and their collaborators titled “Guided diffusion for inverse molecular design”. The paper is featured on the cover of the October issue of the magazine.

Can Aztekin unveils axolotl limb regeneration paradox

19.10.2023 13:02

Funded by the Branco Weiss Fellowship, Dr. Can Aztekin and his team have revealed a discovery in the realm of axolotl limb development and regeneration. The team has recently published their paper, titled «Multi-species atlas resolves an axolotl limb development and regeneration paradox» in Nature Communications.

NSF awards Igor Pikovski with a generous grant to test quantum gravity in the laboratory

03.10.2023 17:20

Branco Weiss Alumnus Igor Pikovski was recently awarded a Career Award from the U. S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Titled “Towards Low-Energy Tests of Quantum Gravity with AMO Systems,” the five-year research project will get a total of 514,230 USD. The Career Award is NSF’s most prestigious grant in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.

Vincent Fortuin organized Hawaii's AABI symposium towards AI advancement

27.09.2023 10:45

On July 23, Branco Weiss Fellow Vincent Fortuin took the lead in organizing the 5th Symposium on Advances in Approximate Bayesian Inference (AABI) in the picturesque setting of Honolulu, Hawaii. This symposium highlighted the increasing importance of Bayesian inference, a potent methodology for solving complex problems using data.

Lisa Genzel Joins FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence for neuroscience advancement

26.09.2023 18:59

Branco Weiss Alumna Lisa Genzel has joined the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence, a network of 30 outstanding early to mid-career European neuroscientists. Established in 2014 by the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and The Kavli Foundation, this collaborative network is dedicated to advancing neuroscience across Europe through scientific exchange and fostering dialogue between scientists, policymakers, and society.

ERC grant boosts Irma Querques's DNA broadcasting research

16.09.2023 09:45

Branco Weiss Fellow Irma Querques, from the Max Perutz Labs in Vienna, has been chosen as a recipient of a prestigious Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). Dr. Querques explores the uncharted territory of DNA broadcasting using transposons – DNA sequences that move from one location on the genome to another.

ERC grant empowers Franziska Glassmeier's research on cloud-climate uncertainty

05.09.2023 11:20

Branco Weiss Fellow Franziska Glassmeier has been selected as a recipient of the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, an integral component of the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation initiative. Her project “MesoClou: Unlocking the mesoscale frontier of cloud-climate uncertainty» builds upon her influential prior research.

Nikolay Golubev receives DOE Early Career Research Program Award

22.08.2023 11:41

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded Branco Weiss Fellow Nikolay Golubev a prestigious Early Career Research Program Award. Prof. Golubev will receive $875,000 over five years for his research entitled “Unraveling Ultrafast Electron-Nuclear Dynamics in Molecules”. The proposed research program has the potential to make several scientific breakthroughs that address fundamental questions in atomic and molecular physics and chemistry.

Suzanne Devkota named director of new Human Microbiome Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai

04.07.2023 09:23

The Cedars-Sinai medical center has established a new Human Microbiome Research Institute and named Suzanne Devkota, Associate Professor for Gastroenterology and Branco Weiss Alumna, its inaugural director. The new institute will support investigators studying how the microbiome, the diverse collection of bacteria, fungi and viruses that live in and on the human body, plays a role in health.

Reef fisheries still persist despite depletion of biomass, but their sustainability is fragile

03.07.2023 16:44

Branco Weiss Fellow Renato Morais is first author on a paper published by Nature Sustainability titled “Sustained productivity and the persistence of coral reef fisheries”. The paper discusses how reef fisheries can persist despite the heavy depletion of biomass from the coral reefs, maintaining the livelihoods of millions of fishers.

Matteo Fadel pushes the limit for the size of Schrödinger’s cat

03.07.2023 12:02

Branco Weiss Fellow Matteo Fadel has played a key role in two successful experiments that test the validity of quantum mechanics in the macroscopic regime of heavy physical objects, thus pushing our understanding of quantum mechanics. In one project Dr. Fadel and his collaborators have managed to put a microgram-mass crystal into a quantum superposition state.

Tim Lichtenberg wins European Geosciences Union Award

22.05.2023 21:05

Branco Weiss Fellow Tim Lichtenberg has received the 2023 Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award by the Planetary and Solar System Sciences Division of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The organization explains this honor with Lichtenberg’s outstanding research in cosmochemistry and planet formation.

Cheemeng Tan publishes work on cyborg cells and receives NIH award

22.05.2023 13:52

The US National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a project by Branco Weiss Alumnus Cheemeng Tan with a 2.3 million US-Dollar research grant. The collaborative project of Dr. Tan aims to demystify the functional components of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and their potential medical applications.

Vincent Fortuin organizes international seminar on generative AI

22.05.2023 13:49

From February 12 to 17, Branco Weiss Fellow Vincent Fortuin has been organizing a Dagstuhl seminar about generative AI, titled “Challenges and Perspectives in Deep Generative Modeling”. Apart from generative models for text, speech, images, and video, the seminar program included discussion topics as generative modeling of scientific data, neural data compression, and anomaly and distribution shift detection.

Benard Nsamba leads astronomy outreach to Ugandan secondary schools

14.03.2023 13:01

After organizing the first international astronomy summer school in East Africa in 2022, Branco Weiss Fellow Benard Nsamba has led a new astronomy outreach. Together with the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) Partner Group at Kyambogo University in Uganda he visited selected secondary schools in Eastern Uganda.

Patricia Monteiro publishes important findings on the effects of chronic stress and moves to Porto

23.02.2023 14:54

Nature Communications has published a research paper by Branco Weiss Alumna Patricia Monteiro et. al. showing that chronic stress can trigger or worsen motor symptoms in neuropsychiatric disorders. Stress is a natural adaptive response that helps organisms to cope with and overcome stressful situations. However, repeated exposure to stressful events, also known as chronic stress (CS), affects brain structure and function.

Laura Hendriks’s work is chosen as an example for women in chemical science

14.02.2023 18:29

On the occasion of the celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on February 11, Helvetica Chimica Acta magazine has published a special printed issue highlighting the work of female scientists across chemical sciences. Branco Weiss Fellow Laura Hendriks had been invited to contribute to this special issue with an article showcasing her work

Simone Schürle makes the world a better place, says Focus magazine

14.01.2023 16:59

German news magazine Focus has named Branco Weiss Alumna Simone Schürle “one of 30 people who make the world a better place”. “Many people can build robots”, the article states, “but hardly anyone builds them as small as Simone Schürle-Finke (…). Schürle-Finke’s robots are covered with a metallic layer and are guided by magnets to the source of the disease. In this way, tumors, for example, can be targeted.”

2022

The University of Basel appoints Murielle Delley as Assistant Professor

06.12.2022 10:36

The University Council of the University of Basel, Switzerland, has appointed Branco Weiss Fellow Murielle Delley as Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry with tenure track. She will take up her new position on February 1, 2023. Murielle Delley, who is a Branco Weiss Fellow since 2020, has been working as a research group leader at the University of Basel since October 2020 and as an assistant professor of chemistry since April 2021.

Laura Hendriks helps authenticating a Nazca tunic from the first millennium

30.11.2022 14:12

The Heritage Science Journal has published a paper co-authored by Branco Weiss Fellow Laura Hendriks concerning the authentication of a woven Nazca tunic using dye analysis and radiocarbon (14C) dating. In 2020, the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) at Newfields (Indianapolis, USA) sought to acquire a Nazca dyed camelid wool tunic dated to the period from 100 BCE to 600 CE. Because of the supple feel and excellent condition of the artifact, concerns were raised internally over its purported age.

Murielle Delley receives a Starting Grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation

30.11.2022 13:54

The Swiss National Science Foundation has awarded Branco Weiss Fellow Murielle Delley with one of 62 generous Starting Grants 2022. Over a period of five years, Prof. Delley will receive an amount of approximately 1,8 Mio. Swiss francs for the project named “Heteroatom Defects at the Electrified Interface: Inner-Sphere Interactions, Electrostatics, Site Distribution, and Role in Electrocatalysis”.

Making Babies? An exposition about egg donation and reproductive policies

23.11.2022 11:26

The Kornhausforum in Bern, Switzerland, is showing an exposition by Laura Perler, a member of Branco Weiss Alumna Carolin Schurr’s research group at the University of Bern. The exhibition “Making Babies?” shows photographs, audio and video material on the topic of egg donation and reproductive policies.

Lara Keuck appointed Professor at Bielefeld University

10.11.2022 16:31

Last September, Bielefeld University has appointed Branco Weiss Alumna Lara Keuck Professor of History and Philosophy of Medicine. Her position is co-affiliated to the departments of philosophy and history, as well as to the faculty of medicine. Additionally, Lara Keuck is contributing to the university’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies of Science (I2SoS).

Karim Bschir pleads for more pluralism in science-based policy-making

09.11.2022 15:40

Branco Weiss Alumnus Karim Bschir, together with co-author Simon Lohse, has published a new paper in Synthesemagazine discussing insufficient pluralism and associated problems in science-based policy advice during the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, Bschir and Lohse analyze political responses to the pandemic by addressing the issue of epistemic pluralism in science-based policy-making through the lens of Paul Feyerabend’s philosophy of science.

Benard Nsamba’s first Ugandan astronomy summer school was a success

09.11.2022 15:28

The “Sub-Saharan Africa Astronomy Summer School”, the first international astronomy summer school in Uganda and the whole of East Africa, was held from September 19 to September 30. The SSAASS was organized by Branco Weiss Fellow Benard Nsamba, organizing partner were Mbarara University of Science and Technology (Uganda), Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik and Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg (both Germany), and Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (Portugal).

Simone Schürle uses magnetic bacteria to fight cancerous tumors

01.11.2022 11:49

The team of Branco Weiss Alumna Simone Schürle, Professor of Responsive Biomedical Systems at ETH Zurich, has found a way to fight cancer tumors in the future using magnetic bacteria. This involves using modified bacteria as “ferries” to carry cancer drugs through the bloodstream to the tumors. The team’s research article, published recently in ScienceRobotics, explains the ways in which the microorganisms can cross the walls of blood vessels and subsequently colonize a tumor.

Zi Chen is striving to develop the next generation mask

07.09.2022 20:42

A team of researchers around Branco Weiss Alumnus Zi Chen has been selected as one of the ten finalists in BARDA’s Mask Innovation Challenge Phase II. Led by Dr. Zi Chen, StaySafeNow, has developed a reusable and cost-effective clear mask. Furthermore, Dr. Zi Chen has recently taken up a new position as Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Genome tracing tells the story of the rise of COVID-19 Delta in the UK

07.09.2022 20:00

In a paper for the journal Nature a team of researchers including Branco Weiss Fellow Moritz Kraemer have revealed how the Delta variant of COVID-19 became the dominant variant across the United Kingdom in 2021. The researchers used extensive data across virus genomics, human mobility and contact tracing to show how Delta expanded.

Nikolay Golubev appointed Assistant Professor at University of Arizona

02.09.2022 12:32

Branco Weiss Fellow Nikolay Golubev joins the Department of Physics at the University of Arizona as Tenure Track Assistant Professor. Dr. Golubev’s research focuses on developing and applying theory and simulation methods to investigate the ultrafast quantum dynamics in atoms, molecules, and solids.

Max Planck Society appoints Benard Nsamba Head of Partner Group in Uganda

30.08.2022 14:14

The German Max Planck Society has appointed Branco Weiss Fellow Benard Nsamba Head of the Partner Group of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) at the Kyambogo University in Uganda. The society and especially the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics will support Dr. Nsamba in developing the Max Planck Partner Group into an active research group of the African and international scientific communities.

Renana Gershoni-Poranne awarded an Alon Scholarship

28.06.2022 14:52

Branco Weiss Fellow Renana Gershoni-Poranne was recently awarded a prestigious Alon Scholarship. The Alon scholarships are awarded each year to 25 young faculty members in Israeli Universities in all areas of academia by the Council of Higher Education of Israel. The program grants triennial faculty scholarships for three academic years.

Murielle Delley is probing the effects of electrolyte cations on electric field and surface reactivity

20.06.2022 10:46

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C has published a paper titled “Electrolyte Cation Effects on Interfacial Acidity and Electric Fields” lead-authored by Branco Weiss Fellow Murielle Delley. Electrolyte cation identity can have large effects on electrocatalysis by influencing the interfacial electric field, structure, or local pH. However, the specific role(s) of cations is not clear.

