Thursday, May 15, 2025 at 4:00 PM (CEST)

Prof. Dr. André Platzer on the topic Logic of Dynamical Systems for Flight Safety

International Excellence Talk in cooperation with Humboldt Regional Group Karlsruhe-Pforzheim at the 20th Humboldt-Tag at KIT.

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 at 3:00 PM (CEST)

Dr. Chris Funk on the topic From principle to practice - how global science can be linked to local action to safeguard lives and livelihoods in Africa

In our modern world, so filled with distraction, it can be easy to forget the value of principles. Some simple ethical principles – like being kind to each other and helping those most in need – have laid the foundation of civilization. Some simple physical principles – like how warmer air holds more water vapor – help lay the foundation for climate hazard forecasting in a warming world. In our applied climate research, we have found that connecting these principles informs effective early warning systems. These systems take advantage of global scientific resources to inform local life-saving anticipatory actions. This is what we will talk about in this presentation.

From first principles, we can expect that tropical rainfall events in a warming world will become more intense. Yet, relatively few people appreciate how this process can intensify the impacts of large-scale climate variations. Over the past decade, frequent El Niño, La Niña and Indian Ocean Dipole events have produced extreme weather in eastern and southern Africa. Collaborators in the US, Europe and East Africa have been studying how climate change amplifies the strength of these teleconnections. We have also been combining these insights with the power of global climate models. This allows us to predict many extreme wet and dry rainy seasons. We can also integrate these forecasts with global satellite observations, thereby producing best-in-science agricultural outlooks.

But the most exciting part of the story comes in the last mile, when local meteorologists, agricultural experts, and media outreach developers craft advisories that can potentially reach millions of farmers. Stretching across countries, academic disciplines, and social groups, these information streams connect us, providing those in need with critical opportunities to adapt, manage weather risks, and be more successful. While many technical and societal challenges remain, these partnerships provide important examples of how science can contribute to society.

Monday, January 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM (CET)

Prof. Victoria Stodden on the topic AI and the Future of Research: Stakeholders, Process, and Practices

In the last 10 years colossal cloud infrastructure investments behind the rise of near-ubiquitous global mobile technologies have trickled down to scientific research through innovative infrastructure including cloud compute and storage, I/O tools, data analysis and modeling frameworks, which in turn have generated broad and expanding communities of users and supporters. Arguably, the recent success of Large Language Models was catalyzed by the resulting technological innovations of 1) open and accessible massive data, and 2) re-executable discovery pipelines for model estimation and prediction. These changes are deeply disruptive to the research community since they open new paths to knowledge creation that were previously inaccessible and largely culturally unknown. The scientific community is faced with the challenge of responding to changes in research modalities due to these technological innovations. Research is now conducted as “Olympics” of benchmarked competitions between machine learning models leveraged by the opaque results of Large Language Models, access to massive data, and redeployment of complex scientific discovery workflows. In this plenary I provide a roadmap of changes and responses by various stakeholders in the research community to ensure that scientific results remain reliable and reproducible, and secure within a position of trust in the broader society.

Tuesday, November 12, 2024 at 3:00 PM (CET)

Prof. Susmita Sur-Kolay on the topic Challenges of Designing Quantum Computing Systems

The two major drivers for quantum computing have been the need to overcome the limitations of classical deterministic digital computers in terms of both computational complexity and the technology for building them. First, we delve into the basic model of quantum computing. Next, we give a snapshot of the application domains where for certain problems remarkable speed-up over classical computing have been achieved by quantum computing. Then, the progress in technology is sketched briefly. Finally, we present the specific challenges in designing efficient quantum circuits comprising a cascade of gates (primitive quantum operations) in order to realize quantum computing taking its inherent error-prone nature.

July 12, 2024 at 3:00 PM (CEST)

Prof. Zhengtao Xu on the topic Trees, Butterflies and Soap Bubbles: Inspiring the Design of New Materials 

How does watching trees and butterflies help us make new superconductors?—join us for a fun trip across the art terrains in the science of chaos, order, and molecular building blocks for tomorrow.

