Cohort 2025-26
Meet the 2025–26 Rising Stars Academy teams!
Each Rising Star joins a host PI of the University of Freiburg, bringing curiosity, creativity, and diverse expertise to the table. Together, these teams are exchanging ideas, exploring new perspectives, and shaping the future of research across disciplines.
The teams will first collaborate digitally before meeting in person during the CONFERENCE Week in Freiburg in March 2026.
Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies (CIBSS)
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kleine-Vehn
Molecular Plant Physiology – Institute of Biology
Dr. Maxime Josse
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
JProf. Dr. Sjon Hartman
Plant Environmental Signalling & Development – Institute of Biology
Dr. Samarth
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Prof. Dr. Andreas Hiltbrunner
Department of Molecular Plant Physiology, Institute of Biology II
Dr. Alison Gill
University of Adelaide, Australia
PD. Dr. Eva Rog-Zielinska
Institute for Experimental Cardiovascular Medicine
María Fernanda Cadena Vizuete
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Prof. Dr. Peter Kohl
Institute for Experimental Cardiovascular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine
Radhika Singh-Agarwal
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, United States
Dr. Elke Barbez
Molecular Plant Physiology – Institute of Biology
Dr. Tereza Ticha
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Dr. Sukanya Guhathakurta
Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics
Dr. María José Pérez Jiménez
Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Germany
Future Forests
Prof. Dr. Teja Kattenborn
Sensor-based Geoinformatics, Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources
Trung Thanh Nguyen
Nagoya University, Japan
Prof. Dr. Kathrin Blumenstein
Tree Pathology, Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources
Dr. Farooq Ahmad
University of Kiel, Germany
Prof. Dr. Thomas Seifert
Forest Growth and Dendroecology
Dr. Bismark Kwesi Asitoakor
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute, Ghana
Dr. Saleh Hamed
PlantVoice, Italy
Prof. Dr. Michaela Haug
Environmental Ethnology, Anthropology
Yaa Oparebea Ampofo
University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
Prof. Dr. Stefan Pauliuk
Sustainable Energy and Material Flow Management
Zhuocheng Duan
University of Adelaide, Australia
JProf. Dr. Ana Stritih
Modelling of Social-Ecological Systems, Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources
Dr. Yixin Cao
University of Strasbourg, France
Dr. Sarah May
Cultural Anthropology
Dr. Lorena Grigoletto
University of Tübingen, Germany
Living, Adaptive and Energy-autonomous Materials Systems (LivMatS)
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rühe
Chemistry and Physics of Interfaces – Department of Microsystems Engneering
Dr. Clare Rees-Zimmerman
University of Bath, United Kingdom
Prof. Dr. Laura Hartmann
Active Soft Matter – Institute for Macromolecular Chemistry
Prachi Jain
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India
Dr. Daniel Antonio Domingo Lopez
Institute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP-CSIC), Spain
JProf. Dr. Edoardo Milana
Inflatable Snapping Metamaterials for Next Generation Soft Machine
Dr. Enrica Tricomi
Technical University of Munich, Germany
Alexis Van Merris
KU Leuven, Belgium
Dr. Isabella Fiorello
FIT – Freiburg Center for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies
Dr. Sareum Kim
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Africa Centre for Transregional Research (ACT)
Prof. Dr. Andreas Mehler
Africa Centre for Transregional Research
Dr. Amanda Bisong
Fellow – European University Institute, Italy
Prof. Dr. Georg Dobler
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Dr. David Tei-Mensah Adjartey
University of Ghana
Prof. Dr. Tim Zajontz
International Relations, Department for Political Science
Leah Lazer
University of Basel, Switzerland
Dr. Abdou Rahim Lema Mohamed
University of Montreal, Canada
BrainLinks-BrainTools
Prof. Dr. Thomas Stieglitz & Dr. Paul Čvančara
Laboratory for Biomedical Microtechnology – Department of Microsystems Engineering
Christian Bayer
Medical University of Graz, Austria
Dr. Robert Toth
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Dr. Simon Binder
Department of Microsystems Engineering
Alexandra Boyadzhiev
University of Utah, United States
Walter Eucken Institute
Prof. Dr. Lars Feld
Economic Policy and Constitutional Economics
Gerald Chizonda
Nagoya University, Japan
The University of Freiburg
JProf. Dr. Jessica Imbach
Institute for Sinology
Yue Zhou
University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
Prof. Dr. Peter Woias & Dr. Suman Kundu
Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK)
Dr. Anupam Chowdhury
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
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