Short News
This section offers a miscellaneous of updates on the activities and achievements of FRIAS, its fellows, and alumni. If you have news to share, please contact us. The archive includes news dating back to summer 2024. Subscribe to our channels to stay up to date.
Max Trommsdorff (Project Group Member 2025/26) has published a review article in Nature Review Cleans Technology on the current scientific state of agrivoltaic cropping systems. This research ties in on his work with the Group Project Agrivoltaics at FRIAS.
Ina Kuhn (YAC Member 2025/28) erforscht die kulturellen Hintergründe der Abstinenz von Alkohol. In der Badischen Zeitung gibt sie sieben Ratschläge, wie ein Leben ohne Alkohol gelingen kann.
Sven Beckert (Marie S. Curie Fellow 2018/19) has published a book on the global history of capitalism, he worked on during his fellowship at FRIAS. It was widely discussed in German and international media and is regarded as groundbreaking within the scientific community.
Tim Krieger (Rector’s Fellow 2025) hat in der Badischen Zeitung die Verleihung des Wirtschaftsnobelpreises 2025 kommentiert. Welche Rolle Macht in der Ökonomie spielt, schildert er in einem Artikel mit Lars Feld (Rector’s Fellow 2014) und Justus Haucap in der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung.
Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen has awarded Jürgen Osterhammel (FRIAS Distinguished Fellow) the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art at the request of the Federal Ministry for Women, Science and Research. This is one of the highest cultural honors of the Republic of Austria.
Hans Joas (FRIAS Distinguished Fellow 2021-23) hat im Suhrkamp Verlag ein neues Buch mit dem Titel “Universalismus. Weltherrschaft und Menschheitsethos” veröffentlicht. Darin geht er wann und wo das Ethos entstanden ist, das aller Menschen bei moralischen und politischen Entscheidungen zu berücksichtigen.
FRIAS-Direktor Ralf von den Hoff spricht in der Badischen Zeitung über das neue US-Fellowship-Programm – eine gemeinsame Initiative des FRIAS und zweier weiterer baden-württembergischer Institutes for Advanced Studies mit dem Ziel, Wissenschaftler:innen zu unterstützen, die ihre Forschung in den USA nicht fortsetzen können.
Giancarlo Urzúa (Marie S. Curie Fellow 2023/24) was promoted to full professor at the Faculty of Mathematics, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in June 2025.
Gil Rabak (Marie S. Curie FCFP Fellow 2021/22) has published a book called “Crude Creatures“, he worked on during his fellowship at FRIAS. It provides a critical revision, correcting the accepted rosy narrative of Black women and men’s portrayals in Yiddish culture.
Catherine McBride (Senior Fellow 2017/18) updated updated third edition Catherine of “Children’s Literacy Development: A Cross-Language Perspective” was published at Routledge. She completed the book during her stay as a FRIAS Alumna.
Philipp Kellmeyer (Senior Fellow 2019-21) hat der Badischen Zeitung ein Interview zum Thema KI gegeben. “Wir erleben den größten technologischen Feldversuch in der Geschichte der Menschheit,” sagt der KI-Experte.
Der renommierte Globalhistoriker und FRIAS Distinguished Jürgen Osterhammel erhält die Ehrendoktorwürde der Universität Freiburg. Der Festakt fand am am 14.07.2025 in der Aula der Universität Freiburg statt.
Elmira Akhmetova’s (Alexander von Humboldt Fellow 2021-23) book “Muslim Women in Science, Past and Present” was published in February by Cambridge University Press.
Felicitas Opwis (FRESCO Fellow 2021-25) published a book called “Ethics and Legal Analogy (Qiyas) in 5th/11th Century Legal Theory“. Since January, she has also been appointed “Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Professor of Arabic Language and Culture” at Georgetown University.
Niels Grüne (Marie S. Curie FCFP Fellow 2015/16) successfully completed his habilitation process in October 2024 with the study “‚Verkäufer in Rebus publicis‘. Korruption als politisches Argument und Konfliktfeld in der Frühen Neuzeit,” which is partly based on the work he did at FRIAS. He was also promoted to Associate Professor of Modern History at Innsbruck University in November 2024.
Philipp Höfele (YAS Fellow 2024/27) has published a special issue on the topic “Societal implications of bioinspired technologies” in the journal “Technology in Society”, together with researchers from the University of Freiburg’s livMatS Cluster of Excellence.
Christina Grozinger (FRESCO Fellow 2022-25) has been named the new director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State University in January 2025.
Hussam Hussein (member of the YAS’ first cohort) has been co-author of an article in the journal Nature examining how global academic institutions evaluate researchers for academic promotion.
Elisabeth Piller (Internal Fellow 2024/25) has been honoured with the Synergy Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). Piller is investigating how the scarcity of resources affected the period during both World Wars.
Karsten Schubert (Junior Fellow 2022/23) has published a new book titled Lob der Identitätspolitik addressing the recurring critique that identity politics, despite its anti-discrimination aims, risks leading democracy into the confines of tribalism.
In mid-October, the second cohort of members within the Young Academy for Sustainability Research (YAS) was ceremonially welcomed with a very positive interim evaluation.
The doctoral network QU-ATTO, coordinated by Giuseppe Sansone (Senior Fellow 2024/25), will receive funding through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network programme.
FRIAS Co-Director Barbara Di Ventura has attracted some media attention by creatively blending two of her passions—music and science—into “musical abstracts.”
Massimo Leone (Senior Fellow 2024) has been selected as Senior Fellow at HIAS, the Hamburg Institute of Advanced Studies, where he will be doing research from September 1, 2024, until June 30, 2025.
Benjamin Nathans (Marie S. Curie FCFP Fellow of 2022) is the author of To the Success of Our Hopelessness, a book about the soviet dissident movement.
Henrike Lähnemann (Senior Fellows 202374) recently published a substantially expanded English version of the book ‘UN-erhörte Frauen’ that has been launched at FRIAS in July 2023. The Life of Nuns. Love, Politics, and Religion in Medieval German Convents is now available open access.
Peter Arkadiev (Senior Fellow 2023/24) has recently received a position as principal investigator for a three-years DFG project titled ‘Typology and diachrony of ambifixation’ at the University of Potsdam, starting in December 2024.
Silja Vöneky (FRIAS Research Focus Group Artificial Intelligence) has been elected as a judge at the Constitutional Court by the Baden-Württemberg State Parliament.
Starting June 21, an interactive exhibition presents the findings of the Collaborative Research Center “Heroes, Heroization, Heroisms”, headed by FRIAS Director Ralf von den Hoff.
Sabine Dabringhaus (Senior Fellow 2020/21) was appointed for a second term of office as Secretary of the Philosophical-Historical Class and thus also Vice President of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.