June 27, 2024 at 3:00 PM (CEST)

  Prof. Dr. Christian Beck on the topic Data-driven Load Profiles and the Complex Dynamics of Electricity Consumption

Power grids are the biggest machines on Earth. They are also the most complex ones, as they involve human beings and their complex correlated electricity consumption patterns. In this talk I will give some short overview on data-driven research dealing with frequency fluctuations in power grids. Whereas variations in the dynamics of renewable energy generation are reasonably well studied, a deeper understanding of the variations in consumer consumption dynamics is still missing. I will talk about highly resolved residential electricity consumption data of Austrian, German and UK households and introduce a stochastic model to quantitatively capture the highly intermittent demand fluctuations.

May 16, 2024 at 3:00 PM (CEST)

Prof. Dr. Cigdem Yalcin on the topic A New Perspective on Complex Network Representation

Numerous real-world systems, whether they are of natural or human origin, display complex interactions and dynamics evolving over time. As well known, transforming time series data into a complex network representation helps to gain a deep understanding of the dynamics underlying the data. In this talk, I will provide an introduction about converting time series to complex networks and then introduce a new approach in the context of physics for converting spatial-temporal series data into a complex network. And as an example study, I will discuss its application to the air quality of various regions in Istanbul, the largest metropolitan city in Turkey with a population of approximately 16 million.

May 16, 2024 at 3:00 PM (CEST)

Dr. Jianyu Li on the topic Engineering interfaces between biological tissues and hydrogels

Interfaces between biological tissues and hydrogels are underpinned in various applications, from wound care, tissue engineering to wearable technologies. Forming and controlling tough adhesion between them has been a long-standing challenge, necessitating transdisciplinary approaches. In my talk, I will share our progress in the development and translation of bioadhesive technologies. I will discuss the design principles for achieving reliable and controllable interfaces between hydrogels and tissues, which lead to tough bioadhesives with superior adhesion performance on diverse tissues. Furthermore, I will introduce new methodologies and mechanisms, such as ultrasound and interfacial entanglements, for orchestrating tough bioadhesion. Lastly, I will showcase the applications of tough bioadhesives in wound care, tissue repair, and hemorrhage management. This talk will highlight the synergy of materials and mechanics in forging innovative biomaterials to address biomedical challenges.

Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 4:00 PM (CEST)

Ph.D. Jason C. Furtado on the topic Drivers and Subseasonal Predictability of Cold Air Outbreaks in the Central United States

Even in a warming world, extreme winter weather events like cold air outbreaks still occur and have high socioeconomic costs, but they remain a challenge to forecast skillfully in the subseasonal-to-seasonal timeframe (i.e., 2-8 weeks). In this talk, I will discuss recent work by the Applied Climate Dynamics Group at the University of Oklahoma to improve our dynamical understanding of the evolution of cold air outbreaks in the central United States and then use this knowledge to improve skill in subseasonal predictions of those events. We use a combination of observations and numerical modeling experiments to show why we should care about intraseasonal variability in the stratosphere to improve our forecast skill, including considering different types of stratosphere-troposphere coupling outside of the “classical” paradigm. Additionally, we will highlight particular precursor flow patterns in the upper troposphere (so-called blocking patterns) which were key for skillful 3+ week forecasts of the February 2021 North American Cold Air Outbreak and could be exploited for long-lead predictions of future cold air outbreaks.

Friday, April 12, 2024 at 9:30 AM (CEST)

Dr. Xiaozhe Wang on the topic Security, Stability, and Control for Zero-Emission Bulk Power Grids and Microgrids

The modern low-carbon smart grids face several challenges including the high uncertainty level brought about by the intermittent renewable energy sources, increasing complexity of system modeling due to the integration of converter-interfaced sources (CIGs), and the vulnerability of power grids to cyberattacks because of growing dependence on information technology. In this talk, I will present some recent works of my group addressing the three challenges. To assess the impacts of uncertainty on power system security and operation, we developed polynomial chaos expansion (PCE)-based methods to carry out accurate and efficient probabilistic security assessments including probabilistic power flow, available transfer capability assessments, economic dispatch, microgrid service support, etc. Uncertainty-aware control using energy storage systems is also being designed to reduce the negative impacts of uncertainty and promote the integration of clean energy. To handle the increasing complexity in modeling, analysis and control due to CIGs, we leveraged the high-frequency GPS-synchronized data provided by Wide Area Monitoring System (WAMS) and designed data-driven methods to detect network topology change, conduct wide-area damping control, locate forced oscillations, estimate inertia, maintain voltage and frequency stability for both large grids and microgrids. To investigate the cybersecurity of power grids, we designed false data injection models targeting AC state estimation and automatic generation control (AGC) without the knowledge of system models and parameters. Our current works on the detection and mitigations of the attack models will also be discussed.