Renana Gershoni-Poranne shows a new way to depict aromaticity for non-experts

13.06.2022 18:31

In a recently published paper in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP), Branco Weiss Fellow Renana Gershoni-Poranne and her co-author show a new way to depict aromaticity in polycyclic compounds, producing detailed graphs that illustrate the direction and strength of aromatic ring currents. The work has been featured on the cover of the journal and has been highlighted by Chemistry World.

Forbes names Daniel Bojar one of 30 under 30 to watch in Europe

09.05.2022 10:39

Forbes magazine has included Branco Weiss Fellow Daniel Bojar in its 30 under 30 Europe 2022 list in the “Science and Healthcare” category. For his achievements Forbes notes having developed the first deep-learning models to predict functional properties of complex sugars as well as having secured financial support for 1.7 million US-Dollars from the Branco Weiss Fellowship and other supporting bodies.

Benard Nsamba receives grant to organize an astronomy summer school in Uganda

04.05.2022 15:59

The German Volkswagenstiftung has awarded Branco Weiss Fellow Benard Nsamba a grant worth 82,100 euro to organize a “Sub-Saharan Africa Advanced Astronomy Summer School”. The summer school will be held from September 19 to September 30, 2022, at Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel in Kampala, Uganda.

Gabriele Manoli returns to Switzerland as Assistant Professor at EPFL

23.03.2022 23:58

Branco Weiss Fellow Gabriele Manoli has been appointed by the Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Architecture at the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering of EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland.

NetIAS supports project to reveal the Anglophone bias in language-based assessments

10.03.2022 13:50

The Selection Committee for the Constructive Advanced Thinking (CAT) programme 2021 at the Network of European Institutes for Advanced Study (NetIAS) has decided to give support to a project led by Branco Weiss Fellow Damián Blasi. The project is titled: “Challenges for the development of fair language-based assessments of health, education, behavior, and beyond”.

Moritz Kraemer is a Leader to Watch 2022

24.02.2022 11:34

Branco Weiss Fellow Moritz Kraemer has been named a Leader to Watch 2022 by Google.org, recognizing Kraemer’s engagement in response to COVID-19. The award comes with an unrestricted financial support of 30,000 US-Dollar for personal or professional development and mentorship from senior leaders at Google.

Generous ERC grant gives boost to Christian Haffner’s research on quantum computers

24.01.2022 10:42

Branco Weiss Fellow Christian Haffner is among 397 early-career researchers who won one of the first European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants under the EU’s new R&I programme Horizon Europe. Haffner’s project is titled “Quantum electro-optic amplifiers for the next generation quantum and supercomputers”. The grant amounts to approximately 2 million euros for five years.

Daniel Bojar presents a deep-learning oracle to predict protein–glycan interactions

20.01.2022 17:18

Advanced Science magazine has published a paper lead-authored by Branco Weiss Fellow Daniel Bojar presenting a deep-learning platform to predict protein–glycan interactions. The paper is part of the “Rising Stars” series of Advanced Science, which highlights especially promising early-career researchers.

A plea for the inclusion of epistemic pluralism in policy-making

11.01.2022 16:36

What danger is there in insufficient epistemic pluralism in evidence-based public health policy? A new paper co-authored by Branco Weiss Alumnus Karim Bschir uses the example of the COVID-19 pandemic to discuss reasons for implementing more pluralism as well as challenges to be tackled on the way forward.

Together again: The Branco Weiss Fellowship Symposium 2021

11.01.2022 16:25

In 2020, the Symposium of the Branco Weiss Fellowship was held as an online-only event. In 2021, however, the fellows gathered again in person from November 21-23. The online event had worked flawlessly as far as presentations and discussions were concerned. But an informal exchange was almost not possible.

2021

Murielle Delley publishes new insights about the charge transfer at electrode surfaces

13.12.2021 13:43

The Journal of the American Chemical Society has published a paper lead-authored by Branco Weiss Fellow Murielle Delley showing how applied potentials and electrolyte solution conditions affect charge transfers at electrode surfaces. Electrochemical interfaces between a solid electrode and a liquid electrolyte are found in numerous technologies ranging from electrolyzers and fuel cells for clean energy conversions to batteries and sensors.

A Golden Owl for Renana Gershoni-Poranne

10.12.2021 02:42

Branco Weiss Fellow Renana Gershoni-Poranne has been awarded with a Golden Owl, a prize that is given by ETH Zurich’s students association VSETH to lecturers who have provided exceptional teaching. “Teaching takes a lot of time, but it is one of the things that gives me a lot of energy too”, Gershoni-Poranne says.

Linda Douw starts new research section on Multiscale Network Neuroscience

10.12.2021 01:49

Branco Weiss Alumna Linda Douw has started a new research section on Multiscale Network Neuroscience (MULTINET) at the Anatomy and Neurosciences department of Amsterdam UMC. This new section aims to integrate theoretical insights and empirical findings across the different scales of measurement.

Euro for neuro: La Caixa Foundation funds Patricia Monteiro’s bioelectronic neuronal interface

08.12.2021 23:55

Branco Weiss Alumna Patricia Monteiro’s team at the Institute for Research in Life Sciences and Health (ICVS) at the University of Minho is part of a consortium that received funding from La Caixa Foundation. The grant in the amount of 1 million euros is part of the foundation‘s Caixa Health Research competition 2021.

Marco Hutter’s ANYmals win DARPA Subterranean Challenge

30.11.2021 11:50

Branco Weiss Alumnus Marco Hutter’s Robotic Systems Lab (RSL) at ETH Zurich is part of Team CERBERUS, an international consortium of scientists that has won the DARPA Subterranean Challenge – one of the world’s most challenging robot competitions.

A Branco Weiss Fellow, the human flea, the plague and a travel award

29.11.2021 11:59

Branco Weiss Fellow Adelaide Miarinjara has been awarded a Centennial Travel Award by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH). ASTMH is giving away this grant to physicians and scientists who’s work benefit underserved populations in locations in the world where the burden of disease is high.

Renato Morais shows plankton-eating fish play key role in productivity of coral reef ecosystems

29.11.2021 11:50

Branco Weiss Fellow Renato Morais is the lead-author of a new study that suggests that the movement of plankton and plankton-eating fish play a central role in driving local spikes of extreme biological productivity in tropical coral reefs, creating “sweet spots” of abundant fish.

Understanding RNA structures in human development and COVID-19 pathogenicity

23.11.2021 02:59

The distribution, dynamics, and function of RNA structures in human development are under-explored. Two papers by Branco Weiss Alumna Yue Wan and others discussing the function of RNA structures in human development as well as in SARS-CoV-2 have recently been published.

George Slavich’s lab awarded $3 million to build stress surveillance system

23.11.2021 01:39

Branco Weiss Alumnus George Slavich’s Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research at UCLA has been awarded $3 million by the State of California to develop a statewide stress surveillance system and establish a network of physicians and scientists to study how stress impacts the body and what can be done to increase resiliency.

Renana Gershoni-Poranne appointed Assistant Professor at Technion

26.10.2021 13:19

Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, has appointed Branco Weiss Fellow Renana Gershoni-Poranne Assistant Professor of Computational Chemistry at the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry. She has taken up her new position on October 1 and has also been named a Career Advancement Fellow by the Technion.

Michael Fabinyi’s research on fishing livelihoods available in a book

22.10.2021 02:10

“Asia-Pacific Fishing Livelihoods” is the title of a book published recently by Branco Weiss Alumnus Michael Fabinyi together with co-author Kate Barclay. The book examines where fishing livelihoods in the Asia-Pacific region have come from, and where they are going.

Unravelling the motion of electrons and nuclei in molecules

22.10.2021 01:06

Scientists at EPFL, lead by Branco Weiss Fellow Nikolay Golubev, have devised a way to unravel ultrafast motion of electrons and nuclei in a molecule in real time and with atomic spatial resolution. They achieved this by using a laser-based technology called Attosecond Transient Absorption Spectroscopy (ATAS).

Cheemeng Tan receives NIH grant to engineer synthetic bacteria

30.09.2021 13:46

Branco Weiss Alumnus Cheemeng Tan has recently been awarded a Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from the US National Institute of Health (NIH). The MIRA comes with a 5-year grant over $ 1.9 million. The fund will support Tan’s research in understanding the structure and function of synthetic bacteria for translational clinical medicine.

Laura Hendriks helps dating medieval polychrome sculptures by 14C analysis

25.08.2021 13:00

Nature Scientific Reports has published a paper co-authored by Branco Weiss Fellow Laura Hendriks. The study discusses new opportunities for studying artworks put forward by the recent technological advances in microscale radiocarbon dating. In the paper, Hendriks and her co-authors demonstrate the possibility of dating polychrome sculptures. The polychromy, an indivisible part of polychrome sculpture, holds a key role in the interpretation and understanding of these artworks.

A‘super-seeding’ event in the UK helped spreading the COVID-19 alpha variant

23.07.2021 16:46

The rapid spread of the Alpha variant of COVID-19 resulted from biological changes in the virus and was enhanced by large numbers of infected people ‘exporting’ the variant to multiple parts of the UK in a ‘super-seeding’ event, according to a research article that appeared in Science this week. Lead author of the study is Branco Weiss Fellow Dr Moritz Kraemer in Oxford’s Department of Zoology.

Ask the expert: Klaus Eyer responds to questions about anti-COVID vaccination

05.07.2021 17:17

What is the difference between a viral vector vaccine and an mRNA vaccine? Is the development of vaccines based on trial and error? What about long-term effects of anti-COVID vaccines? Branco Weiss Fellow Klaus Eyer answers some of the most prevalent questions about the different types of COVID vaccinations.

AI model helps understand viruses likely to jump from animals to humans

25.06.2021 12:32

Branco Weiss Fellow Daniel Bojar is lead-author of a study published in Cell Reports magazine that discusses a new model that applies artificial intelligence to carbohydrates. Carbohydrates – or glycans – are still not well understood despite participating in nearly all biological processes in the human body – for good or for bad.

China’s ocean governance poses global challenges, says Michael Fabinyi

19.06.2021 12:55

Branco Weiss Alumnus Michael Fabinyi is lead author of a new paper published recently in The Journal of Environment & Development that discusses China’s ocean governance. The researchers find that China’s distinctive model for a blue economy presents emerging challenges for global ocean governance.

Urban forests serve as main regulator of the evaporative cooling effect in cities

05.06.2021 16:37

Green spaces are promoted worldwide as local and city-scale cooling strategies. A new study co-written by Branco Weiss Fellow Gabriele Manoli and published recently in AGU Advances uses state-of-the-art remote sensing data from 145 city clusters to disentangle the drivers of surface urban heat islands (SUHIs) intensity and quantify urban-rural differences in vegetation cover, species composition, and evaporative cooling.

Michael Mühlebach joins the Max Planck Institute in Tübingen and receives an Emmy Noether Fellowship

31.05.2021 18:33

Earlier this year, Branco Weiss Fellow Michael Mühlebach has taken up a new position as leader of the independent Learning and Dynamical Systems research group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Tübingen. In addition, Mühlebach has won support by the prestigious Emmy Noether Fellowship.

Christian Haffner takes up first tenure track at imec

27.05.2021 15:08

Earlier this year, Branco Weiss Fellow Christian Haffner has taken up a new tenure track position at the imec in Leuven, Belgium. It is the first tenure track the institute offers since its foundation in 1984 under its full name Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre.

Dolphins form a cooperation-based concept of team membership

28.04.2021 15:59

According to new findings by Branco Weiss Alumna Stephanie King and her group of researchers at the University of Bristol, the University of Zurich and the University of Massachusetts, male dolphins form a social concept of team membership based on cooperative investment in the team – or in other words: When it comes to friendships and rivalries, male dolphins know who the good team players are.

Anna-Sophia Wahl is detecting motor behavior in health and disease with AI

26.04.2021 12:03

Branco Weiss Fellow Anna-Sophia Wahl designed and lead the biomedical research part as senior author of a paper published recently in Nature Machine Intelligence which reports the development of a new, fully automatic approach based on artificial intelligence to analyze motor behavior in animals and humans.

A comprehensive overview of Paul Feyerabend’s philosophy

21.04.2021 14:18

Cambridge University Press has published a new book co-edited by Branco Weiss Alumnus Karim Bschir. Interpreting Feyerabend – Critical Essays is a collection of new essays that interpret and critically evaluate the philosophy of Paul Feyerabend. On 290 pages, the book offers innovative historical scholarship on Feyerabend’s take on topics such as realism, empiricism, mimesis, voluntarism, pluralism, materialism, and the mind-body problem, as well as certain debates in the philosophy of physics.

