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Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Deutsche Interview Forschungsgemeinschaft Nurturing Tomorrow’s Research Leaders The Heisenberg Programme Contents Named after a Nobel Laureate The Heisenberg Programme is all about quality 3 Independent, Motivating, Generous Career Support The Heisenberg fellowship has been a great career opportunity for many researchers 4 Quality Standards As High As Ever Over 2,000 fellows since the inception of the Heisenberg Programme 6 A Playful Genius Werner Heisenberg revolutionised physics 9 Heisenberg Fellowship Made Nobel Prize Possible 2 Klaus von Klitzing was one of the first fellows 10 Intrigued by Research Management Imprint Jürgen Mlynek calls for clear career paths 11 A Model That Aims to Encourage The Heisenberg professorship: Published by Interview with Beate Scholz and Paul Heuermann 12 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) German Research Foundation A Whole Lot of Freedom Kennedyallee 40 53175 Bonn Roland Strausz is the first Heisenberg professor Germany of economics 14 Tel.: +49 228 885-1 Fax: +49 228 885-2777 [email protected] Getting to the Root of Kidney Failure www.dfg.de Eva Brand uses her Heisenberg professorship Coordination to investigate the genetic causes of disease 15 Dr. Anjana Buckow Michaela Dreike Dr. Beate Scholz Three Questions for Editor Annette Schavan, E. Jürgen Zöllner Uschi Heidel and Elmar Weiler 16 Trio Service GmbH www.trio-medien.de Climate Archive at the Bottom of the Sea English translation SciTech Communications GmbH Hildegard Westphal delves deep into the history of the Earth 18 www.scitech.de Bridge to a Career in Germany Design, typesetting, cover axeptDESIGN Christof Rapp believes in the relevance of ancient philosophy www.axeptdesign.de to today’s discourse 19 Images Cover: Heisenberg: AIP Emilio Segre Visual Making Europe Competitive Archives; portrait: DFG; teaching: Lichtenscheidt Dependable careers strengthen young researchers and universities 20 Pages 4/5 in order of appearance: private; private; MPI for Iron Research; private; private; Metz, University of Tübingen; Career Boost and Academic Freedom ISD; Neubauer; University of Marburg; “Heisenbergers” experience periods abroad as great opportunities 22 ETH Zurich; private; University of the Federal Armed Forces; Veldhuisen Those Brief Moments of Understanding Print Hélène Esnault and Eckart Viehweg Richard Thierbach pursue top-level mathematical research in Essen 24 Buch- und Offsetdruckerei GmbH Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany Confidence in the Potential of Young Researchers Circulation 3,000 From the first announcement to today 26 November 2007 Editorial Named after a Nobel Laureate The Heisenberg Programme is all about quality © DFG At age 26, Werner Heisenberg was ap- pointed professor; at 32 he was award- 3 ed the Nobel Prize – an exception- al career that many aspire to but few achieve. Heisenberg was therefore the obvious choice when it came to naming a new programme for promoting young, highly qualifi ed researchers headed for professorship. From the very beginning it was clear that successful applicants would have to be top-tier talent and to fi ve years) that has made this fellow- the DFG provides start-up funding for “young for their accomplishments”, as ship so attractive for many applicants. a professorship for fi ve years. Following it was put by Heinz Maier-Leibnitz, the Quite a few funding recipients use their a successful interim review, the position DFG President at the time. fellowship for a stay abroad. then converts into a regular university The decision 30 years ago to establish professorship. This model can be con- The programme was originally designed this programme was driven by two con- sidered the beginning of a tenure-track to run for fi ve years and fund 750 fel- siderations that remain important to system with secure career prospects lowships. It was hoped that after this this day. period the diffi cult job situation would and thus represents a big step forward for young researchers in Germany. On the one hand, young researchers have improved. The vast majority of who were already qualifi ed for pro- these early fellows found suitable posi- Today the Heisenberg Programme is fessorship but had yet to be offered a tions. At the same time, word quickly one of the DFG’s most renowned fund- got around about the excellent quality permanent position at a German uni- ing programmes. Since 1978 it has sup- of the fellows and of the programme. versity were to be given an opportuni- ported over 2,000 researchers, many of ty to bridge the gap with independent In 1991 this success ultimately persuad- whom have attained prominent posi- research work. The objectives were to ed the DFG to continue the programme tions in science and academia, or – as keep highly gifted young researchers out of its own budget to systematically I predict with certainty – will do so in from switching to fi elds outside of sci- promote excellence, even after the job the future. ence and to retain their talent for re- situation had improved. search in Germany, as well as to achieve The last major innovation was the intro- a balanced age