Friday, November 24, 2023 at 11:30 am CET - Prof. Stefan Felder on the topic New measurement methods to improve design and safety of hydraulic structures

Hydraulic structures, such as dams fulfill many societal functions including water supply, flood mitigation and generation of hydropower. Their safety is paramount and a failure can be catastrophic. The design of hydraulic structures must therefore be conducted with the highest technical standards using state-of[1]the-art measurement approaches. Despite their significance, current design practice for flood release and energy dissipation facilities is limited to small scale physical modeling combined with numerical modelling while significant limitations exist due to scale effects and missing prototype validation data. In recent years, some new advances have been made in the use of instrumentation and post-processing methods that can provide more confidence in the design of hydraulic structures and that may change the way we design structures in the future. Herein, this talk provides an overview about recent developments in the instrumentation relevant for hydraulic structures including phase-detection intrusive probes, remote sensing with LIDAR and camera technology as well as lagrangian-type sensors for fish safety assessment.

Thursday, July 20, 2023 at 5:00 pm CET 

We cordially invite you to join the 20th International Excellence Talk with Prof. Dr. Adam Jatowt on the topic “Automatic Question Answering from Archival Document Collections”.

Open Domain Question Answering (ODQA) has been researched for a while as a task in the intersection of NLP and IR that seeks to answer user questions against an underlying collection of documents. We focus here on answering questions from large scale news archives that span several decades, as a new subtype of ODQA which requires proper handling of temporal information. We will present several approaches to this variant of ODQA, and we will discuss the challenges and opportunities of accessing detailed information from temporal document collections, particularly, in the current era of large language models.

Wednesday, July 05, 2023 at 5:00 pm CET 

This talk will provide an overview of past and ongoing research in Prof. Dr. Andrés Díaz Lantada’s research team at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Spain. Prof. Dr. Andrés Díaz Lantada research interests lies in design for additive manufacturing, additive manufacturing technologies, smart materials and structures, 3D and 4D printing, engineered living materials, engineering education. Currently Prof. Dr. Díaz Lantada is an International Excellence Fellow at the Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT-KIT) under guidance from Prof. Dr. Jan Korvink, KIT 2023. In his speech, Prof. Dr. Díaz Lantada will show results from 4 European projects from Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programmes (TOMAX, UBORA, INKplant and BIOMET4D), in which he has led UPM’s participation. He will also explain important advances of the recent highly competitive iMPLANTS-CM “Synergy Project”, funded by Madrid’s General Directorate for Research and Innovation. 

Thursday, May 25, 2023 at 5:30 pm CET 

"Applications of Machine Learning in Climate Change and Environmental Modeling" by Dr. Zoe Li  - This is the title for the 18^th KIT International Excellence Talk. The talk will provide an overview of past and ongoing research in Dr. Zoe Li’s research team at the Department of Civil Engineering, McMaster University, Canada. 

Dr. Li´s research focuses on environmental risk analysis and management, where she introduces new uncertainty quantification methods for climate-hydrological and environmental modeling and develops robust optimization tools to support risk analysis and management. With a focus on how to leverage machine learning techniques to solve environmental problems, Dr. Li will present several applications of machine learning for climate downscaling, hydrological forecasting, river ice prediction, and wastewater modeling.