Karim Bschir heads Ethics Committee at University of St. Gallen

02.04.2021 11:46

With the beginning of 2021, Branco Weiss alumnus Karim Bschir has assumed the post as Managing Director of the Ethics Committee and Lecturer at University St. Gallen in Switzerland. Karim Bschir’s research focuses on topics in the general philosophy of science with strong bearings upon the role and responsibility of science in society. Many of his contributions are inspired by the works of the philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend.

Renana Gershoni-Poranne pushes the research for organic electronics

09.03.2021 11:52

Chemistry – A European Journal has published a cover feature by Branco Weiss Fellow Renana Gershoni-Poranne and her research group at ETH Zurich about a novel approach for predicting the electronic properties of a certain type of polycyclic aromatic compounds. In another paper, published in Electronic Structure, Gershoni-Poranne and her co-authors tackle the problem of high-throughput virtual screening in molecular design and discovery.

The cooling effect of aerosols may be short-lived, says Franziska Glassmeier

15.02.2021 14:12

The cooling effect of clouds modified by atmospheric aerosols – particles suspended in the atmosphere – may be overestimated. That is the conclusion of a new international study led by Branco Weiss Fellow Franziska Glassmeier. Cloud decks covering vast stretches of the subtropical oceans have a cooling effect on the planet’s climate because they reflect incoming sunlight back to space.

Anne Osbourn ordering her life and origins as a scientist through poetry

02.02.2021 11:42

Do poetry and science mix well? The answer is a resounding “yes!” – at least in the case of Branco Weiss Alumna Anne Osbourn. Mock Orange is a collection of poems in which Anne Osbourn attempts to order her life and her origins and to try to understand how and why she became a scientist, specifically a plant biologist. From early childhood she has tried to make sense of the world through plants.

Alexander Kruchkov and the challenging task of designing black hole holograms

25.01.2021 17:00

Branco Weiss Fellow Alexander Kruchkov has written an article for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings explaining his current research project: bringing black holes to the lab. “Astrophysical black holes are too remote to probe the quantum gravity effects. To test fundamental quantum processes at the event horizons, we might need to roll our sleeves, and go downstairs to the lab”, Kruchkov writes.

Branco Weiss Fellows show the origin and transmission chains of COVID-19 in the UK

19.01.2021 13:50

A team of scientists, led by researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh and including Branco Weiss Fellows Tetyana Vasylyeva and Moritz Kraemer, has analyzed the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK and produced the most fine-scaled and comprehensive genomic analysis of transmission of any epidemic to date.

The Fe cycle plays an important role in atmospheric oxygen concentrations

08.01.2021 17:18

The American Journal of Science has published new research by Branco Weiss Fellow Matthieu Galvez. In his paper called “Redox constraints on a Cenozoic imbalance in the organic carbon cycle” Matthieu Galvez demonstrates that the organic carbon cycle has operated as a net source of oxygen over the last 50–60 million years.

2020

Suzanne Devkota solves the mystery of the Creeping Fat

17.12.2020 11:58

Branco Weiss Alumna Suzanne Devkota is lead author of a study that may have solved an enduring mystery in Crohn’s disease: In many patients with Crohn’s disease abdominal fat migrates to the wall of the inflamed small intestines. What prompts the fat tissue to “creep” through the abdomen and wrap around the intestines of many patients with this inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) was poorly understood – until now.

Pedro Vale shows how host heterogeneity determines disease dynamics

17.12.2020 11:54

Host heterogeneity in pathogen transmission is widespread and presents a major hurdle to predicting and minimizing disease outbreaks. For example, superspreaders are individuals that contribute disproportionately to disease spread, making outbreak prediction unreliable when information on host heterogeneity is lacking and one has to rely on modelling the average transmission.

Patricia Monteiro appointed to the STF Advisory Board by EMBO

14.12.2020 13:51

Branco Weiss Fellow Patricia Monteiro has been appointed to the Short Term Fellowships (STF) Advisory Board of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). As a member of the board her role is to evaluate applications from talented international researchers that apply to this funding scheme.

Cities need to build networks and share plans to emerge stronger from COVID-19

14.12.2020 13:48

Nature magazine has published a comment on the role of networks to make cities more resilient, co-written by Branco Weiss Alumna Harini Nagendra. Cities need an extensive rethink of how they are governed and run, the authors state. They need to strengthen leadership and health-care systems, improve how they communicate, source more food, goods and services locally, give a greater priority to nature and combat inequalities.

Yue Wan reveals molecular architecture of RNA with AI

14.12.2020 13:44

Branco Weiss Alumna Yue Wan and her team of researchers at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) have developed a new method to reveal ribonucleic acid (RNA) structures, and the way cells function using cutting-edge AI technologies. One of the long-standing puzzles in biology is whether RNAs arising from the same gene could have different functions, and whether different structures have a major role to play in their diverse fate even if they share highly similar sequences.

Falling Walls Conference awards Simone Schürle for profound impact on science and society

14.12.2020 13:38

Branco Weiss Fellow Simone Schürle has been elected a winner in the category Engineering and Technology of this year’s Falling Walls Conference. Schürle is one of ten researchers whose works are described by the event organizers as having a “profound impact on science and society”. In total, 940 entries from 111 countries were competing in ten different categories.

We still need animal research, say Lisa Genzel et. al.

11.12.2020 14:19

Branco Weiss Alumna Lisa Genzel has brought together more than 80 scientists from over 20 institutions in the Netherlands to sign an essay titled: “How the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the necessity of animal research”. In the essay, the researchers argue that animal testing is essential for the advancement of human and veterinary health – as the current pandemic has shown.

Cara Brook awarded a 2020 For Women in Science Fellowship

27.11.2020 13:44

Branco Weiss Fellow Cara Brook has received a 2020 For Women in Science (FWIS) Fellowship by L’Oréal USA. The annual program awards five female postdoctoral scientists grants of $60,000 each to advance their research. In addition to grant funding, FWIS Fellows receive mentorship, media training, career coaching and recognition.

Thomas Van Boeckel creates intensive care unit monitoring for Swiss hospitals

27.11.2020 13:37

A team at ETH Zurich led by Branco Weiss Fellow Thomas Van Boeckel has created a web-based platform providing hospital-level short-term projections for intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy in Switzerland. On icumonitoring.ch the researchers combine current data on the number of beds and ventilators with canton-level projections of COVID-19 cases.

Marco Hutter’s ANYmal goes on a mountain hike

27.11.2020 13:31

Science Robotics magazine has featured a recent paper by Branco Weiss Alumnus Marco Hutter. The article “Quadrupedal robots trot into the wild” shows how deep reinforcement learning enables quadruped robots to traverse challenging natural environments using only proprioception. To this aim, the team brought their four-legged machine called ANYmal to gravel- strewn alpine roads and even more challenging terrain.

Alumnus in space: Zi Chen gets NSF grant to conduct research on the ISS

27.11.2020 01:33

Branco Weiss Alumnus Zi Chen has received a $400,000 grant from the US National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), to lead a three-year research project on the International Space Station (ISS). Zi Chen is an Assistant Professor at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, USA.

Daniel Bojar and his team have cracked the glycan code

03.11.2020 15:37

A team of scientists from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) led by Branco Weiss Fellow Daniel Bojar has developed new machine learning and bioinformatics methods that enable researchers to systematically study glycans and identify sequences that play a role in the interactions of microbes and their host cells, as well as other still-unknown functions.

Matthieu Galvez shows how the OC cycle connects Earth’s biosphere and geosphere

28.10.2020 12:07

Branco Weiss Fellow Matthieu Galvez is the lead author of a new paper published recently in Nature Geoscience discussing how the organic carbon (OC) cycle – the long-term coevolution between biosphere and geosphere – on Earth has changed over Millions of years.

Simone Schürle shows two distinct strategies to control magnetotactic bacteria

24.10.2020 19:54

Branco Weiss Fellow Simone Schürle published new work with her team that is featured on the cover of Advanced Functional Materials magazine. In the paper, the researchers lay out the two most feasible strategies to use magnetic actuation to wirelessly control the movement of magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) in order to deliver drugs to specific locations inside the human body.

Just “flattening the curve” is not enough, says Moritz Kraemer

07.10.2020 14:41

Small, close-knit communities are at high risk for rapid, intense COVID outbreaks especially if they haven’t yet experienced outbreaks of COVID-19, shows a new study led by Branco Weiss Fellow Moritz Kraemer and co-authored by research teams at the University of Oxford and Boston’s Northeastern University.

COVID-19 was twice as contagious during the early months than WHO estimates

07.10.2020 14:20

Branco Weiss Fellow Gabriele Manoli is co-author of a research article recently published in PLOS One that analyzes the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in its early stages. The analysis shows that governments had a much smaller window of time to act than previously thought.

A new way to observe decoherence in polyatomic molecules

21.09.2020 18:09

Studying the dynamics of polyatomic molecules, Branco Weiss Fellow Nikolay Golubev and his team at EPFL’s Laboratory of Theoretical Physical Chemistry (LCPT) have developed a method for quickly spotting molecules with particularly interesting electron properties. Their findings were recently published in Physical Review Letters.

Erica van de Waal receives ERC Starting Grant 2020

08.09.2020 16:20

Branco Weiss Alumna Erica van de Waal has been awarded one of this year’s Starting Grants by the European Research Council (ERC). Van de Waal is among 436 researchers from 40 different nations who share a funding worth in total 677 million Euro. Dr. van de Waals research proposal that won her the grant is called “Knowledge moves – From the individual to the system: Understanding knowledge movement”.

Klaus Eyer is sharing DropMap technology for single-cell phenotyping

19.08.2020 13:38

Nature Protocols has published an article by Branco Weiss Fellow Klaus Eyer and academic partners detailing the manufacture, use and software involved in the DropMap technology. The paper describes the microfluidic platform, DropMap, and its use in applications to measure simultaneously the kinetics of secretion and other cellular characteristics, including expression of cell-surface markers, endocytosis and viability, from tens of thousands of single immune cells.

Christian Haffner wins Carl Zeiss Award for Young Researchers

19.08.2020 11:44

Branco Weiss Fellow Cristian Haffner has been awarded the Carl Zeiss Award for Young Researchers 2020 for his studies on the use of plasmonics for compact on-chip sensing and communications technologies. Haffner had published the results of the study in a paper called “Low-loss plasmon-assisted electro-optic modulator” in Nature magazine.

Lara Keuck elected a member of Die Junge Akademie

06.08.2020 12:06

Branco Weiss Fellow Lara Keuck has been elected a member of Die Junge Akademie, an academy for young scientists worldwide that provides interdisciplinary and socially relevant spaces for outstanding young academics from German-speaking countries. Each member is elected for 5 years during which they can access a fixed personal budget as well as the central research budget.

Lara Keuck to lead new Max Planck Research Group

21.07.2020 15:37

The Max Planck Society has appointed Branco Weiss Fellow Lara Keuck leader of a new Research Group on “Practices of Validation in the Biomedical Sciences”. The Research Group, opening at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in July 2021, will elucidate validation practices in the modern biomedical sciences with the aim of historicizing validity as a relational property.

Erica van de Waal among 120 scientists urging policymakers to prevent further pandemics

26.06.2020 13:35

Branco Weiss Fellow Erica van de Waal is among 120 signatories to an open letter of Swiss scientists, titled “The next pandemic is foreseeable – It is time to take the ecological crisis seriously”, that was sent to the two Presidents of the Swiss parliamentary chambers, and to the Swiss government.

The humanities must help solve the Covid-19 crisis, says Vanessa Rampton

23.06.2020 13:33

Undark, a non-profit, editorially independent digital magazine exploring the intersection of science and society, has published an opinion piece written by Branco Weiss Fellow Vanessa Rampton. In the article titled “Science Alone Can’t Solve Covid-19. The Humanities Must Help.” Rampton argues that scholars of society, language, and culture will be integral to addressing the broader issues raised by the current pandemic.

A social learning bias and intersexual dominance in vervet monkeys

22.06.2020 14:07

Two papers written by Branco Weiss Fellow Erica van de Waal have garnered attention in the public media recently. The first paper, published in Nature Communications, talks about how vervet monkeys copy higher-ranked individuals in a social transmission experiment. To learn more about how multiple social learning strategies interact and how organisms integrate both individual and social information, the scientists combined an open diffusion experiment with a modeling approach.

