Giving early-career researchers a platform to showcase the topics they are passionate about! That is the aim of the Young Researchers’ Science Day, which was once again fully realised at the 6th edition of the science competition. The range of science pitches spanned from Molecular Medicine and Biological Psychology through quantum sciences to Chemistry. First and second place went to physicists Dr Tobias Haas and Dr Mirko Rossini.
What are the responsibilities of universities in times of ongoing crises? What role does science play in this? A central one, but not the only one: “We must focus more on young people. After all, we are responsible for creating the right conditions for them,” said Professor Dieter Rautenbach, Vice President for Careers and Digitalisation. “Our students should learn to think independently and ask questions of their own. We equip them with the knowledge, methods and technologies necessary to do so,” said the scientific director of the ProTrainU Academy for Young Researchers. Just how well this is achieved at the University of Ulm was demonstrated by the young postdocs who took part in the university’s 6th Science Day with a five-minute pitch on their research projects. The jury selected three men and three women who had previously submitted a written application. As in previous years, Science Day was organised by the ProTrainU team under the leadership of Clarissa Gobiet and Dr Cornelia Estner. The two managing directors of the Young Researchers’ Academy also hosted the event.
The presentations covered topics including the healthy ‘hibernation’ of haematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow, metabolic resources for coping with the effects of stress and ageing processes, mutations that cause dangerous forms of leukaemia, and graphene-based catalysts, which could help harness climate-damaging carbon dioxide for energy storage – not least on Mars.
How does information behave in a black hole?
Dr Tobias Haas won the Science Pitch. The physicist is a postdoc at the Institute of Theoretical Physics. Using a key, a black spherical vessel and a piece of paper stuck to a flipchart, he introduced the central question of his research: How does information behave in a black hole? Does it follow the laws of the theory of gravitation postulated by Albert Einstein and lose matter, or does it behave in accordance with quantum information theory and remain unchanged? To find this out, the scientist is collaborating with the research group led by Professor Christine Silberhorn (University of Paderborn). Together, they aim to implement a corresponding test protocol for a light-based quantum computer, which ranks among the world’s leading photonic computing platforms. Haas now intends to use the prize money of 50,000 euros to get the project off the ground.
Second place – with a prize of 30,000 euros – went to Dr Mirko Rossini from the Institute of Complex Quantum Systems. The physicist is conducting research in the field of quantum genetics, focusing on DNA repair processes. Through his project, Rossini aims to discover how repair proteins detect damaged sites in the DNA in order to repair them. The researcher suspects that quantum mechanical effects are responsible for electrical charges travelling along the DNA and, in doing so, ‘communicating’ information about defects, enabling the repair proteins to target them specifically.
Third to sixth place were not left empty-handed either. They received travel vouchers worth up to 1,800 euros to attend conferences or visit collaborative partners. The winners were Dr Rezan Nehir Mavioglu, Dr Carolin Seeling, Francesca Boffa PhD and Surya Solanki PhD. The prizes and degree certificates were presented at the end of the event by the new President of Ulm University, Professor Michael Kühl, who reiterated: “Good science communication is more important than ever. We must explain what we are researching with public funds and how people benefit from it.”
A second highlight of the event was the keynote speech by Maciej Tusz, CEO of Magnitude Innovations. Under the title ‘Critical Thinking – When AI Does the Work’, the engineer and entrepreneur used concrete examples to demonstrate just how much the use of artificial intelligence can boost productivity in companies and research institutions. On the other hand, he takes a very critical view of the consequences for specific professions such as programmers – in large companies, AI already handles 95 per cent of the coding – but also, more generally, for the younger generation: “Young people in companies are expected to do their jobs just as well as the established staff – but without their experience,” says Tusz, who uses artificial intelligence in his technology consultancy specialising in additive manufacturing and began working with neural networks very early on in his career. The engineer is firmly convinced that AI will continue to grow in importance in the future: “This makes it all the more important to approach it critically. ‘Critical thinking’ will become a significant economic factor.” It is good that Ulm University is also equipping its young graduates with these skills.
Further information:
Clarissa Gobiet (email: clarissa.gobiet(at)uni-ulm.de) and Dr Cornelia Estner (email: cornelia.estner(at)uni-ulm.de), managing directors of the ProTrainU Young Researchers’ Academy
Text and media contact: Andrea Weber-Tuckermann