Thursday, February 09, 2023 at 5:00 pm CET 

Electrocatalytic Materials and Design: Towards Hydrogen Energy Sustainability - This is the title for the 16^th KIT International Excellence Talk, which will be held virtually via Zoom. On Thursday, 9 February 2023 at 5:00 PM (CET), Dr. Po-Ya Abel Chuang will elaborate on fuel cell and electrolysis technologies as key solutions to future energy sustainability. Furthermore, he will introduce his research efforts that are centered around the fundamental electrochemical study for applications such as low-temperature PEM and AEM fuel cell and electrolyzer. Affiliated with the School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, USA, Dr. Chuang is currently conducting his research at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU), a facility launched by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology together with Ulm University, as an International Excellence Fellow.  

Thursday, October, 2022 at 5:00pm CET 

Rational Design of Materials for Energy Production and a Cleaner Future - This is the title for the 15th KIT International Excellence Talk, which will be held as an attendance event and virtually per Zoom. On Wednesday, 23 November 2022 at 3:00 PM (CET), Dr. M. Veronica Ganduglia-Pirovano will elaborate on the potent greenhouse gases methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) and the significance of their conversion to valuable resources to a greener future. Furthermore, she will discuss recent results on metal/CeO2 systems which point toward a possible strategy for designing active and stable catalysts that can be employed for methane activation and conversions. Affiliated with the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Spain, Dr. Ganduglia-Pirovano is currently conducting her research at the Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG), KIT as an International Excellence Fellow.

Thursday, October, 2022 at 5:00pm CET 

Order Fulfillment Design for an Omnichannel World - This is the title for the 14^th KIT International Excellence Talk, which will be held as an attendance event and virtually per Zoom. On Tuesday, 25 October 2022 at 5:00 PM (CEST), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jennifer Pazour will elaborate on the ongoing transformation to retail and distribution operations due to the proliferation of e-commerce and present an overview of omni-channel material handling challenges and opportunities. This includes research on new operational designs, facilities, equipment, methodologies and business models. Affiliated with the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), USA, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pazour is currently conducting her research at the Institute for Material Handling and Logistics (IFL), KIT as an International Excellence Fellow.  

Thursday, September 29, 2022 

Towards Physical-Conceptual Modeling of Mass, Energy and Information Flows Using Machine Learning Technology- This is the title for the 13^th KIT International Excellence Talk, which will be held as an (1) attendance event and (2) virtually per Zoom. On Thursday, 29 September 2022 at 5:00 PM (CEST), Prof. Dr. Hoshin V. Gupta will discuss the contributing factors for the success of any Machine Learning strategy with regards to its effectiveness and efficiency. He will also expand on his view of the symbiotic relationship between Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence and the Domain Sciences. Affiliated with the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona, Prof. Dr. Gupta is currently conducting his research at the Institute for Water and River Basin Management - Hydrology (IWG-HYD), KIT as an International Excellence Fellow.  

Wednesday, July 14, 2022 at 5:00pm CEST 

Multidisciplinary Design and Analysis of Multifunctional Lightweight Systems - This is the title for the 12^th virtual KIT International Excellence Talk. On Thursday, 14 July 2022 at 5:00 PM (CEST), Prof. Dr. Kamran Behdinan will discuss advanced techniques in design and analysis of lightweight structures and summarize major research projects conducted in intelligent manufacturing and lightweight structures at the UofT ARL-MLS.  Affiliated with the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto, Prof. Dr. Behdinan is currently conducting his research at the Institute of Product Engineering (IPEK), KIT as an International Excellence Fellow.  

After the talk, he will be available for an informal discussion with the audience. Read more about the speaker and the talk as well as find the Zoom link on our website. 

The International Scholars and Welcome Office (IScO) and the Institute of Product Engineering of KIT are looking forward to e-meeting and exchanging ideas with you!

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at 5:00pm CEST online via Zoom (no registration required) 

Design of new materials based on their inner architecture, rather than their atomic or phase composition, is an emerging trend in materials engineering. In the 10th KIT International Excellence talk, Prof. Dr. Yuri Estrin from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia will highlight several promising areas of research into architectured materials. The event will take place virtually, via Zoom, on Wednesday, 25 May, 2022 at 5:00 PM (CEST). 

After the keynote lecture, we invite you to join the informal discussion with Prof. Dr. Yuri Estrin and other participants. Read more about the speaker and the talk as well as find the Zoom link on our website. 

