IST Annual Report 2010

Annual Report 2010 IMPRINT Institute of Science and Technology Austria Am Campus 1, 3400 Klosterneuburg Tel.: +43 (0)2243–9000 [email protected] www.ist.ac.at Editor: Lisa Cichocki Texts: IST Austria Graphic design: Starmühler Agentur & Verlag Schellinggasse 1, 1010 Wien www.starmuehler.at Christine Starmühler Barbara Kaiser Katharina Krizsanits Photography: Lisa Cichocki Roland Ferrigato Göran Gnaudschun (Portrait Peter Fratzl) Christian Jungwirth (Portrait Beatrix Karl) Oliver Lehmann Rita Newman Lukas Schaller Jürgen Skarwan Print: Gerin Paper: Munken Polar 300g, 150g Copyright: Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2010 CONTENTS FOREWORDS Foreword by the President 03 Foreword by the Chair of the Scientific Board 04 Tennis Courts THE INSTITUTE Soccer Field Fire Station IST Austria at a Glance 06 Kindergarten The IST Graduate School 08 Donating the Future 10 Museum Gallery Bertalanffy The Bertalanffy Foundation Building 12 Raiffeisen Foundation Building Lecture Hall Central Building RESEARCH Church Current Research at IST Austria 14 Nick Barton Group 16 Jonathan P. Bollback Group 18 Laboratory Building 2 in construction Tobias Bollenbach Group 20 Residential Units Krishnendu Chatterjee Group 22 Sylvia Cremer Group 24 Herbert Edelsbrunner Group 26 Memorial Călin Guet Group 28 Heating Plant Carl-Philipp Heisenberg Group 30 Thomas A. Henzinger Group 32 Peter Jonas Group 34 Facility Management Main Entrance voestalpine Christoph Lampert Group 36 Building Michael Sixt Group 38 IST Austria Professors 2011 40 Faculty Recruiting 41 Publications & Grants 2010 42 ORGANIZATION Boards & Administration 44 Scientific Service Units 46 EVENTS IST Lectures 48 Communicating Science 50 Location & Directions 52 Klosterneuburg S40 | Bus 239 Kierling BYPASS Maria Gugging Tulln Bus 239 B14 Weidling B14 A22 NORDBRÜCKE Heiligenstadt U4 | S40 | Bus 239 Spittelau U4 | U6 Airport Vienna City Center 39 1 2 6 22 44 54 26 41 31 17 23 25 27 34 46 50 53 58 65 63 3 4 7 28 37 38 10 35 48 70 5 9 11 21 29 39 60 62 64 8 15 16 49 68 12 13 14 52 51 29 18 19 20 35 42 43 45 55 47 69 32 56 57 59 61 66 67 31 22 IST AUSTRia SCIENTISTS (January 1, 2011) PROFESSORS (by last appointment before IST Austria) POSTDOCS (by institution of PhD degree) PHD STUDENTS (by nationality) 1 Nick Barton University of Edinburgh, UK 17 Itaru Arai University of Freiburg, Germany 47 Hande Acar Turkey 2 Jonathan Bollback University of Edinburgh, UK 18 Paul Bendich Duke University, Durham, USA 48 Simon Aeschbacher Switzerland 3 Tobias Bollenbach Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA 19 Pavol Cerný University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA 49 Vanessa Barone Italy 4 Krishnendu Chatterjee University of California, Santa Cruz, USA 20 Chao Chen Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, USA 50 Martin Behrndt Germany 5 Sylvia Cremer University of Regensburg, Germany 21 Julien Compagnon Paris Diderot, France 51 Pedro Campinho Portugal 6 Jozsef Csicsvari University of Oxford, UK 22 Rodrigo Fernandes Redondo Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil 52 Ines Cristo Portugal 7 Herbert Edelsbrunner Duke University, Durham, USA 22 Jian Gan University of Glasgow, UK 53 Alexander Eichner Germany 8 Călin Guet Harvard University, Cambridge, USA 23 Jose Guzman University of Leipzig, Germany 54 Tom Ellis UK 9 Carl-Philipp Heisenberg Max-Planck Institute, Dresden, Germany 25 Michael Kerber Max-Planck Institute, Saarbrücken, Germany 55 Brittany Fasy USA 10 Thomas Henzinger EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland 26 Simon Frederick Gabriel Krens University of Leiden, Netherlands 56 Sarit Goswami India 11 Harald Janovjak LMU Munich, Germany 27 Janina Kowalski University of Freiburg, Germany 57 Sooyun Kim USA 12 Peter Jonas University of Freiburg, Germany 28 Anne Kupczok University of Vienna, Austria 58 Matthias Konrad Germany 13 Christoph Lampert Max-Planck Institute, Tübingen, Germany 29 Dejan Ničković Verimag Laboratory, Grenoble, France 59 Rajiv Mishra India 14 Michael Sixt Max-Planck Institute, Martinsried, Germany 30 Ferran Palero University of Barcelona, Spain 60 Jean-Léon Maître France 15 Gašper Tkačik University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA 31 Alejandro Pernia-Andrade Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research, Caracas, Venezuela 61 Arjun Radhakrishna India 16 Chris Wojtan Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA 32 Jitka Polechová University of Prague, Czech Republic 62 Johannes Reiter Austria 33 Keisuke Sako Osaka University, Japan 63 Viktoriia Sharmanska Ukraine 34 Philipp Schmalhorst Hannover Medical School, Germany 64 Magdalena Steinrück Austria 35 Ali Szegin University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA 65 Miriam Stock Germany 36 Vasu Singh EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland 66 Ruby Tandon India 37 Michael