structure at research in- duction of the Heisenberg professorship stitutions. in late 2005. Interestingly, Heisenberg On the other hand, there was a desire professorships had been included in the to allow exceptionally qualifi ed scien- initial concept and suggested several tists and academics to pursue independ- times. Originally they were supposed ent research, unencumbered by super- to follow up the fellowship period or visors, institutions or predetermined provide provisional appointments, to be projects. It is especially the freedom to eliminated as soon as the Heisenberg Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Kleiner choose their own topic, their schedule fellow was offered a permanent pro- President of the and their workplace (for a period of up fessorship. Under the current solution, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Testimonials After spending As one of the first Heisenberg fellows The Heisenberg time abroad at in 1978 I benefited early on from what fellowship was Fermilab, Chica- was then a unique new programme to the most impor- go, and the Uni- promote young researchers. I took full tant support I versity of Roches- advantage of it, received through- ter, New York, the pausing twice to out my career. It Heisenberg fel- take on visiting was a valuable lowship allowed professorships, experience to see me to shift my re- and leveraged Germany’s pre- search focus from it for my devel- mier research or- P anti-P scattering opment as an ganisation make at 2 TeV at the Tevatron to PP scatter- academic. The fel- such an enormous leap of faith. Even ing at 14 TeV at the LHC – even while lowship certainly though researchers tend to specialise realising a dual-career solution together contributed to my early these days, a Heisenberg fellow- with my wife, also a particle physicist, appointment as ship proves, for the first time in a young at the Max Planck Institute for Physics. the first profes- researcher’s career, that the greater sor for ecological psychology. At any community recognises that scientist’s Prof. Dr. Arnulf Quadt rate, it marked the beginning of my achievements, conferring responsibility Institute of Physics II, University of Göttingen professional career, also in the area of by ensuring maximum freedom. research policy. 4 Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Dierk Raabe Prof. Dr. Lenelis Kruse-Graumann Head of Microstructure Physics Institute of Psychology, and Metal Forming, Max Planck Institute Division of Ecological Psychology, for Iron Research, Düsseldorf FernUniversität in Hagen - University of Hagen Independent, Motivating, Generous Career Support The Heisenberg fellowship has been a great career opportunity for many researchers What did the Heisenberg fel- At first the fellow- lowship mean for ship was a great someone who piece of fortune was 39 at the and a great reas- time? Quite sim- After I completed surance. A great ply relief from all my doctorate I piece of fortune that daily hyper- went into Big Sci- because, as a re- bureaucratic ence. An exciting cently habilitated nonsense that an field, large fa- adjunct professor, assistant at a per- cilities, long-term I was freed from petually reforming German university projects, interna- the dreary pros- has to take care of. I was able to resign tional measuring pect of trying to economically survive from my assistant position, concentrate campaigns, my the next five years, in which hardly any on teaching young, smart students, own team, a well- vacancies were expected to open up. which brought me many moments of paid permanent position – in short, an And it was reassuring to see that all my happiness, read really thick books, and excellent career environment. But, after work hadn’t been in vain but was be- even write some myself. A fabulous an extended stay in Stanford, all of that ing positively acknowledged. However, time without frustrations! Sadly, the call just wasn’t enough anymore: there was since shortly afterwards I had the luck to my first professorship came all too no interaction with students. A success- to receive a call to fill the only vacant soon. ful Heisenberg proposal enabled me to chair, I ended up declining the fellow- return to academia. ship. Prof. Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Graf Faculty of Protestant Theology, Prof. Dr. Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus Prof. Dr. Joachim Rückert Department of Systematic Theology, Department of Physical Chemistry I, Department of Legal History, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich University of Bielefeld University of Frankfurt am Main Testimonials Fantastic! The fellowship was one of The Heisenberg After I habilitated at the University of my life’s most positive experiences. In- fellowship al- Frankfurt at age 30, the Heisenberg fel- dependent, motivating, generous in its lowed me to lowship gave me the wonderful oppor- implementation, focus on my re- tunity to keep working on my research uncomplicated search activities projects, without the pressure of having in its procedures, and to visit the to find a permanent position as soon as it allowed me to US for extended possible.
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