The International Scholars and Welcome Office (IScO) and the Institute of Engineering Mechanics - Continuum Mechanics (ITM-KM) are looking forward to e-meeting and exchanging ideas with you!

Thursday, April 28, 2022 at 5:00pm CET online - Please find the record on our Youtube-Channel 

Conventional imaging, as you do with your smartphone, is achieved with ubiquitous optical elements (such as lenses) and has remained more or less unchanged for centuries. On Thursday, April 28 at 5 PM CET, Prof. Forbes, Winner of the Georg Forster Prize from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, will outline how spooky quantum light allows us to break the rules of traditional imaging systems, including imaging without interacting with the object, high resolution photos with low resolution detectors, and making the invisible visible.

After the keynote lecture, we invite you to join the networking opportunity with Prof. Forbes where you will have the chance to connect with him and with the other participants during an informal discussion. Read more about the speaker and the talk as well as find the Zoom link on our website. 

The International Scholars and Welcome Office (IScO) and the Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT) of KIT are looking forward to e-meeting and exchanging ideas with you!

 

Thursday, March 03, 2022 at 5:00pm CET online - Please find the record on our Youtube-Channel

Shifting the Narratives Around Women STEMpreneurs - This is the title for the 8^th virtual KIT International Excellence Talk. On Thursday, March 3 at 5:00 PM CET, International Excellence Fellow of KIT Dr. Katherina Kuschel will explain the characteristics and dynamics around women entrepreneurs in STEM fields and propose a new perspective to measure their success. Affiliated to the CENTRUM Graduate Business School and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Kuschel is currently exploring soft-landing programs and expatpreneurs at EnTechnon, KIT with the funding of DAAD and the KIT International Excellence Fellowship. After the talk, she will be available for an informal discussion with the audience.

Read more about the speaker and the talk as well as find the Zoom link on our website: https://www.intl.kit.edu/ischolar/16588.php.

The International Office and the Institute for Entrepreneurship, Technology management and Innovation (EnTechnon) of KIT are looking forward to e-meeting and exchanging ideas with you! 

Thursday, January 27th, 2022 at 6:00pm CEST online - Please find the record on our Youtube-Channel

Excellence lives from exchange and networking among the best researchers worldwide. That is why we want to invite you to join us in this new lecture series, International Excellence Talks, where internationally renowned scientists will give insights into their current research topics and, ideally, inspire a broad audience of scholars. This monthly event will include a 30-minute keynote lecture and a platform for networking and informal exchange among researchers with a wide range of interests.

Micro-scale Magnetic Resonance as a Quantitative Tool for Biology – This is the title for this month’s virtual KIT International Excellence Talk. On Thursday, January 27th, 2022 at 6:00pm CEST, Prof. Dr. Marcel Utz from the University of Southampton (UK) will present his findings on this topic and be available for an informal scientific discussion with participants. 

The event will take place on Thursday, January 27th, 2022 at 6:00pm CEST via Zoom. It will be aimed at all interested scientists at KIT of all scientific fields, who would like to get an insight into current research topics presented by international scientists as well as International Excellence Fellows and Humboldt Fellows & Grantees. After the presentation you will have the opportunity to connect with Prof. Dr. Utz and fellow researchers.

•   Date: Thursday, January 27th, 2022 at 6:00pm CEST.
•   Venue: The event will be held online via Zoom. 
•   Topic: "Micro-scale Magnetic Resonance as a Quantitative Tool for Biology". 
•   Target Group: All interested scientists.

KIT International Office and KIT Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT) are looking forward to exchanging ideas with you! 

In case you have any questions or would like to receive updates on topics, lecturers and more, please send us an e-mail.

Thursday, November 25, 2021 at 6:00pm CEST online - Please find the record on our Youtube-Channel

Excellence lives on exchange and networking among the best researchers worldwide. That is why we want to invite you to join us in this new lecture series, International Excellence Talks, where internationally renowned scientists will give insights into their current research topics and, ideally, inspire a broad audience of scholar. This monthly event will include a 30-minute keynote lecture and a platform for networking and informal exchange among researchers with a wide range of interests.

