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Ninety-seven young researchers from 38 countries will gather at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s network meeting being held at the University of Konstanz from 21 to 23 February 2024. The attendees are currently in Germany as researchers sponsored by the Humboldt Foundation and are working with colleagues at research institutes throughout the country. The event has the aim of acquainting the new Humboldtians with one another and with Konstanz, a city that is exemplary of Germany as a location for conducting research. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to talk with Foundation staff members and receive tips regarding living and conducting research in Germany.
Opening ceremony: Wednesday, 21 February 2024, 3 p.m.
Venue: University of Konstanz, Room R611, 78464 Konstanz
Journalists are welcome to attend! We will be glad to arrange interviews.
On Wednesday, 21 February, Katharina Holzinger, Rector of the University of Konstanz, and Steffen Mehlich, head of the Sponsorship and Network Department at the Humboldt Foundation, will welcome the attendees at 3 p.m.
This will be followed by the keynote lecture “Communication and Coordination in Animal Societies” to be given by Ariana Strandburg-Peshkin.
Ariana Strandburg-Peshkin studied physics at Swarthmore College in her native country, the USA, and then gained her doctorate in quantitative and computational biology at Princeton University. Since 2019 she has been Group Leader of the Communication & Collective Movement Research Group (CoCoMo), which is part of the Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the Biology Department of the University of Konstanz. Strandburg-Peshkin studies the mechanisms and consequences of collective behaviour in biological and social systems. In this work, she is particularly interested in how animal groups make collective decisions and coordinate their actions.
On Thursday, 22 February, the attending Humboldtians will visit research institutes at the University of Konstanz where the young researchers give brief lectures in specialist groups and establish contact with one another and with German colleagues. During the poster session that begins at 3 p.m., fellows will present the focus of their research (University of Konstanz, Room K7).
Also at 3 p.m., the Humboldt Foundation will present itself and its programmes to all interested parties during an informational lecture (University of Konstanz, Room K503).
The majority of participants at this year’s network meeting come from the natural and life sciences (57%), followed by the humanities and social sciences (27%) and engineering (16%). Most of the guests from abroad hail from China (9) and from Brazil, India and Iran (8 each).
(Press release 3/2024)
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 61 Nobel Prize winners.