Lara Keuck on the need for history of science in the pandemic

07.05.2020 13:27

History of Science ON CALL, a project of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin, has published a contribution by Branco Weiss Fellow Lara Keuck. In her short video Keuck asks whether historical infection outbreaks are comparable to the current corona crisis and whether the current uncertainty is exceptional.

Thomas Van Boeckel publishes Reports on the COVID19 situation in Switzerland

20.04.2020 02:20

Branco Weiss Fellow Thomas Van Boeckel, an assistant professor at ETH Zurich, is issuing reports on the COVID19 situation in Switzerland on a regular basis. These papers are not peer reviewed, as the timeline of informing about an epidemic is not compatible with publications in traditional journals. However, these reports have nevertheless received a bit of attention on social media.

Igor Pikovski shows a novel paradigm for controlling light

14.04.2020 17:24

Branco Weiss Fellow Igor Pikovski, in collaboration with scientists at Harvard University, has shown a novel paradigm for controlling light: a quantum metamaterial consisting of a single surface of atoms. In a paper published recently in Nature Physics, the researchers show how this novel material can change quantum properties of light when it scatters off the quantum metasurface. For example, light interacting with the surface can be reflected and transmitted simultaneously in quantum superposition.

The elephants according to Hannah Mumby

08.04.2020 19:30

Harper Collins Publishers have published a book authored by Branco Weiss Fellow Hannah Mumby: Elephants – Birth, Life, and Death in the World of the Giants. Harper Collins writes about the book: “What Jane Goodall did for chimpanzees, international ecologist and conservation scientist Hannah Mumby now does for elephants in this compelling, eye-opening account that brings into focus this species remarkably similar to humans—and makes a persuasive argument for saving them.”

Male dolphins coordinate their vocal behaviour when cooperating

06.04.2020 16:45

When it comes to working together, male dolphins coordinate their behaviour just like humans, a new study done by researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Western Australia guided by Branco Weiss Fellow Stephanie King shows. The study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, provides insight into the importance of physical and vocal coordination in alliance forming animals.

Combining the power of sequencing with the description of secreted antibodies

06.04.2020 13:57

Magazines Nature Biotechnology and Cell Reports have published articles of fruitful collaborations by Branco Weiss Fellow Klaus Eyer with academic and industrial partners. The article in Nature Biotechnology describes a droplet-based microfluidic system that combines genotype and phenotype information of antibodies. The study published in Cell Reports compares the evolutions of antibody responses during acute or chronic viral infections using a murine model system.

Corona – the effect of drastic measures and the importance of robust data

27.03.2020 13:36

Science Magazine has published a paper authored by Branco Weiss Fellow Moritz Kraemer and others on the effect of human mobility and control measures on the COVID-19 epidemic in China. Major behavioral, clinical, and state interventions have been undertaken to mitigate the epidemic and prevent the persistence of the virus in human populations in China and worldwide.

Gabriele Manoli helps explain the seasonality of urban temperatures

27.03.2020 13:30

Branco Weiss Fellow Gabriele Manoli, together with scientists at ETH Zurich, Princeton and Duke University, has devised a simple new model that explains how the undesirable effects of urban heat islands vary across seasons. Existing urban climate models require a large amount of information and are computationally very demanding.

Moritz Kraemer is mapping the global distribution of the Coronavirus

05.02.2020 17:19

Researchers at the University of Oxford led by Branco Weiss Fellow Moritz Kraemer have built a map of the global distribution of nCoV-2019, commonly known as the Coronavirus. The risks of this virus are quickly evolving, and up to date information is needed to inform decisions on how to contain its spread.

More green and less blue water in the Alps during warmer summers

28.01.2020 16:20

A recent study at ETH Zurich, co-authored by Branco Weiss Fellow Gabriele Manoli, shows that climate change can reduce surface-water supply by enhancing evapotranspiration in forested mountains, especially during heatwaves. To investigate this ‘drought paradox’ the researchers used a 1,212-station database and hyper-resolution ecohydrological simulations.

Oxytocin improves attachment issues in people with autism

28.01.2020 13:04

Administering oxytocin to adult men with autism makes them more open to close emotional bonds with others – with positive long-term effects. These are the results of a study done by researchers at KU Leuven led by Branco Weiss Fellow Kaat Alaerts. Oxytocin, often dubbed the ‘love hormone’, is known to promote social bonding.

Annelies Vredeveldt’s research brings about a paradigm shift in eyewitness interviewing

08.01.2020 17:43

The findings of Branco Weiss Alumna Annelies Vredeveldt have up-put an end to traditional views on discussion between eyewitnesses and inspired the introduction of a new investigative tool: the collaborative eyewitness interview.

2019

Michael Mühlebach receives Hilti Prize for innovative research

06.12.2019 17:09

Branco Weiss Fellow Michael Mühlebach has been awarded the Hilti Prize for his doctoral thesis “On the stabilization of unstable systems – Some comments and applications”. The Hilti prize is awarded one ETH master’s or doctoral thesis per year that connects fundamental scientific research with practical applications in an outstanding way.

Taming chronic inflammation may reduce illness and save lives

06.12.2019 11:48

Branco Weiss Alumnus George Slavich forms part of a group of scientists from 22 institutions who are recommending early diagnosis, prevention and treatment of severe chronic inflammation to reduce the risk of chronic disease and death worldwide. Inflammation-related diseases, the group of international experts says, are the cause of 50 percent of all deaths worldwide.

A fortuitous meetup of Branco Weiss Fellows and Alumni in Berlin

22.11.2019 15:20

Branco Weiss Fellows Xavier Dumusque, Igor Pikovski, Simone Schürle and Tevong You have represented ETH Zurich at this year’s Berlin Science Week – a 10-day international festival between November 1 and 10 bringing together people from the world’s most innovative scientific institutions.

Small and super-fast optical switches for future cars and quantum computers

18.11.2019 14:19

Branco Weiss Fellow Christian Haffner has led a group of researchers at ETH Zurich, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the USA and the Chalmers University in Gothenburg (Sweden) in the development of an “electro-opto-mechanical” switch for light beams that is considerably smaller and faster than current models.

Igor Pikovski receives Swedish starting grant

13.11.2019 10:55

Branco Weiss Fellow Igor Pikovski has been awarded with a substantial grant by the Swedish Research Council. Dr. Pikovski is one of 71 researchers who have been chosen out of 446 applications for a starting grant in natural and engineering sciences.

Simone Schürle receives a Zonta award for acheivements in science and technology

01.11.2019 17:37

Branco Weiss Fellow Simone Schürle has been awarded the Prix Zonta 2019 by the Swiss Zonta Clubs in recognition of her achievements in the field of science and technology. The Zonta Science Prize, endowed with 30,000 Swiss francs, is awarded every two years to women for their excellent achievements in scientific and technical fields.

2019 Physics Nobel Prize for research on exoplanets

31.10.2019 15:46

The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded this year to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their discovery of the first planet orbiting around a star similar to our Sun in 1995. Branco Weiss Fellow Xavier Dumusque collaborates closely at the University of Geneva with the two laureates.

A first global map of antimicrobial resistance hotspots in animals

09.10.2019 16:28

Antimicrobial-resistant infections are rapidly increasing in animals in low- and middle-income countries. This is the result of a study published recently in Science. The international team of researchers from ETH Zurich, Princeton University and the Free University of Brussels led by Branco Weiss Fellow Thomas Van Boeckel produced the first global map of resistance rates, and identified regions where interventions are urgently needed.

In a quantum future, which starship destroys the other?

04.10.2019 12:00

Branco Weiss Fellow Igor Pikovski has co-authored a study led by Stevens Institute of Technology, University of Vienna and University of Queensland that shows that in quantum mechanics not only particles can exist in a state of superposition (i. e. being in two or more places or states at once) – so can time itself. The work, published in Nature Communications, is among the first to reveal the quantum properties of time, whereby the flow of time doesn’t observe a straight arrow forward, but one where cause and effect can co-exist both in the forward and backward direction.

Xavier Dumusque and Marco Hutter receive ERC Starting Grants

02.10.2019 14:12

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded two Branco Weiss Fellows with ERC Starting Grants. Dr. Xavier Dumusque has received the grant for his research project called “Signal correction to reveal other earths”. Dr. Marco Hutter’s winning project is titled “Learning mobility for real legged robots”.

How big is the proton anyway?

12.09.2019 21:53

For almost a decade, there has been a serious disagreement in the physics community about one simple quantity: how large is a proton? Different ways of measuring the size of a proton — one using electrons, another using muons — gave results that disagreed by about 5 %. This 5 % disagreement was a big deal since each measurement claimed to be accurate to better than 1 %. It was unclear if this discrepancy was because of some genuinely weird physics, or because one of these measurements was incorrect.

Gabriele Manoli envisages natural ways of cooling cities

11.09.2019 13:38

More green spaces can help lower temperatures in urban zones – but not everywhere. The effectiveness of heat-reduction strategies in cities varies depending on the regional climate. Through carefully targeted planting, a city like Phoenix in the USA could achieve cooler temperatures than the surrounding countryside, where conditions are almost desert-like. By comparison, a city surrounded by tropical forests, such as Singapore, would need far more green spaces to reduce temperatures, but this would also create more humidity.

Linda Douw receives prestigious Dutch Vidi grant

27.08.2019 18:18

Branco Weiss Alumna Linda Douw has been awarded a Vidi grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for her project named: “The BrainLayers of our thinking”. The Vidi is one of the most prestigious mid-career grants in the Netherlands. The award is given to experienced researchers who have carried out successful research for a number of years after obtaining their PhDs.

Harini Nagendra’s book on trees in India “improves public awareness”

27.08.2019 16:50

Branco Weiss Alumna Harini Nagendra’s new book “Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities” (co-authored with Seema Mundoli) has received excellent response from the public, going into a reprint only 45 days after its publication in May 2019. Among the extensive press coverage are featured articles in titles like Forbes India and the Indian Express, a major Indian newspaper. Additionally, the title will be released as an audiobook as well.

Lea Haller’s new book is “brilliant” and “courageous”

26.08.2019 21:48

Branco Weiss Alumna Lea Haller’s new book on Switzerland’s historical integration in global economy (Transithandel. Die Rolle des Kleinstaats im globalen Kapitalismus) garners widespread attention from the media. Recently, NZZ am Sonntag, the Sunday paper of the renowned Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) has published a one-page article about the the book, calling it “courageous” and Haller’s argumentation “brilliant”, and the conclusion nothing less than spectacular fireworks.

A robot arm that tastes with engineered bacteria

26.08.2019 20:51

A robotic gripping arm that uses engineered bacteria to “taste” for a specific chemical has been developed by a group of engineers including Branco Weiss Alumnus Cheemeng Tan. The device uses a biosensing module based on E. coli bacteria engineered to respond to the chemical IPTG by producing a fluorescent protein.

Acetaminophen reduces social pain

22.08.2019 19:22

Branco Weiss Alumnus George Slavich has discovered that the common over-the-counter drug acetaminophen, which is frequently used for treating physical pain symptoms, also reduces peoples’ experience of social pain and rejection in the context of a 21-day double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Individuals who were more forgiving experienced the greatest benefit.

Towards the smallest nanodiamond quantum sensor

13.08.2019 16:43

Branco Weiss Fellow Takuya Segawa and co-workers have successfully demonstrated important steps towards smaller than ever quantum sensors in the form of diamond nanocrystals. A crystal defect in diamond, the nitrogen-vacancy center, has fluorescent and magnetic properties, which can be used to measure temperature, magnetic or electric fields in its nanoscale environment.

Sexual hormone oestradiol protects female brain in mid-life

09.07.2019 17:43

Sex hormones influence emotional well-being and cognition. Changes in sex hormones during aging, especially the loss of oestradiol, are associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia. However, it has been unclear how and when oestradiol can protect the brain. A new study led by Branco Weiss Alumna Julia Sacher and her graduate student Rachel Zsido sheds light on this question.

Gabriele Manoli moves to University College London

01.07.2019 16:00

University College London has appointed Branco Weiss Fellow Gabriele Manoli as Lecturer in Environmental Engineering at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering. In the UK, Lecturer is a permanent position equivalent to Assistant Professor.

Elephants have a nose for quantity

07.06.2019 16:02

A new study co-authored by Branco Weiss Fellow Hannah Mumby and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) has found that elephants can use their sense of smell to compare small quantities of food.