Moving from ‘Human as Problem’ to ‘Human as Solution’ in Cyber Security – This is the title for this month’s virtual KIT International Excellence Talk. On Thursday, November 25 at 6:00 PM CET, Dr. Karen Renaud from the Strathclyde University (UK) will present her findings on this topic and be available for an informal scientific discussion with participants. 

The event will take place on Thursday, November 25, 2021 at 6:00pm CEST via Zoom. It will be aimed at all interested scientists at KIT of all scientific fields, who would like to get an insight into current research topics presented by international scientists as well as International Excellence Fellows and Humboldt Fellows & Grantees. After the presentation you will have the opportunity to connect with Dr. Renaud and fellow researchers.

•   Date: Thursday, November 25, 2021 from 6:00pm CEST.
•   Venue: The event will be held online via Zoom. 
•   Topic: "Moving from ‘Human as Problem’ to ‘Human as Solution’ in Cyber Security". 
•   Target Group: All interested scientists.

KIT International Office and KIT Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods (AIFB) are looking forward to exchanging ideas with you! 

In case you have any questions or would like to receive updates on topics, lecturers and more, please send us an e-mail.

Thursday, June 24, 2021 at 6:00pm CEST online - Please find the record on our Youtube-Channel

International collaboration is of high importance in particular in top-level research. Excellence lives on competition and on exchange among the best researchers worldwide. That´s why KIT IKIT International Affairs in close operation with the Humboldt-Regional Group Karlsruhe-Pforzheim established the new talk series "International Excellence Talks".

We cordially invite you to join our next talk with Prof. Dr. Dmitry Pelinovsky on the topic "Rogue waves in nature and integrable models". Prof. Dr. Dmitry Pelinovsky is currently a Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the McMaster University in Canada. His field of expertise covers analysis, differential equations, mathematical modeling and theoretical physics. Prof. Dr. Pelinovsky is recipient of the Humboldt Research Award 2021, Research Fellow of the University of Cape Town (1997), NATO Science Postdoctoral Fellow (1998-2000) and an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow (2006-2007).

The event will take place on Thursday, June 24, 2021 at 6:00pm CEST via Zoom. It will be aimed at all interested scientists at KIT of all scientific fields, who would like to get an insight into current research topics presented by international scientists as well as International Excellence and Humboldt Fellows. The focus will also lie on the possibility of networking and community building.

•   Date: Thursday, June 24, 2021 from 6:00pm CEST.
•   Venue: The event will be held online via Zoom. Participation in the webinar is free of charge.
•   Topic: "Rogue waves in nature and integrable models".
•   Target Group: All interested scientists.

In case you have any questions or would like to receive updates on topics, lecturers and more, please send us an e-mail.

Thursday, May 20, 2021 at 6:00pm - Please find the record on our Youtube-Channel

International collaboration is of high importance in particular in top-level research. Excellence lives on competition and on exchange among the best researchers worldwide. That´s why KIT IKIT International Affairs in close operation with the Humboldt-Regional Group Karlsruhe-Pforzheim established the new talk series "International Excellence Talks".
 

We cordially invite you to join the first talk with Prof. Dr. Igor Komarov on the topic "Fighting cancer with light - emerging technologies". Prof. Dr. Igor Komarov is amongst the top-100 most cited Ukrainian scientists, and one of the Ukrainian top-5 in the area of organic chemistry. His research into peptidomimetics, whose biological activity can be controlled by light, has been pursued at the international forefront. Prof. Dr. Komarov is one of the first holders of the International Excellence Fellow of the KIT (2020), an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow (2000-2001) and a holder of the Georg Forster Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2015). In his talk Prof. Dr. Komarov will present the results obtained during his collaboration with the scientific group of Prof. Dr. Anne S. Ulrich of KIT suitable for a wide audience and therefore for also non-specialists in the field.

The event will take part on Thursday, May 20, 2021 at 6:00pm via Zoom (the official invitation will follow after registration). It will be aimed at all interested scientists at KIT of all scientific fields, who would like to get an insight into current research topics presented by international scientists as well as International Excellence and Humboldt Fellows. The focus will also lie on the possibility of networking and community building.

