Successful Development of the Research Alliance Ruhr: 27 Professors Already Appointed

Since 2022, the University Alliance Ruhr has been expanding its top-level research in the centers and the college under the umbrella of the Research Alliance Ruhr. Among the newly appointed scientists are two renowned Humboldt Professors: Prof. Dr. Edvardas Narevicius and Prof. Dr. Dana Branzei. Already in 2022, Prof. Dr. Narevicius left the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel to join the Research Center Chemical Sciences and Sustainability as a Humboldt Professor for Ultracold Reactions. Prof. Dr. Branzei will join the Research Center One Health Ruhr as a Humboldt Professor for Biological and Genomic Treatment Approaches starting in April 2025. Until then, she is working as a scientist at the AIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology in Milan.

Some of the newly appointed researchers previously conducted their research at various Max Planck Institutes (Dr. Amelie Heuer-Jungemann, Prof. Dr. Nils Köbis, Prof. Dr. Christian Liebscher, Prof. Dr. Lucia Melloni, Prof. Dr. Daniel Neider, Prof. Dr. Caspar Schwiedrzik, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Bilal Zafar) or at international elite universities such as Stanford University (Prof. Dr. Xijie Wang), Cambridge University (Prof. Dr. Jatinder Singh), and ETH Zurich (Prof. Dr. Alexander Marx). For eight new professors, starting their research activities in North Rhine-Westphalia involves moving to Germany, while twelve have relocated to the Ruhr area from another federal state.

Key criteria for filling the more than 50 new professorships under the UA Ruhr umbrella are proven scientific excellence and the potential for interdisciplinary collaboration. The professors are employed at one of the three universities, thereby also strengthening the faculty of their respective fields. Thirteen of the 27 newly appointed professors are employed at Ruhr University Bochum, seven at the University of Duisburg-Essen, and six at TU Dortmund University. One of the professorships is shared between the universities in Dortmund and Duisburg-Essen.

Program brings excellent scientists to the Ruhr region
In 2023, the College for Social Sciences and Humanities successfully launched an International Senior Fellowship Programme and is currently hosting the second cohort of scientists. The fellowship program offers excellent international researchers from the social sciences and humanities the opportunity to pursue an independent research project within a six-month fellowship and to collaborate with tandem partners from the UA Ruhr.

The innovative structure of the Research Alliance has taken the collaboration of the UA Ruhr, which began in 2007 between Ruhr University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, and the University of Duisburg-Essen, to new heights. A central goal was to form centers of excellence beyond faculty boundaries and to attract both internationally established researchers and emerging stars to the Ruhr area. The UA Ruhr opens up ideal career opportunities for excellent scientists from around the world by ensuring optimal conditions such as competitive equipment, scientific staff, and reduced teaching obligations.

The Research Alliance Ruhr was initiated by the Ruhr Conference and is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Newly appointed Professors of the Research Alliance Ruhr

Research Center One Health Ruhr - from Molecules to Systems
•    Prof. Dr. Helen Blank, Predictive Cognition, prev. University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)
•    Prof. Dr. Dana Branzei, Humboldt Professor for Biological and Genomic Treatment Approaches, AIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology, Milan (start: April 2025)
•    Dr. Amelie Heuer-Jungemann, Hybrid Bionanosystems, prev. MPI of Biochemistry (start: Jan 2025)
•    Prof. Dr. Lucia Melloni, Predictive Brain, prev. MPI for Empirical Aesthetics
•    Prof. Dr. Alexander Probst, Environmental Metagenomics    
•    Prof. Dr. Ralf Schäfer, Ecotoxicology, prev. University of Kaiserslautern-Landau
•    Prof. Dr. Dirk Scheele, Social Cognitive Neuroscience
•    Prof. Dr. Caspar Schwiedrzik, Cognitive Neurobiology, prev.  MPI for Multidisciplinary Sciences
•    Prof. Dr. Kathrin Thedieck, Metabolism, Senescene & Autophagy, prev. University of Innsbruck

Research Center Chemical Sciences and Sustainability
•    Prof. Dr. Jörg Behler, Theoretical Chemistry II, prev. University of Göttingen
•    Prof. Dr. Simon Ebbinghaus, Biophysical Chemistry, prev. TU Braunschweig
•    Prof. Dr. Edvardas Narevicius, Humboldt Professor for Ultracold Reactions, prev. Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
•    Prof. Dr. Clara Saraceno, Photonics and Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy
•    Prof. Dr. Igor Schapiro, Theoretical Biophysics, prev. Fritz Haber Center for Molecular Dynamics, Israel
•    Prof. Dr. Xijie Wang, Ultrafast Electron Diffraction, prev. Stanford University, USA     

Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security
•    Prof. Dr. Ivan Habernal, Fairness and Transparency, prev. Paderborn University  
•    Prof. Dr. Nils Köbis, Human Understanding of Machines and Algorithms, prev. MPI for Human Development    
•    Prof. Dr. Alexander Marx, Causality, prev. ETH Zurich
•    Prof. Dr. Daniel Neider, Verification and Formal Guarantees of Machine Learning, prev. MPI for Software Systems        
•    Prof. Dr. Jatinder Singh, Compliant and Accountable Systems, prev. University of Cambridge
•    Prof. Dr. Muhammad Bilal Zafar, Computing and Society, prev. MPI for Software Systems and Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Research Center Future Energy Materials and Systems
•    Prof. Dr. Silvana Botti, Computational Design of Functional Interfaces, prev. Friedrich Schiller University Jena
•    Prof. Dr. Anna Isaeva, Quantum Materials, prev. University of Amsterdam
•    Prof. Dr. Christian Liebscher, Advanced Transmission Electron Microscopy, prev. MPI for Sustainable Materials
•    Prof. Dr. Miguel A. L. Marques, Artificial Intelligence for Integrated Materials Science, prev. Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
•    Prof. Dr. Gabi Schierning, Applied Quantum Materials, prev. Bielefeld University

College for Social Sciences and Humanities
•    Prof. Dr. Tahani Nadim, Curating Digital Objects of Cultural Knowledge and Memory, prev. HU Berlin

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