Klaus Eyer appointed Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich

24.05.2019 22:40

ETH Zurich has appointed Branco Weiss Fellow Klaus Eyer, currently a Group Leader at ESPCI and Research Associate at the Institut Pasteur, both in Paris, France, as Assistant Professor of Functional Immune Repertoire Analysis in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences. He will start his new job on August 1.

Microrobots and bacteria deliver nanoparticle drugs to diseased tissue

05.05.2019 16:07

Branco Weiss Fellow Simone Schürle is the lead author of a paper published recently in Science Advances discussing newly developed methods of using nanoparticles for the treatment of various ailments including cancer and cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases.

Yue Wan’s newest research on dengue and Zika viruses gets coverage from The Straits Times

02.05.2019 17:32

Singapore’s leading newspaper The Straits Times reports on Branco Weiss Fellow Yue Wan’s newest research on the genetic structure of dengue and Zika viruses. The work presented recently in a paper published in Nature Communications is a crucial milestone in the development of treatments for the potentially deadly diseases

Moritz Kraemer receives Google Faculty Research Award

26.03.2019 13:23

Branco Weiss Fellow Moritz Kraemer has been chosen by Google to receive one of its Faculty Research Awards 2018. Dr. Kraemer was awarded for his project of better understand the spread of emerging infections using new technologies, mobile applications, and artificial intelligence.

Sushant Anand receives NSF Career Award, publishing paper on new anti-icing material

25.03.2019 12:01

Branco Weiss Alumnus Sushant Anand has received the prestigious NSF Career Award. The US National Science Foundation awarded Dr. Anand’s project titled “Condensation-driven phase-transitioning surfaces” with USD 529,561 over a five-year period. The goal of this project is to understand condensation on a class of existing materials that can undergo phase-transition due to condensation itself.

Moritz Kraemer helps to predict past and future spread of mosquito-borne diseases

08.03.2019 15:41

A research team led by Branco Weiss Fellow Moritz Kraemer has created the most accurate global distribution maps to enable targeted interventions to reduce the burden of mosquito-borne diseases. The reach of diseases like yellow fever, Zika and dengue is expanding with changes in the distribution of two key mosquitoes: Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus.

Pedro Vale awarded a 3-year grant from the Leverhulme Trust

08.03.2019 13:29

Branco Weiss Fellow Pedro Vale has been awarded with a research project grant by the Leverhulme Trust. Dr. Vale will receive an amount of GBP 276,776 over a 3-year period for his project titled “Mitochondrial genetic effects on innate immunity in Drosophila”.

Hannah Mumby appointed Assistant Professor at University of Hong Kong

25.02.2019 14:27

The University of Hong Kong has appointed Branco Weiss Fellow Hannah Mumby Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the Department of Politics and Public Administration. She will take up her new position in the Faculties of Science and Social Science respectively on April 1.

Patrick Shih receives a Sloan Research Fellowship

21.02.2019 17:29

Branco Weiss Fellow Patrick Shih has been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship in Computational and Evolutionary Molecular Biology. These two-year fellowships are awarded yearly to 126 researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field.

The search for Earth and the need for an ethical revolution in the Anthropocene

15.02.2019 13:58

Geoscientist, the fellowship magazine of the Geological Society of London, has commissioned an article by Branco Weiss Fellow Matthieu Galvez titled “Finding Earth”, for the year of carbon 2019. The text starts with a surprising question: “What is Earth?”

Stephanie King appointed as Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol

12.02.2019 20:15

The University of Bristol in the United Kingdom has appointed Branco Weiss Fellow Stephanie King as Senior Lecturer in Animal Behaviour and Global Change at the School of Biological Sciences. A Senior Lecturer is the UK equivalent to Associate Professor. After nearly five years of field research in Australia, Dr. King has taken up her position in Bristol on February 4.

Tanya Latty awarded with two Australian Research Council grants

22.01.2019 19:04

The Australian Research Council, Australia’s major granting body, has awarded Branco Weiss Fellow Tanya Latty with two grants. One grant of 541,000 AUD goes to Latty’s project called “A complex systems approach to preventing colony failure in honey bees”. A second grant of 398,000 AUD goes to a project titled “Context dependent flower choice in honey bees”.

Kelly Clancy reports on a tireless crusade against a genetic killer

16.01.2019 18:17

Wired Magazine has just published a feature piece written by Branco Weiss Fellow Kelly Clancy. The article, titled “One couple’s tireless crusade to stop a genetic killer” is about a couple challenging the regulatory space in the US in trying to cure the wife’s genetic disease.

2018

Jacquelyn Cragg wins L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Fellowship

10.12.2018 02:21

Branco Weiss Fellow Jacquelyn Cragg received one of the two L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Excellence in Research Fellowships that were awarded in Canada this year. Every year, two fellowships, which each come with a $20,000 cash prize, are awarded to support major postdoctoral research projects undertaken by young Canadians at a pivotal time in their career.

Thomas Van Boeckel receives SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship

28.11.2018 13:14

The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has awarded Branco Weiss Fellow Thomas Van Boeckel with one of its new Eccellenza Professorial Fellowships. Dr. Van Boeckel is one of 51 researchers who have been chosen out of 239 submitted applications for the first Eccellenza call.

"Like picking apples from a tree" - Daniele Foresti's new printing method uses soundwaves

14.11.2018 17:19

Harvard University researchers around Branco Weiss Fellow Daniele Foresti have developed a new printing method that uses soundwaves to generate droplets from liquids with an unprecedented range of composition and viscosity. Liquid droplets are used in many applications from printing ink on paper to creating microcapsules for drug delivery.

Annelies Vredeveldt appointed as Associate Professor at VU University Amsterdam

12.11.2018 14:03

VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands, has appointed Branco Weiss Fellow Annelies Vredeveldt as Associate Professor at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology. Dr. Vredeveldt has taken up her position on October 1 this year.

Bottlenose dolphins understand their partner’s role in a cooperative task

29.09.2018 11:15

A new study co-authored by Branco Weiss Fellow Stephanie King shows that bottlenose dolphins not only cooperate with each other, but can do so with precise behavioral coordination never before demonstrated in nonhuman animals.

Yue Wan is one of twelve CIFAR Global Scholars for 2018

20.09.2018 14:39

Branco Weiss Fellow Yue Wan has been selected as one of 12 exceptional early career investigators for the CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars Program of 2018. Each scholar will receive USD 100,000 in research support and becomes part of one of CIFAR’s 12 research programs for two years.

Cheemeng Tan builds artificial bacteria-eating cells, named a Young Innovator

19.09.2018 12:38

Branco Weiss Alumni Cheemeng Tan and his research team at the Department of Biomedical Engineering of the University of California, Davis, have engineered artificial cells from the bottom-up — like Lego blocks — to destroy bacteria. The cells are built from liposomes, or bubbles with a cell-like lipid membrane, and purified cellular components including proteins, DNA and metabolites.

Erica van de Waal shows a sex difference in the social learning preferences of monkeys

18.09.2018 14:00

African vervet monkeys are picky when it comes to deciding who in their group they should learn a new foraging habit from. The decision depends on an interplay between as many as three different things – the sex of the learner, the sex of who they are watching, and the foraging success of that individual. This is shown by a new study, co-led by Branco Weiss Fellow Erica van de Waal and published in the journal Current Biology.

Klaus Eyer receives ERC Starting Grant to study immunological reactions which follow vaccinations

07.08.2018 16:28

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Klaus Eyer an ERC starting grant to develop a new microfluidic single-cell approach to advance the understanding of the complex immunological reaction that follows vaccinations. Vaccines are our most valuable tool to prevent diseases, and functional antibody repertoires play an important role ensuring protection after administration thereof.

Annelies Vredeveldt receives ERC Starting Grant for research on cross-cultural eyewitness testimony

07.08.2018 12:47

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded an ERC Starting Grant in the value of 1.5 million Euro to Annelies Vredeveldt for a five-year research project on eyewitness testimony in cross-cultural settings. The grant will allow for the appointment of two postdocs and two Ph.D. students to investigate this important topic.

Carolin Schurr appointed as Associate Professor at the University of Bern

12.07.2018 10:40

The University of Bern, Switzerland, has appointed Branco Weiss Fellow Carolin Schurr as Associate Professor of Cultural and Social Geography. Dr. Schurr will take up her position on August 1 this year. As part of her appointment, she will become co-director of the university’s Geography Department.

Sushant Anand’s recent research on nanoemulsions gains widespread media attention

09.07.2018 15:36

Branco Weiss Fellow Sushant Anand and his team have recently shown how they can create ultra-small (100-400 nm in sizes) nanoemulsions – e. g. oil-water mixtures – formed by self-assembly of nanoparticles around droplets. A paper recently published in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces has gained coverage in the media.

Lisa Genzel receives grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific research

03.07.2018 13:29

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded Branco Weiss Fellow Lisa Genzel a Vidi grant worth 800 000 euros. Vidi aims at experienced researchers who have carried out research projects successfully for a number of years.

Dolphins use individual names to form complex alliances

12.06.2018 10:47

Male bottlenose dolphins use individual vocal labels or “names” to identify their friends and rivals, says Branco Weiss Fellow Stephanie King. Being lead researcher and first author on a Current Biology paper, her most recent findings made headlines across the globe.

Patricia Monteiro invited to talk about her research and experience as a European young scientist

15.03.2018 12:06

SwissCore, Switzerland’s information and liaison office for European research, innovation and education in Brussels, has invited Branco Weiss Fellow Patricia Monteiro as one of four young scientists to discuss funding priorities for the next decade at the organization’s Annual Event in Brussels on April 17.

Suzanne Devkota will be speaking at the Nobel Prize Dialogue

26.02.2018 10:36

Branco Weiss Fellow Suzanne Devkota has been invited to speak at this year’s Nobel Prize Dialogue in Tokyo on March 11. She will be part of a panel conversation titled “Our Health and Food – Longevity, Microbiome/Bacteria”.

Amar Vutha receives a Sloan Research Fellowship

22.02.2018 15:29

Branco Weiss Fellow Amar Vutha has been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship. These two-year fellowships are awarded yearly to 126 researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field. Chosen scholars represent the most promising scientific researchers working today.

Artificial intelligence mustn’t be a deus ex machina

23.01.2018 11:54

Branco Weiss Fellow Kelly Clancy has contributed to a collection of seven articles in Harper’s Magazine. The collection titled “The Mind of Others – the art of persuasion in the age of Trump” looks at how one can change other people’s minds and how one’s own mind can be changed from different angles.

2017

“The sea cucumber isn’t quite as sexy as the shark.”

07.12.2017 20:39

The China Channel has published an interesting piece about Branco Weiss Alumni Michael Fabinyi’s work on Chinese seafood markets. The article titled “Of Sea Cucumbers and Men” centers around the skyrocketing demand for the beche-de-mer, a prized feature of Chinese wedding banquets causing impacts ranging from international sea-cucumber smuggling syndicates to a thriving black market to a collapse in sea-cucumber stocks.

Sushant Anand finds a new way to create nanoscale emulsions

17.11.2017 14:20

The reluctance of oil and water to mix together – and stay that way – is proverbial. But now, research conducted by Branco Weiss Fellow Sushant Anand and others show that it is possible to get the two substances to mix and remain stable for long periods without shaking them. The findings have been published in Nature Communications.

Michael Fabinyi receives Australian Research Council grant

17.11.2017 14:15

Branco Weiss Fellow Michael Fabinyi has successfully led a grant proposal to the Australian Research Council (ARC). The project that won a sum of 200’000 Australian Dollars is called “Governing the Blue Economy in Maritime Asia-Pacific”. This project aims to examine the drivers, character and effects of Blue Economy governance, a highly influential agenda intended to reconcile economic growth with ocean conservation.

Nature publishes new findings by Cheemeng Tan’s lab

16.11.2017 21:38

Branco Weiss Fellow Cheemeng Tan’s biomedical engineering laboratory at UC Davis has developed a new technique that allows the rapid assembly of pure protein synthesis machinery outside of living cells.

The high-throughput study of cellular pathways and cell-free diagnostic tests for various diseases needs rapid yet high purity reconstitution of cellular reactions outside of biological systems. But the separate expression and purification of each protein required is an expensive and time-consuming process. And to produce more than several proteins at once is extremely challenging.

Microfluidic analysis of the antibody pool after vaccination

30.10.2017 16:25

Nature Biotechnology has published an article first-authored by Branco Weiss Fellow Klaus Eyer about the work on functional single-cell analysis of antibody secreting cells. The work was performed as a collaboration between researchers from the laboratory of “Chemistry, Biology and Innovation” (ESPCI Paris/CNRS), the unit “Antibodies in Therapy and Pathology” (Institute Pasteur/INSERM) as well as HiFiBio SAS Paris, an ESPCI Paris based Start-up company.

