All member of the CRC1459 Research Training Group were invited and experienced three days packed with exciting lectures in Biology, Chemistry and Physics in addition to having the opportunity to choose two out of four offered soft skill workshops to become a well-rounded researcher. Furthermore, an evening's entertainment program helped to bond and wind down with fellow attendees after an intense day of lectures and workshops.
In 2010, after more than a decade at the University of Cambridge and promoted to professor of polymer science, Wilhelm Huck returned to the Netherlands to ‘learn a new language’. Having become increasingly intrigued by the complexity of cellular life, he decided to dedicate his research efforts to unravel the mystery of how chemistry creates biology. All too soon, it became clear that life is a rather complex phenomenon, requiring a diverse and highly talented team of collaborators. He feels privileged to be surrounded by a group of clever and motivated young scientists, and to learn new things every day. When not in the lab, he enjoys gardening, baking, good food and wine, and traveling around the world.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Scheibel is full professor for Biomaterials and head of the department at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. He further is vice president for internationalization, gender equality and diversity at his University.
After studying biochemistry at the University of Regensburg, Germany, he graduated in 1994. He obtained his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in 1998 from the Institute of Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry at the University of Regensburg, Germany. After three years as a postdoc at the University of Chicago, Chicago USA, he was assistant professor (C1) at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and finished his habilitation in 2007.
Amongst his awards are the “Junior Scientist Award of the Materials week” (2004), the “Communicator Award of the Promega GmbH” (2005), the “Innovation Award from the Bavarian Prime Minister” (2006), the Award “Innovation made by nature” of the German Federal ministry of science (2007), the “Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz Medal” (2007), the “Karl-Heinz-Beckurts-Award” (2008), the “Dr R A Mashelkar Endowment Lecture on Advanced Materials”, National Chemical Laboratory, India (2013) and the “Dechema-Award” (2013). Since 2014 he is a member of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech).
Brigitte Voit received her PhD in Macromolecular Chemistry in 1990 from University Bayreuth, Germany, in the field of photoactive polymers. After postdoctoral work in 1991/1992 at Eastman Kodak in Rochester, USA, in the field of hyperbranched polymers, she joined Technische Universität München continuing the work on dendritic polymers and she received her habilitation degree in Macromolecular Chemistry in 1996. In 1997 Brigitte Voit was appointed head of the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry at the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research (IPF) Dresden, as well as full professor for "Organic Chemistry of Polymers“ at Technische Universität Dresden (TUD). In addition, from 2002 to July 2022, she has been heading the IPF Dresden, a large public research institute hosting about 500 people, as Scientific Director. Her major research interest is in the synthesis of new functional polymer architectures by various synthetic approaches covering topics like dendritic polymers, functional block and graft copolymers, smart hydrogels as well as biofunctional polymers and functional polymers for optoelectronic applications.