•    Date: Thursday, May 20, 2021 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm.
•    Topic: "Fighting cancer with light - emerging technologies".
•    Target Group: All interested scientists.

Please register here for the event. In case you have any questions, please contact Elena Pfeifer. Find further information in the official invitation. 

Wednesday, June 17, 2020, 7:30 p.m. (Zoom)
Online event in a series on "Effects of the Corona crisis on the EU"
Europe current - from the perspective of Prof. Dr. Dirk Wentzel

Find the registration and further information here.

[POSTPONED/VERSCHOBEN] Due to Corona we have to postpone the planned meeting and will contact you, once we have evaluated, for example, a video conference option.

April 30, 2020 at 6:00 p.m.: Lecture as part of the Humboldt Regional Group Karlsruhe-Pforzheim e.V.: "The physics of golf” and “Putting cells in the right place: mastering 3D organization of cells and tissues towards efficient organ printing" given by Professor Dr. Peter Henning and Dr. Enrico Lemma.
Venue: "Heinrich Hertz Restaurant,” Engesserstr. 3, KIT Campus South, Karlsruhe.

30. November 2017 at 7:00 p.m.: Humboldt Lecture: A glimpse into partial differential equations by Dr. Alberto Saldaña

Dr. Alberto Saldaña holds an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers and is conducting research at the Institute for Analysis at KIT. His host Professor Dr. Wolfgang Reichel holds a chair at the Department of Mathematics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Venue: Gastdozentenhaus Engesserstr. 3, Campus Süd, KIT. After the lecture, there will be an opportunity to join our informal dinner (on your own expenses) and to network in an international and multi-disciplinary environment. This lecture is open to everybody interested in this topic. Program

27. July 2017: 13. Humboldt-Tag at KIT - Promotion of internationally mobile scientists. Venue: Building 11.30 Senatehall, 3^rd floor.

01. Dezember 2016 ab 19:00 Uhr: Humboldt Regional Group Karlsruhe-Pforzheim e.V. lecture on Quantum information processing using superconducting circuits, given by Dr. Ioan Pop. Venue: "Guest House and Conference Center”, Engesserstr. 3, Campus South, KIT. After the lecture there will be an opportunity to join our informal dinner and to network in a multi-disciplinary environment. This lecture is open to everybody interested in this topic. More Information

28.- 29. Oktober 2016 at 13:00 Uhr: 9th Annual Conference of  German Society of Humboldtians  in Karlsruhe. Venue: Senatssaal des Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Engelbert-Arnold-Str. 2, Gebäude 11.30, Adolf-Würth Gebäude. Program and detailed information.

27. October 2016 at 12:30 Uhr: 12. Humboldt-Tag at KIT - Promotion of internationally mobile scientists. Venue: Geb. 11.30 Neuer Senatssaal, 3. Stock.

12. May 2016 at 19:00 Uhr: Lecture: Resilience assessment for the road networks under the earthquake and landslide risks held by Professor Dr. H. Sebnem Düzgün, Professor at the Middle East Technical University, in Ankara, Turkey. Venue: Zum kleinen Ketterer, Adlerstr. 34, 76133 Karlsruhe. Professor Düzgün has a Humboldt Georg Forster Fellowship for experienced researchers that allows her to stay in Karlsruhe for one year.  Dr. Düzgün is a Professor at the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, Department of Mining Engineering. After the lecture there will be an opportunity to join our informal dinner and network in a multi-disciplinary environment. This lecture is open to everybody who is interested in this topic. So please feel free to pass on the information in your academic network to people who might be interested.. Invitation

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5. November 2015 at 19:00 Uhr: Lecture Fuel cells for clean energy by Professor Aimy Bazylak, PhD, PEng, Canada Research Chair in Thermofluidics for Clean Energy at University of Toronto, Associate Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Associate Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy, Associate Director, NSERC CREATE Program in DGRC. Venue: Kaminzimmer of Heinrich-Hertz Gastdozentenhauses