Yue Wan receives an EMBO Young Investigator Award

30.10.2017 16:00

Branco Weiss Fellow Yue Wan has been selected as one of 28 EMBO Young Investigators. Through the EMBO Young Investigator Programme, EMBO identifies and supports some of the best researchers under 40 years of age who are in the process of establishing their own laboratory.

The fellowship’s new name and appearance

19.10.2017 10:30

The Branco Weiss Fellowship – Society in Science.

What was initially conceived as “Society in Science” became in recent years more and more known as The Branco Weiss Fellowship. It therefore made sense to switch the positions of the two compounds of the name.

How to keep the neurotech revolution from creating Frankenstein brains

01.09.2017 14:54

Forbes has published an article co-authored by Branco Weiss Fellow Simone Schürle and two other members of the World Economic Forum’s Council on the Future of human Enhancement. The article titled “The Neurotech Revolution Could Lead To ‘Frankenstein’ Brains. Here’s How We Avoid It” gives a an overview over the discussion in the Council about the opportunities and risks of Human Enhancement technologies.

Transparency rather than independence is needed in research, says Karim Bschir

29.08.2017 17:20

Last weekend, Swiss Sunday paper NZZ am Sonntag published an article by Branco Weiss Fellow Karim Bschir. The essay talks about how the value-neutrality of science is an ideal that deserves critical examination.

Fabian Menges listed as one of 35 Innovators under 35

21.08.2017 12:25

MIT Technology Review has listed recently elected Branco Weiss Fellow Fabian Menges as one of 35 “Innovators under 35”. The annual list, established in 1999, recognizes outstanding innovators who are younger than 35 and whose superb technical work promises to shape the coming decades.

Simone Schürle appointed Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich

10.08.2017 17:23

ETH Zurich has appointed Branco Weiss Fellow Simone Schürle Assistant Professor of Responsive Biomedical Systems. Schürle has taken up her new position at the Department of Health Sciences and Technology (D-HEST) at the beginning of August.

Hannah Mumby receives a Fulbright Award to the US

12.06.2017 00:00

Branco Weiss fellow Hannah Mumby has received a Fulbright Scholar Award to enable her to research at Colorado State University on one of the most well-regarded and impactful scholarship programmes in the world.

National Geographic supports Stephanie King’s research on dolphins

07.06.2017 10:53

The National Geographic Society has awarded Branco Weiss fellow Stephanie King with a research grant. The grant will support Dr. King’s 2017 field season in Shark Bay, Western Australia, for her project entitled “Machiavellian Males: the evolution of vocal strategies in a complex system of dolphin alliances”.

Hannah Mumby awarded a fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin

18.05.2017 07:33

Branco Weiss fellow Hannah Mumby has been selected for a College for Life Sciences fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. Dr. Mumby will take up the fellowship from April to July 2018.

Michael Fabinyi’s study gets support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation

28.04.2017 13:51

Branco Weiss fellow Michael Fabinyi together with lead investigator Assoc. Prof. Kate Barclay have received a grant of 165,000 USD from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for their project “Assessing the Governance of Tuna Fisheries: Case Studies from the Pacific and Indian Oceans”.

Zi Chen's research on the cover of Applied Physics Letters

13.04.2017 15:54

An article titled “Shape formation of helical ribbons induced by material anisotropy” and co-authored by Branco Weiss fellow Zi Chen appeared in the February issue of Applied Physics Letters.

Kelly Clancy in The New Yorker: Should artificial intelligence mimic biology?

10.04.2017 17:01

The prestigious magazine The New Yorker has published an article by Branco Weiss fellow Kelly Clancy about the limits of using biological metaphors in designing artificial intelligence. The piece covers the beginnings of A.I. research and shows the difference between the functions and faculties of the human brain and a computer.

Patricia Monteiro explains the recent advances in neuroscience for Nature

10.04.2017 16:00

Nature Group, publisher of the prestigious Nature magazine, has invited Branco Weiss fellow Patricia Monteiro to do a review of the latest studies on autism spectrum disorder.

New York Times features Carolin Schurr as an expert in the Mexican surrogacy market

10.04.2017 12:07

The New York Times has published a lengthy piece on Mexico’s surrogacy market and recent legislative changes that try to limit access of foreigners to that market. The article features, among others, Branco Weiss fellow Dr. Carolin Schurr as an expert in the matter.

Erica van de Waal awarded a professorship by Swiss National Science Foundation

08.03.2017 14:24

Branco Weiss fellow Erica van de Waal has been awarded one of 42 new professorships by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Every year, the SNSF awards these professorships to outstanding young researchers.

Connectivity patterns may help predicting cognitive decline after neurosurgery

14.02.2017 11:03

A study co-authored by Branco Weiss fellow Linda Douw shows that preoperative measurement of the dynamics of “functional connectivity” may be essential for predicting whether patients will or will not develop problems with their cognitive functioning after undergoing neurosurgery. The paper was published recently in Scientific Reports.

2016

Climate Change Denial: A Conversation with Naomi Oreskes

26.12.2016 15:48

Branco Weiss fellow Karim Bschir will meet Naomi Oreskes in the framework of the lecture series “Science and Philosophy” to speak about the overwhelming scientific evidence for climate change and the strong politically motivated opposition that tries to cast doubt on it.

Yue Wan wins L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Fellowship

21.12.2016 15:55

Branco Weiss fellow Dr Yue Wan received one of the two L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Fellowships that were awarded in Singapore this year.

Lara Keuck co-edits Proceedings about “Vagueness in Psychiatry”

09.12.2016 14:02

In its series on International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry, Oxford University Press just published a book entitled “Vagueness in Psychiatry” that has been co-edited by Branco Weiss fellow Lara Keuck. The paperback addresses the problem of indeterminacy in psychiatry and its social, moral and legal implications.

Society in Science Symposium 2016

27.11.2016 14:57

Society in Science concluded its latest and thus far largest symposium in which the current 43 Branco Weiss fellows and a few former fellows participated.

Branco Weiss fellow Zi Chen shows how the embryonic chick brain twists

25.11.2016 17:55

In a normal chick embryo, the heart loops to the right-hand side and the brain also turns right. This rightward torsion of the brain is one of the earliest organ-level left-right asymmetry events in development. In an abnormal chick embryo, the heart loops to the left-hand side and the brain also turn leftwards, forming a shape that resembles a question mark. When the left-right symmetry is altered, significant birth defects can result, including inversion of the positions of visceral organs.

For a better understanding of aqueous fluids in subduction zones

18.11.2016 16:20

Nature journal has published a paper by Branco Weiss fellow Matthieu Emmanuel Galvez with the title “Implications for metal and volatile cycles from the pH of subduction zone fluids”.

Satellite imagery helps to improve coverage of vaccination campaigns

11.11.2016 16:03

Scientific Reports, a Nature Publishing Group journal, features a research paper authored by Branco Weiss fellow Nita Bharti. The paper titled “Measuring populations to improve vaccination coverage” shows how satellite images that capture short-term changes in population size in communities in the developing world can help vaccination campaigns achieve more complete coverage.

Fluctuating hormone levels change women’s brain structure every month

21.10.2016 12:13

The brain is not only able to adapt to changing conditions in long-term processes, but it can do this every month. Researchers at the Max Plank Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (MPI CBS) in Leipzig around Branco Weiss fellow Julia Sacher observed that in women, in parallel to the rhythm of the level of estrogen across their menstrual cycle, the structures of the Hippocampus vary. The results of a study on the hormonal influence on the brain structure were published recently in Nature Scientific Reports.

The mutability of knowledge – Das Magazin portrays Karim Bschir

17.10.2016 17:49

Das Magazin, the weekly supplement to Tages-Anzeiger, one of Switzerland’s most important newspapers, in its latest issue portrays Branco Weiss fellow Karim Bschir. The article titled “Die Wandelbarkeit des Wissens” (the mutability of knowledge) is part of an extensive piece about ETH Zurich.

Simone Schürle elected a Global Future Council fellow, publishes paper on fighting tumors with nanosensors

13.10.2016 16:58

MIT news featured work by Branco Weiss fellow Simone Schürle and colleagues in last weeks’ spotlight. Their paper, entitled “Magnetically Actuated Protease Sensors for in Vivo Tumor Profiling” was published in the nanotechonolgy journal Nano Letters.

Julia Sacher receives NARSAD Young Investigator Award for cutting-edge research

13.10.2016 15:58

Branco Weiss fellow Julia Sacher has won a prestigious NARSAD Young Investigator Award from the US Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF). The two-year, $70,000 NARSAD grant award is highly coveted within neuroscience circles, in part as a mark of recognition for doing cutting-edge research as recognized by BBRF’s 138-member scientific council; and as a means of facilitating the transition for young scientists to work in laboratories they themselves direct.

Sushant Anand receives two awards to support his research

29.08.2016 15:04

Branco Weiss Fellow Sushant Anand has been awarded an Early-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) by the US National Science Foundation (NSF). Earlier this year, Sushant Anand, along with two other professors, already won an University of Illinois Chicago College of Engineering seed grant.

Annelies Vredeveldt’s research has the potential to change practice in legal circles, the WSJ writes

16.07.2016 16:34

Should witnesses of crimes be interviewed by the police alone or together? Findings by Branco Weiss fellow Annelies Vredeveldt could have the potential to shake up decades of practice in legal circles, the Wall Street Journal writes.

Karim Bschir discusses scientific uncertainty in environmental decision-making

07.06.2016 16:39

Science and Engineering Ethics has published a paper by Branco Weiss fellow Karim Bschir in which he argues for a use of the precautionary principle in scientific-model building. Bschir discusses the topic in the context of the threshold of the toxicological concern (TTC) approach in food toxicology that is used for the evaluation of potential risks of incidental low-dose substances.

Lisa Genzel entitled most aspiring young German sleep researcher

03.06.2016 12:12

Branco Weiss fellow Lisa Genzel has been awarded the Young Investigator Award of the German Sleep Research Society (DGSM). The Award is given out once a year by the DGSM to the most aspiring young German sleep researcher of that year.

Carolin Schurr shows how surrogacy markets work in two recent papers in geography’s top journals

25.05.2016 16:13

Branco Weiss Fellow Carolin Schurr published two papers in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers and Environment and Planning D: Society and Space that have raised great interest in the field of human geography.

Josiane Broussard receives grant from University of Colorado

23.05.2016 16:21

Branco Weiss fellow Josiane Broussard has been awarded a 2016 Innovative Seed Grant from the University of Colorado for her project entitled “Role of the skin as a tool to assess circadian rhythms and function of peripheral metabolic tissues”.

The man who builds robotic animals – ETH News portrays Marco Hutter

20.05.2016 17:14

The ETH’s communications team has published an extensive portait of Branco Weiss fellow Marco Hutter who was last year appointed Tenure Track Assistant Professor for Robotic Systems at ETH Zurich. The Article is called “The man who builds robotic animals” and focuses on Hutter’s research for the development of walking robots that move like living creatures.

New technique illuminates the complexity of RNA interactome in humans and microbes

19.05.2016 19:07

Molecular Cell has published a paper co-authored by Branco Weiss fellow Yue Wan that explains a new technique named Sequencing of Psoralen Linked And Selected Hybrids (SPLASH), that identifies pair-wise RNA interaction partners in an unbiased and genome-wide manner in vivo.

Suzanne Devkota and Michael Fabinyi appointed new positions

18.05.2016 14:47

Branco Weiss fellows Suzanne Devkota and Michael Fabinyi have been appointed new positions.

A new paper co-authored by Marijn Kroes shows how beta-blockers can prevent the return of fear

12.05.2016 17:55

Combining beta-blockers with the right type of behavioral therapy could optimize treatments for people with fear- and anxiety-related disorders. This is the result of a study led by Branco Weiss fellow Marijn Kroes, recently published in Neuropsychopharmacology.

A new paper by Pedro Vale ponders alternatives to killing pathogens with antibiotics

10.05.2016 15:50

The antibiotic pipeline is running dry and infectious disease remains a major threat to public health. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health has published a paper on innovative approaches to manage disease without traditional antibiotics. The paper was led by Branco Weiss fellow Pedro Vale, and included contributions from world leaders in the fields of microbial evolution, immunity and infectious diseases.

