Research funding Research at Universität Heidelberg Supported by a Heisenberg Professorship
19 December 2024
Saeed Amirjalayer admitted to the German Research Foundation funding program
Prof. Dr Saeed Amirjalayer has been appointed to the Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences of Heidelberg University as a Heisenberg Professor of the German Research Foundation (DFG). He has distinguished himself through his research on the development and application of computational methods to investigate molecular-based functional materials. His group combines theoretical chemistry and physics with machine learning and evolutionary algorithms to address, by performing comprehensive multiscale simulations, key questions in basic research and to develop fundamental models of technology-relevant applications. In the framework of the DFG-funded professorship for computational chemistry, Prof. Amirjalayer conducts his research at the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing.
Located at the interface of chemistry, physics and materials science, Prof. Amirjalayer’s research aims to bridge a gap in the development of materials that can fine-tune their properties at the molecular level in response to external stimuli and adapt to their environment. To do so, the scientist and his team work on novel approaches to encoding information at the atomic scale, decoding it on demand in response to external inputs and translating it into the targeted functionality. Building on that, their mission is to produce nanoscale intelligent, cell-like functional materials.
After graduating and earning his doctorate in Bochum, Saeed Amirjalayer conducted research supported by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina at the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands). In 2014 he moved to the University of Münster as a group leader, completing his habilitation in chemical physics at the Center for Nanotechnology. In September 2024 he was appointed a Heisenberg Professor at Heidelberg University. Prof. Amirjalayer is one of the project leaders in the recently extended Collaborative Research Centre 1249 “N-Heteropolycycles as Functional Materials”, which explores organic and optoelectronic materials.
The Heisenberg Programme of the German Research Foundation offers various funding formats and addresses outstanding scientists who fulfil all the preconditions for appointment to a tenured professorship.