Top international researchers Stuart Parkin and Detlef Schuppan nominated as GRC fellows
03.05.2011
In 2007, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz set up its Gutenberg Research College (GRC) to highlight the University's scientific strengths and to support promising new research fields. To this end, individual researchers or entire research areas can be sponsored via fellowships. Fellowships are the most important tool of the GRC, and allow targeted financial support of outstanding academics, providing them with ideal conditions for carrying out their research projects. To date, Mainz University’s Gutenberg Research College has had 15 fellows, who will now be supplemented by five additional fellows. Now the GRC officially welcomed its new fellows and presented them with their certificates of appointment.
"Today we would like to warmly welcome you into the circle of GRC members. We are delighted to be able to award you these GRC fellowships in recognition of your existing work and to support you in future research", said Professor Matthias Neubert, Director of the Gutenberg Research College and Head of the Theoretical High Energy Physics work group at Mainz University. "This appointment enables Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz to take a further step towards strengthening outstanding fields of research and raising its academic profile." Neubert pointed out that the award of GRC fellowships to external members also stands for a boost in terms of the University's desire to establish stronger networks.
One of the members to receive a fellowship on Monday evening was Professor Stuart Parkin of the elite Stanford University in California, USA. Since 1982, the British-American experimental physicist has been Head of the IBM Research Center in Almalden and Director of the IBM-Stanford Spintronic Science and Applications Center (SpinAps), which was established jointly with Stanford University in 2004. Contact with Parkin had already been established through Professor Dr. Claudia Felser and the Graduate School "Materials Science in Mainz" (MAINZ). Parkin will be mentoring two doctoral candidates of the MAINZ Graduate School of Excellence and he will be providing additional support aiming at an even stronger internationalization of the Graduate School and an intensified cooperation with the industrial sector.
Another new fellow is Professor Detlef Schuppan. He was lured to Mainz University from the highly renowned Harvard Medical School in Boston by means of a GRC fellowship. In December 2010, Schuppan was appointed as Professor for Molecular and Translational Medicine at Mainz University. Professor Schuppan is conducting specialized research into fibrosis and coeliac disease.
Additional new GRC members come from various university departments: Professor Dr. Walter Bisang is Professor for General and Comparative Linguistics and does research on the global structural diversity in human language. Professor Claudia Eder is Professor of Singing and has established the international summer school "Singing Summer" at Mainz University’s School of Music. She was the first artist ever to have received the Academy of Sciences and Literature Award in 2006. Professor Dr. Peter O. Mülbert is Professor of Civil Law, Trade and Commercial Law, and Banking Law. He is also Director of the Center for German and International Law of Financial Services at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.