1. August 2015: There and back again: Two Humboldt Fellows at once join FLUTE at KIT

[left to right] G. Niehues, M. Tani, S. Funkner at the FIR center of Fukui University (FU) in Japan and the Humboldt fellows with their humboldtian mentor E. Bründermann at the FLUTE facility Recently, Gudrun Niehues and Stefan Funkner joined the department of humboldtian Erik Bründermann at KIT for their research projects in cooperation with their former host Prof. Masahiko Tani, director of the Research Center for Development of Far-Infrared Region at the University of Fukui in Japan. Both researchers, who have a longstanding expertise in the field of terahertz (THz) spectroscopy, have chosen to pursue their research projects at the new FLUTE accelerator facility. During their stay in Japan, G. Niehues worked on the development of spectroscopic systems, which were designed for polarization sensitive measurements in the THz regime [1], while S. Funkner constructed a new experiment for non-linear Raman spectroscopy at THz frequencies with chirped picosecond pulses [2]. For their work at KIT, the Humboldt Foundation supports both researchers with a Feodor-Lynen Return Fellowship. The two fellows are also supported by the International Scholars & Welcome Office of KIT and Prof. Dirk Wentzel, spokesperson for the regional group of the German Society of Humboldtians, and by their Humboldtian mentor Erik Bründermann, who strives to promote cooperation in research and education with Japan. Both fellows will utilize the femtosecond laser system of the FLUTE facility. Gudrun Niehues aims to develop single-shot electro-optical sampling techniques, which enables the investigation of smart materials. Stefan Funkner's goal is to advance non-linear and ultrafast measurement techniques. [1] G. Niehues, S. Funkner, D. S. Bulgarevich, S. Tsuzuki, T. Furuya, K. Yamamoto, M. Shiwa, and M. Tani, A matter of symmetry: terahertz polarization detection properties of a multicontact photoconductive antenna evaluated by a response matrix analysis, Opt. Express, 2015, 23, 16184-16195. [2] S. Funkner, K. Saito, G. Niehues, Y. Yazawa, T. Furuya, K. Yamamoto, and M. Tani, Utilization of chirped laser pulses to measure stimulated Raman scattering of organic liquids in the terahertz regime, Appl. Phys. Lett., 2014, 105(2), 021103.

07. May 2015 at 12:30 Uhr: 11. Humboldt-Tag at Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) Campus South, Neuer Senatssaal 3.OG (3rd floor), Buidling 11.30 (Präsidium)

26. March 2015 at19:00 Uhr: Lecture by Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Peter Henning, Professor for Computer Science, University of Applied Sciences Karlsruhe and Professor for Business Information Technology, Steinbeis University of Applied Sciences Berlin: Education 2.0: Research trends and global development of technology enhanced learning. Venue:Kaminzimmer of the Heinrich-Hertz Gastdozentenhauses

Starting with key figures on the growth (rates) of the internet and highlighting the digitalization of communication, he underlined the importance of the digitalization. In the following, he illustrated different forms of technology aided learning and discussed their importance and possible future development. One of the discussed technology aided learning forms was the so called “Massive(ly) Open Online Course” format were thousands of students stream recorded lectures (MOOC). Even though the phenomenon of MOOC’s became viral in the past two years, Professor Henning predicts anything but a bright future for MOOC’s as they lack several important properties of a good technology aided learning format. Closing the presentation with visions of technology aided learning, Professor Henning opened the discussion for the interested audience. As the topic and the presentation were highly interesting, it was discussed a lot and the discussion kept on going during dinner. After dinner, some last questions were discussed before the get-together started. And as Christian Rembe, one of the founding members of the Alexander-of-Humboldt regional group Karlsruhe-Pforzheim, leaves the regional group, it was time to say farewell.

17. July 2014, 12:30-18:00 Uhr: 10. Humboldt-Tag at Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) Campus South, Adenauerring 7, in the Festsaal of the Studentenwerk.

07. May 2014 at 19:30 Uhr: Lecture by humboldtian Dr. Christian Rembe, physicist and head of development at Polytec, Measuring vibrations in nature and technology with light (Schwingungen in der Natur und Technik mit Licht messen) at Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) Campus South, Adenauerring 2, Building 50.20 in Room 005.