Doctoral Students

Overview of alumni projects

The Hector Fellow Academy has created a dynamic network for its alumni in order to maintain the dialogue between outstanding scientists beyond the project period of three years. The regular exchange and transfer of research results as well as the opportunity for long-term interdisciplinary cooperation makes the HFA a vital academy of science. We are pleased that the following projects have been successfully completed:

Genetics and Epigenetics of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and its Treatment Daniela Conrad – Hector Fellow Thomas Elbert
	The risk to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) depends on the number of traumatic events experienced and individual risk factors, e.g. genetic predispositions. However, to identify causal genetic variants of this polygenic disease, trauma exposure needs to be adequately assessed. More ...

Applications of Non-Invasive Ocular Signal Measurements Margaret Deibel – Hector Fellow Eberhart Zrenner
	Several goals were pursued in the development of this work, including the development of a novel in vivo method to measure the ciliary muscle of a human subject non-invasively during accommodation, the characterization of the recorded muscle signals based on the accommodative abilities of the subject, and the development of a device that would utilize the recorded muscle signals to mimic the appropriate level of accommodation for the user, actuated through the use of a variable refractive lens. More ...

Photocatalysis and Transition-Metal-Catalyzed Reactions of Furane-Derivatives

Daniel Eppel – Hector Fellow A. Stephen K. Hashmi

Fossil resources are increasingly depleted. They have to be replaced as quickly as possible by renewable raw materials, so that a slow transition to a new and modern production of „platform chemicals“ can take place. More ...

Continuum Damage Models for Reliability Assessment of Structural Composites

Zalikha Murni Abdul Hamid – Hector Fellow Peter Gumbsch

The market’s demand for carbon fiber/epoxy composite has dramatically increased due to its significant applications and advantages in industry. Typical loading on the structures that are made up by this material often involves tensile and lateral bending of the composite laminates. More ...

Magnetism in Perovskite Manganites and Cobaltites at the Nano Scale

Cornelia E. Hintze – Hector Fellow Hilbert von Löhneysen

The exact position of atoms in the crystal structure of lanthanum manganites and cobaltates (both anorganic ionic compounds) significantly affects their magnetic properties. The crystal structure of these materials can be altered by pressure, substitution of elements, or crystallite size: Since nanoparticles have a large surface-to-volume ratio, their surface has a dominant effect on the crystal structure, leading to changes compared to bulk materials. More ...

Fermionic Quantum Gas Microscope

Joannis Koepsell – Hector Fellow Immanuel Bloch

A rich variety of phenomena in solid state systems such as quantum magnetism or high temperature superconductivity still pose open questions on parts of their microscopic explanation. Due to the complexity of these systems, the underlying quantum many-body dynamics is often not accessible to computational simulation. More ...

Influence of and Climate Change Landuse Changes on Hydrological Variations of Meso-scale Semi-Arid River Basin

Phoebe Pauline Onjira - Hector Fellow Franz Nestmann

Increased anthropogenic activities and climate change are causing a global shift in patterns of water fluxes. Semi-arid river basins are characterized by more water stresses, extreme and sporadic climatic events, and have been projected to worsen in many regions under the influence of climate change. More ...

RR Lyrae stars as tracers of substructure and Galactic archaeology

Zdenek Prudil - Hector Fellow Eva Grebel

Galactic archaeology uses stars as fossils to study the evolutionary history of galaxies like our own Milky Way. Cosmological simulations suggest that larger galaxies were partially formed by accreting smaller dwarf galaxies. Such merger events should leave observable signatures in the form of star streams, but empirical constraints on the times, numbers, and importance of such mergers are still missing. More ...

Towards Topological Many-Body Physics Using State-Dependent Optical Lattices

Hendrik von Raven – Hector Fellow Immanuel Bloch

In modern condensed matter physics topology plays a fundamental role in the classification of phases of matter. A prominent example is the quantum Hall effect discovered in two-dimensional electron gases under extreme conditions. Quantum Hall insulators are isolating in the bulk, but exhibit conducting edge states, which results in a quantised Hall conductance. More ...

Genetic & Developmental Basis of Color in Cichlid Fish

Margaret Sefton – Hector Fellow Axel Meyer

Cichlid fish are well-known for their beautiful colors and multitude of body shapes. They are found in the East African Rift lakes where they have formed so-called adaptive radiations, in which hundreds of new species originated extremely quickly – sometimes within less than 100,000 years. More ...

Accommodation Behavior and Ciliary Muscle Activity in Myopia

Sandra Wagner – Hector Fellow Eberhart Zrenner

Prevalence of myopia (shortsightedness) increases considerably in industrialized countries. The mechanisms behind this development need to be fully understood in order to arrive at prevention. The aim of Sandra Wagner’s research was to allow a better understanding of accommodation, address unanswered question regarding myopia onset and support the development of new devices. Mehr ...

Application Period

The next application period is from January 15^th until March 31^st,2021.

Phone		+49 (0)721 608 47880
E-Mail		info(at)hector-fellow-academy.de

Creating the Future