Two papers by Stephanie King explore the evolution of mother-offspring recognition

10.05.2016 10:50

Individual vocal signatures play an important role in parent-offspring recognition in many animals. Data from two recent studies led by Branco Weiss fellow Stephanie King have significantly added to our understanding of the vocal mechanisms used by highly social species, such as bottlenose dolphins, in facilitating mother-offspring recognition.

434 applications for the 2016 Society in Science fellowship

14.03.2016 13:53

The campaign to recruit new Branco Weiss fellows in 2016 was concluded on January 15. We are glad to announce that 434 applications from nearly 59 different countries were submitted, including a wide variety of disciplines such as Biology, Medicine, Psychology, Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Environmental Sciences and Computer Sciences.

Following Xavier Dumusque on his search for another Earth

09.03.2016 10:50

Branco Weiss fellow Xavier Dumusque’s research is gaining more and more attention. In Chile, he and a team of international collaborators are currently observing the closest star to the solar system. They want to see if a planet similar to Earth is orbiting around it.

Michael Nash appointed Assistant Professor at University of Basel and ETH Zurich

07.03.2016 17:14

Branco Weiss fellow Michael Nash has been appointed Tenure Track Assistant Professor for Engineering of Synthetic Systems with dual affiliation at the University of Basel (Department of Chemistry) and ETH Zurich (Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, located in Basel). He will start work in Basel on September 1, 2016. The dual affiliation is part of the Swiss National Science Foundation’s Center for Research Competence in Molecular Systems Engineering.

Reed warblers developed neighborhood watch to defeat cuckoos

17.02.2016 15:56

Reed warblers, small passerine migratory birds that breed across Europe and western Asia, combine information from multiple sources in order to avoid being tricked by cuckoos, a new study co-authored by Branco Weiss fellow Rose Thorogood shows. The findings were published recently in Scientific Reports and were covered in the media including The Telegraph.

Catching up on sleep with a lie-in reduced diabetes risk

12.02.2016 15:37

New research by Branco Weiss fellow Josiane Broussard on links between sleep loss and diabetes received attention by BBC, NBC’s Today and The Huffington Post.

2015

Marco Hutter to give introductory lecture as assistant professor on May 24

21.12.2015 15:53

Branco Weiss fellow Marco Hutter recently got appointed Tenure Track Assistant Professor for Robotic Systems at ETH Zurich. Marco Hutter has achieved global recognition for his pioneering work on mechanical walking. His focus is on innovative concepts of actuation systems, which enable legged robots to walk and run on challenging terrain in an extremely efficient and dynamic manner.

Looking at the Sun may help detecting Earth-like planets around distant stars

15.12.2015 15:28

Discovery News featured the recent findings of Branco Weiss fellow Xavier Dumusque in an article on their website. The article titled “To find Alien Worlds, First Look at Our Sun” talks about Dumusque’s team’s effort to get rid of disturbing factors when searching for exoplanets.

Tanya Latty awarded for research and community engagement

20.11.2015 16:51

Branco Weiss fellow Tanya Latty has received a Young Tall Poppy Science Award. The Award is given by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science. Selection criteria include outstanding research achievement as well as excellence in communication and community engagement to promote an understanding of science.

Branco Weiss fellow Yue Wan receives prestigious science award

23.09.2015 18:00

Branco Weiss fellow Yue Wan has received Singapore’s Young Scientist Award (YSA) in the category Biological and Biomedical Sciences. The jury recognized her as one of four promising young researchers for her work on using RNA structure analysis to identify new drug targets in pathogens.

Elephants born to stressed mothers age faster

23.09.2015 09:24

Elephants born into stressful situations age faster and have fewer offspring, researchers at the University of Sheffield led by Branco Weiss fellow Hannah Mumby have found.

A new framework assesses the impact of underwater noise on marine mammals

18.09.2015 16:14

Recently appointed Branco Weiss fellow Stephanie King led a study which created a new computer modelling tool for assessing the consequences of human-induced noise disturbance, such as offshore windfarm development, on animal populations and particularly marine mammals.

Branco Weiss fellow Erica van de Waal receives substantial grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation

15.09.2015 18:59

The Swiss National Science Foundation awarded Branco Weiss fellow Erica van de Waal with a major grant. Van de Waal’s project bears the title “Social learning rules and their adaptive function in wild vervet monkeys”.

Branco Weiss fellows Sushant Anand, Carolin Schurr and Amar Vutha were newly appointed as Assistant Professors

14.09.2015 15:37

Three Branco Weiss fellows have recently been appointed as assistant professors.

Seven principles for building resilience

21.07.2015 17:54

Branco Weiss fellow Oonsie Biggs was the lead editor of a new Cambridge University Press book that provides an in-depth review of current knowledge around how resilience can be applied in the management of social-ecological systems and the ecosystem services they provide.

Six new fellows for Society in Science

16.07.2015 13:56

Society in Science – The Branco Weiss Fellowship has selected six new fellows. Four women and two men have received the prestigious award, giving them up to five years of complete academic freedom to do interdisciplinary research at any institution in the world.

Study led by Josiane Broussard finds links between sleep loss and diabetes

23.02.2015 19:08

Lack of sleep can elevate free fatty acid levels in the blood, accompanied by a pre-diabetic state in healthy young men, according to new research led by Branco Weiss fellow Josiane Broussard and published online in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

Over 400 applications for the 2015 Society in Science fellowship

20.02.2015 15:50

The campaign to recruit new Branco Weiss fellows in 2015 was concluded on January 15. We are glad to announce that 412 applications from nearly 40 different countries were submitted, including a wide variety of disciplines such as Biology, Medicine, Psychology, Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Environmental Sciences and Computer Sciences.

Angelika Steger and Josef Zeyer join the Directorate

20.02.2015 15:48

Professor Angelika Steger and Professor Josef Zeyer have been appointed Members of the Directorate of Society in Science – The Branco Weiss Fellowship. Steger and Zeyer join Heidi Wunderli-Allenspach to direct the fellowship after Peter Chen’s resignation.

Peter Chen steps down as Director of Society in Science

20.02.2015 15:46

Having directed Society in Science – The Branco Weiss Fellowship for over four years, Professor Peter Chen has decided to step down from the directorate in order to concentrate his efforts on the faculty of the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry at ETH Zurich. Peter Chen has directed the fellowship since it became fully integrated in ETH Zurich shortly after Branco Weiss passed away in October 2010.

Paper on planetary boundaries co-authored by Oonsie Biggs gains world-wide media attention

05.02.2015 15:36

Leading international newspapers picked up on a recently published article in Science Magazine that was co-authored by Branco Weiss fellow Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs. The study entitled “Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet” revised and updated nine key limits to earth system functioning, called planetary boundaries, within which humanity can develop and thrive.

Co-infected plant hosts cause more severe epidemics

02.02.2015 20:14

Plant hosts co-infected with more than one pathogen strain result in more severe epidemics than plants infected with only one strain. An article published in “Nature Communications” sums up what Branco Weiss fellow Pedro Vale and colleagues from the University of Helsinki found out about how co-infection alters population dynamics of infectious disease.

2013

Fellow Linda Douw was collaborating for a study finding altered brain connections in epilepsy patients

28.11.2013 16:43

Temporal lobe epilepsy is characterized by seizures emanating from the temporal lobes, which sit on each side of the brain just above the ear. Previously, experts believed that the condition was related to isolated injuries of structures within the temporal lobe, like the hippocampus. But recent research has implicated the default mode network (DMN), the set of brain regions activated during task-free introspection and deactivated during goal-directed behavior. The DMN consists of several hubs that are more active during the resting state.

Fellow Michael Fabinyi received a prestigious research grant from Australian Research Council

20.11.2013 11:15

With his new project “Transnational seafood commodity chains and the coastal poor in the maritime frontiers of the Asia-Pacific” Michael Fabinyi obtained a three year research grant from the Australian Research Council.

Society in Science Symposium - program announced

20.09.2013 10:06

The program for the Society in Science Symposium on November 25 and 26, 2013 has been announced. The symposium will take place at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. All Branco Weiss fellows will get together and most of them will present their projects. The symposium is open to the public. There will be ample opportunities to get to know the fellows and to learn more about their research.

Nine new Branco Weiss fellows

09.07.2013 09:19

Society in Science has appointed nine new fellows in 2013. Eight women and one man have received the prestigious award, giving them up to five years of complete academic freedom: Suzanne Devkota, Linda Douw, Charlotte Giesen, Silvie Huijben, Chinyere K. Okoro, Carolin Schurr, Rose Thorogood, Annelies Vredeveldt, and Sushant Anand.

Marcel Salathé publishes paper on digital epidemiology

05.07.2013 12:31

Branco Weiss fellow Dr. Marcel Salathé has published a perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine, highlighting the importance of the newly emerging field of “Digital Epidemiology”.

George Slavich publishes paper on human social genomics

16.04.2013 10:32

Society in Science – Branco Weiss fellow Dr. George Slavich has published a new article on the exciting new field of research that he and his co-author, Dr. Steven Cole, are calling “human social genomics.” Central to the article is the idea that although we generally experience our bodies as being biologically stable across time, evidence has emerged demonstrating that changes in the expression of hundreds of genes can occur as a result of the social environments we inhabit.

Society in Science Symposium 2013

19.03.2013 10:34

On November 25 and 26, the Society in Science Symposium 2013 will take place at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland.

More than 500 applications for the 2013 fellowship

04.02.2013 14:36

The campaign to recruit new Branco Weiss fellows in 2013 has been concluded on February 1 with 567 applications.

"Cortison. Geschichte eines Hormons, 1900-1955" by Dr. Lea Haller

15.01.2013 16:04

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung of January 15, 2013 reviewed Branco Weiss fellow Lea Haller’s book “Cortisone. Geschichte eines Hormons, 1900-1955”.

2012

Major donation from Branco Weiss

25.10.2012 09:53

Dr. Branco Weiss has bequeathed an estimated 100 million Swiss francs to Society in Science. Follow the link to download the press kit.

Insufficient Sleep May Lead to Metabolic Disorders

17.10.2012 10:22

Sleep deprivation has a direct and harmful effect on fat cells, as a new study by Society in Science fellow Josiane Broussard and her team shows. This effect can lead to major health issues such as obesity or type 2 diabetes.

Society in Science Symposium 2012

04.10.2012 16:12

On November 19 and 20, the Society in Science Symposium 2012 will take place at Hotel Montana in Lucerne, Switzerland.

George Slavich wins two prestigious awards

24.09.2012 13:54

Branco Weiss fellow Dr. George Slavich recently received two prestigious awards from the American Psychological Association.

Branco Weiss fellow Aoife O'Donovan wins prestigious Award

12.07.2012 20:00

Branco Weiss fellow Aoife O’Donovan has been awarded the prestigious Neal E. Miller New Investigator Award from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.

Eight new Branco Weiss fellows were selected in 2012

06.06.2012 16:05

Society in Science has selected eight new fellows in research fields ranging from philosophy to applied systems biology.

Living with extreme weather events and disasters

24.05.2012 22:21

Society in Science fellow Reinette Biggs contributed to a special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Slavich Wins Early Career Research Award

25.04.2012 17:03

Society in Science fellow George Slavich has been awarded the 2012 Early Career Research Award from the Western Psychological Association.

Traumatic Stress May Worsen Heart Disease

13.04.2012 09:57

The more trauma heart patients were exposed to, the higher their levels of inflammation, as a new study by Society in Science fellow Aoife O’Donovan and her team shows.

Anticipation of Stressful Situations Accelerates Cellular Aging

08.03.2012 13:07

Branco Weiss fellow Aoife O’Donovan is lead author of a study that shows that the anticipation of future stressful situations may increase the risk for chronic diseases.

The Role of Genetic Factors in the Formation of Identical Twins

14.02.2012 14:55

The Economist has published an article about the research of past Branco Weiss fellow Bruno Reversade, who may have found a gene involved in monozygotic twinning in humans.

Occupy Science?

26.01.2012 09:45

Society in Science fellow Krishanu Saha has recently had an opinion piece published in magazine ‘The Scientist’. His article discusses the mounting dissatisfaction with governance approaches that erect barriers between donors and the biomedical research in which they are participating, and ways to address it.

2011

"Attention and olfactory consciousness" by Andreas Keller

20.12.2011 16:54

Society in Science fellow Andreas Keller has recently published an article about olfactory consciousness. This article is a part of a larger project in which he plans to elucidate the ways in which consciousness research is biased by the focus on visual consciousness. Many theories about visual consciousness cannot be generalized to other modalities like olfaction and the following article discusses some examples.

