New Class of Fellows Appointed to Heidelberg University’s Marsilius Kolleg

A new class of fellows has been appointed to Heidelberg University’s Marsilius Kolleg. From March 2010 to next February, eleven Heidelberg academics will be engaging with interdisciplinary research issues and working on related projects. The professors making up the third class of fellows at the centre are Andreas Draguhn (neurobiology), Marco Essig (radiology), Johannes Glückler (geography), Fred Hamprecht (computer science), Thomas Klein (sociology), Uta Mager (law), Thomas Meier (archaeology), Hannah Monyer (neurobiology), Ulrich Platt (environmental physics), Gerhard Reinelt (mathematics) and Klaus Tanner (theology).

The Marsilius Kolleg is a cornerstone of Heidelberg University’s Institutional Strategy to Promote Top-Level University Research  in the framework of the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Government and the state governments. Its work is geared to bringing together handpicked researchers from different academic cultures, thereby promoting a research-based dialogue between the humanities, the social sciences, legal studies and the natural and life sciences. “The Marsilius Kolleg is a major asset to the university. The intensive exchange of ideas between representatives of very different disciplines is already producing remarkable results and greatly strengthening the research-related links both within the University itself and in the greater Rhine-Neckar research community,” says Rector Prof. Dr. Bernhard Eitel. At present the centre is working on three large-scale projects, “Views of Man and Human Dignity”, “Perspectives of Ageing in the Process of Social and Cultural Change” and  “The Global Governance of Climate Engineering”, the last begun in 2009.

The appointment of this third class of fellows is another stage in the Marsilius Kolleg’s efforts to intensify interdisciplinary cooperation at Heidelberg University. The newly appointed fellows also include a scientist from the German Centre for Cancer Research (DKFZ). “This strengthens the ties with non-university research institutions in and around Heidelberg,” says Prof. Dr. Hans-Georg Kräusslich, one of the two directors of the Kolleg. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schluchter, his fellow director, fully agrees: “The Marsilius Kolleg as a Centre for Advanced Study provides the institutional framework enabling us to posit and work through fundamental research issues across the traditional boundaries of differing cultures of academic endeavour.”

For more information on the Marsilius Kolleg, go to www.marsilius-kolleg.uni-heidelberg.de.

Contact
Tobias Just
Marsilius Kolleg
phone: +49 6221 543980
just@mk.uni-heidelberg.de

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