Alexander von Humboldt Professorships to be awarded on 12 May in Berlin

Seven international researchers from abroad will be relocating to Berlin, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Freiburg, Göttingen, Karlsruhe and Tübingen with a Humboldt Professorship. The award, which comes with up to €5 million in funding, offers optimal financial conditions and maximum flexibility for conducting leading-edge research in Germany.

Photos and information regarding all of this year’s Humboldt Professors can be accessed here. Photos from the event will be made available for downloading on the day after the award ceremony.

The awards will be presented by Dorothee Bär, Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space, and Robert Schlögl, President of the Humboldt Foundation.

Award ceremony

Time: 12 May 2026, 7 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
Venue: Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jägerstraße 22-23, 10117 Berlin
Journalists are welcome to attend! 
Accreditation: To receive accreditation, please send an e-mail with a copy of your press card to presse[at]avh.de
Press contact on location: Theresa Trepesch, 0151 / 14 247 102
Transmission-quality footage: Images and audio are available upon request.
Interviews can, by individual arrangement, be conducted also in advance.

Recipients of an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship:

• Christopher Barner-Kowollik, Chemistry, is switching from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). A chemist and materials scientist, his research work makes it possible to develop at molecular level advanced materials that are finding targeted applications in medicine, nanotechnology, and materials development. At KIT, he will be the Director of the Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG) where he will focus on research into “next-generation materials”.
• Sebastian Deindl, Structural Biology, is switching from Uppsala University, Sweden, to the University of Tübingen. The biophysicist’s findings have been of eminent importance for both basic research and medicine. The University of Tübingen wants to use his Humboldt Professorship to further expand and strengthen its leading international position in structural biology.
• Simon Elsässer, Cell Biology, is switching from Karolinska Institutet in Solna, Sweden, to the University of Freiburg. The biochemist is a leading expert for the further technological and methodological development of epigenetics and synthetic biology. At the University of Freiburg, he wants to strengthen and expand the research focus “signals of life”.
• Sahika Inal, Bioengineering, is switching from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, to Dresden University of Technology and the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden. She conducts research along the interfaces between materials science, biology and electronics. While in Dresden, she will use her expertise to close the existing gap in bioelectronics between molecular material design, device technology and biomedical implementation.
• Reinhard Maurer, Theoretical Chemistry, is switching from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, to the University of Göttingen and the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences. Mauerer pioneered the use of methods of machine learning and artificial intelligence in theoretical chemistry. The methods he has developed are important for computer-assisted material research and can be applied to other fields as well. His research work is expected to benefit both the German research landscape and the chemical industry.
• Michael Moehler, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE), is switching from Virginia Tech, USA, to Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. His multilevel social contract theory makes an original contribution to current discussions about the foundations of society by proposing a new social contract that reflects the conditions of a far-reaching pluralism. He is slated to direct a new, university-wide research institute for philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Düsseldorf.
• Michael Weber, Economics, is switching from the University of Chicago, USA, to ESMT Berlin (European School of Management and Technology). He studies how inflation is perceived, what role expectations play and why key economic players often communicate in ways that ignore the reality of people’s lives. By appointing Michael Weber, ESMT Berlin aims to advance to being the leading institution for financial research in Germany.

A Livestream of the award ceremony will be available on 12 May.

Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains an interdisciplinary network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians in more than 140 countries around the world – including 63 Nobel Prize winners.