'Time-Critical Social Mobilization' with Riley Crane

08.12.2011 16:08

An article featuring work undertaken by Branco Weiss fellow Riley Crane has been recently published in Science. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) held the DARPA Network Challenge, in which competing teams were asked to locate 10 red weather balloons placed at locations around the continental United States. Riley and his team were able to locate all of them in just under 9 hours, winning the competition.

Slavich Wins Prestigious New Investigator Award

06.12.2011 12:24

Branco Weiss fellow George Slavich has been awarded the prestigious Neal E. Miller New Investigator Award from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.

'Novel surface triples stem-cell growth in culture'

09.11.2011 17:12

Branco Weiss fellow Krishanu Saha has just had another article published, though this time on research completed in association with Whitehead Institute and MIT scientists. The article details how they have created a surface capable of tripling the number of human embryonic stem (ES) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells that can be grown in culture by current methods.

'Treat Donors as Partners in Biobank Research'

20.10.2011 10:16

Branco Weiss fellow Krishanu Saha and J. Benjamin Hurlbut argue in this week’s Nature for a better system to protect research subjects.

Assessing Vaccination Sentiments with Online Social Media

14.10.2011 14:41

Branco Weiss fellow Marcel Salathé has designed and implemented a unique and innovative analysis of how social media can affect the spread of a disease.

Skin Conductance Response to the Pain of Others Predicts Later Costly Helping

14.10.2011 09:47

Branco Weiss fellow Grit Hein shows that the match between first- and second-person autonomic experiences predicts a person’s willingness to behave altruistically later on.

Society in Science Symposium - Program Announced

29.09.2011 11:37

The program for the annual Society in Science Symposium has been announced. All Branco Weiss fellows get together over two days to present their work. Open to the public, the presentations are categorized into: Our Brain, Our Body, Our Environment and Our Society and Information Systems.

Concatenated global crises

12.08.2011 22:50

Society in Science fellow Reinette Biggs contributed to a discussion paper that asks whether global crises are increasingly interconnected, and what mechanisms may potentially contribute to this state of affairs.

Society in Science selects four new fellows

26.07.2011 13:53

Daniela Andres, Josiane Broussard, Adrian Künzler and Saskia van Manen have received the prestigious award that can provide them with up to five years of complete academic freedom.

Society in Science Symposium 2011 Dates Announced

01.06.2011 14:06

The annual meeting for Society in Science will be held in Zurich on November 21 and 22, 2011.

Men's and Women's Immune Systems Respond Differently to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

03.05.2011 13:14

Men and women had starkly different immune system responses to chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, with men showing no response and women showing a strong response, in two studies by researchers (including Society in Science Fellow Aoife O’Donovan) at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.

Aoife O'Donovan Reports on Accelerated Aging Seen in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Patients

26.04.2011 12:09

Adults with post-traumatic stress disorder and a history of childhood trauma had significantly shorter telomere length than those with PTSD but without childhood trauma, in a study by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.

George Slavich Receives Early Career Award

19.04.2011 22:43

Branco Weiss Fellow George Slavich has been named recipient of the 2011 Enrico E. Jones Early Career Award for Research in Psychotherapy and Clinical Psychology.

Award Someone Who Makes a Difference

06.01.2011 13:56

Society in Science is exploring new avenues to spread the word about its generous personal grants.

2010

How Diseases Spread through Communities

21.12.2010 13:58

Marcel Salathé developed a new technique to count the number of possible disease-spreading events that occur in…

Genes & Environment 2010 Talks Videos

01.12.2010 14:00

Webcasts of the presentations and panel discussions during the conference on “Genes & Environment: Finding the Missing Heritability of Complex Traits” are now available online.

The Irish Times Portrays Aoife O'Donovan

19.11.2010 14:00

Aoife O’Donovan was selected as a Branco Weiss Fellow in 2010. The Irish Times talks about her research and the benefits of the fellowship.

Annual Meeting 2010: Invitation, Program and Abstracts

08.11.2010 14:00

Find here the program of the Annual Meeting 2010 of Society in Science – The Branco Weiss Fellowship and the abstracts of the lectures that will be held.

Branco Weiss (1929 - 2010)

01.11.2010 16:59

Society in Science shares the sad news that its donor Branco Weiss died on October 31 2010.

Species Loss could be Slowed, Says Paper Co-Authored by Oonsie Biggs

26.10.2010 15:50

Branco Weiss fellow Oonsie Biggs contributed to a paper on the outlooks for biodiversity published by the journal Science.

Riley Crane Speaks on BBC Radio about World Hunger

12.10.2010 12:00

BBC Radio talks to Riley Crane about a social spreading experiment he has been working on with the United Nations.

Grit Hein Finds Out How Neural Responses Indicate Our Willingness to Help

08.10.2010 11:58

Neuron published a study with Branco Weiss Fellow Grit Hein as first author showing that witnessing a person from our own group or an outsider suffering pain causes neural responses in two very different regions of the brain.

Society in Science Seeks a 80-100% Employee for Global Communications

01.10.2010 19:02

Thanks to a considerable increase in the endowment made possible by an additional gift of Branco Weiss, Society in Science will be able to accept as many as ten new fellows starting in 2011. We thus have to increase the number of qualified applicants considerably. The fellowship has mandated science communications GmbH with the task to increase its visibility significantly. Science communications is now seeking an employee for global communications who will exclusively work on the mandate for Society in Science.

Oonsie Biggs Featured in Science Careers

10.09.2010 17:39

Science Careers published an extensive article on the newly selected Branco Weiss Fellow Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs.

Society in Science Selects Three New Fellows

28.08.2010 18:13

The Branco Weiss Fellowship announces Reinette Biggs, Arko Ghosh and Aoife O’Donovan as new fellows.

"Lightening the Arduousness of Human Existence"

25.08.2010 14:02

Using a quote from Bertolt Brecht’s “Life of Galileo”, Dr. Branco Weiss, the founder and mentor of Society in Science, published a substantial article in Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) about the merits of philanthropy since its first mentioning during the 5th century BC.

George Slavich Finds Out How Stress Influences the Immune System

12.08.2010 17:51

The online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) just published an article by George Slavich in which he and his co-workers describe how our brains respond to social stressors, thus influencing our body’s immune system in ways that may negatively affect health.

Marcel Salathé on Mice and Prairie Dogs

09.08.2010 18:30

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) just published an article co-authored by Marcel Salathé about the spread of plague among prairie dogs.

Riley Crane Hits the Headlines

27.07.2010 16:50

Having won the DARPA award in December 2009, Riley Crane’s work in “social physics” enjoys much attention by international media.

Genes & Environment 2010 at Stanford University

10.06.2010 12:30

A conference entitled “Genes & Environment: Finding the Missing Heritability of Complex Traits” will be held at Stanford University on October 14 & 15, 2010. The event is co-organized by Branco Weiss Fellows George Slavich and Marcel Salathé.

Donation Event on June 1, 2010

20.05.2010 18:27

The faculty of ETH and the University of Zurich (Phil. II) are invited to commemorate the endowment of Society in Science on June 1, 2010 in the Auditorium of the Branco Weiss Information Science Lab.

Branco Weiss Donates Society in Science to ETH

20.05.2010 18:25

On January 1, 2011 Branco Weiss will donate Society in Science to ETH – together with a 20 million Swiss francs endowment to warrant the fellowship’s operations for the next ten years.

Laura Hendriks awarded prestigious Ambizione grant for research at HEIA-FR

Gabriele Manoli puts a price on the health cost of urban heat islands

Lea Haller appointed Co-Head of the General Secretariat of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences

Older News

2024

Laura Hendriks awarded prestigious Ambizione grant for research at HEIA-FR

Gabriele Manoli puts a price on the health cost of urban heat islands

Lea Haller appointed Co-Head of the General Secretariat of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences

Daniel Bojar receives three grants for his research on the role of glycomes in lung cancer and breast milk

2023

Patrícia Chrzanová Pecnerová receives substantial funding for research into the elephant diversity

Branco Weiss Fellows and Alumni met for the Symposium and the Lecture 2023

Genetic recycling drives the diversification of cichlid fishes in Lake Victoria, says Joana Meier

Tomas Fiala receives Spark Grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation

Renana Gershoni-Poranne introduces GaUDI for de novo molecular design

Can Aztekin unveils axolotl limb regeneration paradox

NSF awards Igor Pikovski with a generous grant to test quantum gravity in the laboratory

Vincent Fortuin organized Hawaii's AABI symposium towards AI advancement

Lisa Genzel Joins FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence for neuroscience advancement

ERC grant boosts Irma Querques's DNA broadcasting research

ERC grant empowers Franziska Glassmeier's research on cloud-climate uncertainty

Nikolay Golubev receives DOE Early Career Research Program Award

Suzanne Devkota named director of new Human Microbiome Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai

Reef fisheries still persist despite depletion of biomass, but their sustainability is fragile

Matteo Fadel pushes the limit for the size of Schrödinger’s cat

Tim Lichtenberg wins European Geosciences Union Award

Cheemeng Tan publishes work on cyborg cells and receives NIH award

Vincent Fortuin organizes international seminar on generative AI

Benard Nsamba leads astronomy outreach to Ugandan secondary schools

Patricia Monteiro publishes important findings on the effects of chronic stress and moves to Porto

Laura Hendriks’s work is chosen as an example for women in chemical science

Simone Schürle makes the world a better place, says Focus magazine

2022

The University of Basel appoints Murielle Delley as Assistant Professor

Laura Hendriks helps authenticating a Nazca tunic from the first millennium

Murielle Delley receives a Starting Grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation

Making Babies? An exposition about egg donation and reproductive policies

Lara Keuck appointed Professor at Bielefeld University

Karim Bschir pleads for more pluralism in science-based policy-making

Benard Nsamba’s first Ugandan astronomy summer school was a success

Simone Schürle uses magnetic bacteria to fight cancerous tumors

Zi Chen is striving to develop the next generation mask

Genome tracing tells the story of the rise of COVID-19 Delta in the UK

Nikolay Golubev appointed Assistant Professor at University of Arizona

Max Planck Society appoints Benard Nsamba Head of Partner Group in Uganda

Renana Gershoni-Poranne awarded an Alon Scholarship

Murielle Delley is probing the effects of electrolyte cations on electric field and surface reactivity

Renana Gershoni-Poranne shows a new way to depict aromaticity for non-experts

Forbes names Daniel Bojar one of 30 under 30 to watch in Europe

Benard Nsamba receives grant to organize an astronomy summer school in Uganda

Gabriele Manoli returns to Switzerland as Assistant Professor at EPFL

NetIAS supports project to reveal the Anglophone bias in language-based assessments

Moritz Kraemer is a Leader to Watch 2022

Generous ERC grant gives boost to Christian Haffner’s research on quantum computers

Daniel Bojar presents a deep-learning oracle to predict protein–glycan interactions

A plea for the inclusion of epistemic pluralism in policy-making

Together again: The Branco Weiss Fellowship Symposium 2021

2021

Murielle Delley publishes new insights about the charge transfer at electrode surfaces

A Golden Owl for Renana Gershoni-Poranne

Linda Douw starts new research section on Multiscale Network Neuroscience

Euro for neuro: La Caixa Foundation funds Patricia Monteiro’s bioelectronic neuronal interface

Marco Hutter’s ANYmals win DARPA Subterranean Challenge

A Branco Weiss Fellow, the human flea, the plague and a travel award

Renato Morais shows plankton-eating fish play key role in productivity of coral reef ecosystems

Understanding RNA structures in human development and COVID-19 pathogenicity

George Slavich’s lab awarded $3 million to build stress surveillance system

Renana Gershoni-Poranne appointed Assistant Professor at Technion

Michael Fabinyi’s research on fishing livelihoods available in a book

Unravelling the motion of electrons and nuclei in molecules

Cheemeng Tan receives NIH grant to engineer synthetic bacteria

Laura Hendriks helps dating medieval polychrome sculptures by 14C analysis

A‘super-seeding’ event in the UK helped spreading the COVID-19 alpha variant

Ask the expert: Klaus Eyer responds to questions about anti-COVID vaccination

AI model helps understand viruses likely to jump from animals to humans

China’s ocean governance poses global challenges, says Michael Fabinyi

Urban forests serve as main regulator of the evaporative cooling effect in cities

Michael Mühlebach joins the Max Planck Institute in Tübingen and receives an Emmy Noether Fellowship

Christian Haffner takes up first tenure track at imec