Smutny University of Vienna, Austria 67 Anmol Tomar India 38 Yvonne Stickler Technical University of Vienna, Austria 68 Simon Tragust Italy 39 Mathieu Tracol University of Paris 11, France 69 Murat Tugrul Turkey 40 Line V. Ugelvig University of Copenhagen, Denmark 70 Damien Zufferey Switzerland 41 Harold Paul Vladar University of Groningen, Netherlands 42 Meghan Vyleta Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, USA 43 Nick Vyleta Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, USA 44 Michele Weber University College London, UK 45 Daniel Weissman Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA 46 Thomas Wies University of Freiburg, Germany FOREWORD Growing Up Thomas A. Henzinger » President, IST Austria I began my term as first president of IST Austria on September 1, in science happens where traditionally separate disciplines 2009. The past sixteen months have been a period of rapid meet, they will be wellpositioned to help bring about the sci growth for the Institute, which recently surpassed 100 employ entific breakthroughs of the future. ees and 100 scientific publications. As IST Austria aims to become a beacon of scientific excel › In October 2010, we opened the Bertalanffy Foundation Build lence, there is always the underlying question of how one ob ing for experimental research in the life sciences. The name of jectively measures quality in basic research. In recent years, the building, which is the first laboratory building of IST Aus the awards of the European Research Council (ERC) have tria, honors a donation of ten million Euro that was given to become a key indicator for research excellence in Europe. By the Institute in support of basic research. As science without that measure, we are on the right path. Three professors of IST experiments remains speculation, and a research institute Austria–the evolutionary biologist Nick Barton, the neuroscien without a laboratory building remains a think tank, the opening tist Peter Jonas, and myself, a computer scientist–have been of the Bertalanffy Foundation Building marks a critical mile awarded ERC Advanced Grants. The ERC Starting Grant of stone on the way of IST Austria towards entering the first Sylvia Cremer brings the total number of ERC funded re searchers league of international institutions for basic science. at IST Austria to four. Together we receive more than eight million Euro of research funding from the European Union, in addition to › At the end of 2010, twelve research groups were at work on about two million Euro from other funding agencies. campus, and four additional professors were scheduled to arrive in the first months of 2011. There are already four I want to use this opportunity to thank Mag. Peter Bertalanffy scientific fields in which IST Austria has obtained international for his singular generosity and show of confidence in IST Aus visibility: evolutionary biology; the interface of cell biology and tria. I would like to thank also all other friends of the Institute– biophysics; neuroscience; and computer science. The Insti in science, in industry, in government, in the local community, tute is committed to further strengthen these four areas and and in the public–for their support, without which we cannot aims to hire also professors in the physical and mathematical succeed. I especially thank the Federal Minister for Science sciences in the coming years. and Research, Dr. Beatrix Karl, the governor of the province of Lower Austria, Dr. Erwin Pröll, and the president of the › In September 2010, the first students of the IST Graduate Federation of Austrian Industry, Dr. Veit Sorger, for their con School arrived on campus. They represent eleven nationali stant commitment to IST Austria. Last but not least, I thank the ties and pursue a multidisciplinary PhD program that brings entire administrative team of IST Austria, led by Gerald Murauer, together biology and computer science. Every new student is for its hard work. Any growth spurt brings with it considerable required to work with three different research groups before stress, and it is a great relief for me to be able to rely on such a The Bertalanffy Foundation Building. choosing a supervisor. This way we will train a new generation dedicated and efficient staff. The structure of the facade was of researchers that will be able to approach a scientific ques used as design element for the cover of the Annual Report 2010. tion from several different angles. As much of the innovation Thomas A. Henzinger Annual Report 2010 3 FOREWORD The Blueprint Becomes Alive Kurt Mehlhorn » Trustee and Chairman, Scientific Board of IST Austria Director, MaxPlanck Institute for Computer Science, Saarbrücken, Germany IST Austria has been built following the blueprint written by Haim collaborations purely on the basis of scientific merit, maximizing Harari,

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