As basic principles, TENETS guide the practice of scientists across disciplines, social and political life in our societies. Such principles are, however, subject to important VARIATIONS. Any TRANSFORMATIVE changes over time challenge the fundamental nature of tenets and can result in a conceptual re-thinking.

We invite applications from all early career researchers of the Rhein-Main-Allianz, who are interested in this topic, and who would like to join our interdisciplinary debates.

Applications will be accepted until 30.04.2019.

The tropopause region is the boundary region between the troposphere, which determines weather events, and the significantly more stable stratosphere. Here we find various processes that work together on very different temporal and spatial scales and determine the composition of this region. The tropopause is also of considerable relevance to the global radiation budget of the atmosphere and thus to predictions of how climate might develop in future. However, the extensive variability of these processes and the composition of this region results in large uncertainties in climate assessments. The new project "Empirical transport time scales in the tropopause region," which is part of the SOUTHTRAC (Transport and Composition of the Southern Hemisphere) field campaign, will be attempting to quantify the relevant scales in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time. The researchers will use the German HALO (High Altitude and Long Range) research aircraft to collect information on the composition of the atmosphere over both hemispheres.

The scientists expect that the processes controlling transport and mixing and thus the composition at this altitude of the Southern Hemisphere will turn out to differ significantly from those in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, for example, there is no counterpart to the Asian summer monsoon system, which influences the composition of the stratosphere of the Northern Hemisphere in summer and autumn. At the same time, the polar vortex, which is partly responsible for the formation of the ozone hole, is much more pronounced over the Antarctic. Due to the variation in land mass distribution, the paths of the weather systems of the middle latitudes and the positioning of the prevailing wind systems are different. Thus the dynamics of the two hemispheres differ significantly from each other, which results in a different composition of the air masses in the tropopause region, which then in turn may lead to hemispheric divergent interactions with the climate.

Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Goethe University Frankfurt will be investigating the tropopause region in the two hemispheres using a combined experimental and modelling approach. Both institutions have years of experience, in various contexts, of atmospheric trace gas measurements with the help of aircraft. In the funded project, corresponding measurements will be taken in the Southern Hemisphere during a planned mission involving the HALO aircraft.

The JGU measurement of specific air mass markers at short time scales allow the analysis of how components combine at short time scales and thus at the process level. The researchers will compare these results with the extremely precise trace element measurements of their colleagues in Frankfurt, thus providing for exact pinpointing of the large-scale transport time. The innovative model approach developed by the Mainz-based research group combines the results of measurements on various scales, thus linking the process level to the global scale. The researchers expect that these investigations will improve the understanding of the differences between the two hemispheres and help enhance climate modeling. In a follow-up project, they also want to include data on aerosols and cloud particles to be added in the model approach.

This joint project is being undertaken within a larger consortium, which also includes Technische Universität Darmstadt, the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and DLR Oberpfaffenhofen. This consortium is engaged in a long-term program investigating various multiscale processes specifically in these high altitude regions. The aim is to better understand how these influence the Earth's climate system and to improve the accuracy of climate projections.

The RMU Initiative Funding for Research

The Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) are strengthening their mutual networks through the RMU Initiative Funding for Research. From the last call for proposals comprising a total of 49 applicants, six new research projects in African Studies, Educational Research, Computer Science, Meteorology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Business Education will be funded over the coming two years, each with up to EUR 100,000 per year.

Contact:
Professor Dr. Peter Hoor
Institute of Atmospheric Physics
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
55099 Mainz, GERMANY
Tel. +49 6131 39-22863
e-mail: hoor@uni-mainz.de 
https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb08-ipa-en/univ-prof-dr-peter-hoor/

Professor Dr. Andreas Engel
Institute for Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences
Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
60438 Frankfurt am Main, GERMANY
Tel. +49 69 798-40259
e-mail: an.engel@iau.uni-frankfurt.de 
https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/46115040/Andreas-Engel-Homepage

Six professors from the Department of Law and Economics at TU Darmstadt have achieved rankings in the top 50 of the list of the 100 most research intense business economists called "The High-flyers of Business Management". These are Alexander Benlian (rank 5), Christoph Glock (rank 11), Dirk Schiereck (rank 18), Simon Emde (rank 26), Ruth Stock-Homburg (rank 34) and Peter Buxmann (rank 47).
Two members of the TU Darmstadt are also very well placed in the parallel Top 25 of the most research intense economists under the age of 40: Christoph Glock (3rd place) and Simon Emde (11th place). Alexander Benlian is also ranked 11th in the Top 25 in the Lifetime Achievement category.

Two economists from the Goethe University have made it into the top 30: The holder of the Frankfurt professorship for information systems and information management Oliver Hinz reached rank 23; Bernd Skiera, Professor of Electronic Commerce, reached rank 29 at Goethe University. Both were awarded the Sheth Foundation/Journal of Marketing Award in 2018.

Two scientists from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz achieved a place on the list: Stefan Irnich, Professor of Logistics Management at the JGU (rank 20) and Timo Gschwind, research assistant at the Department of Logistics Management (rank 96, also rank 70 among under-40s).

The ranking was compiled by the research institute KOF of the ETH Zurich and the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) and is based on the evaluation of publications in renowned journals.

RMU

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already an integral part of daily life where it plays a role in image recognition, voice control, and social bots through to self-driving cars and humanoid robots. One of the key problems is how to generate human perception and human activity in the form of "intelligent" computer programs. In the RMU Network for Deep Continuous-Discrete Machine Learning, or DeCoDeML for short, the participating researchers at the Rhine-Main Universities of Mainz, Darmstadt, and Frankfurt will examine the question of how the results of machine learning can be made more comprehensible or at least perceived in such a way that they can be related to human understanding.

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz has particular expertise in the analysis of complex structured data, such as sequences, time series, and images, as well as in the analysis of data streams. The particular focus of the team at TU Darmstadt is on machine learning using uncertain data and knowledge as well as the learning of intelligible prediction models in the form of rules. Core research areas of Goethe University Frankfurt involve the cognitive aspects of learning, such as the question of how learning is guided by expectations, and in taking a systems-oriented view of technical systems with machine learning components. Areas of application include the understanding and generation of images and films (Mainz, Frankfurt), the processing of texts and speech (Darmstadt), and the analysis of biological sequences (Mainz).

Joint prior work has already taken place both within the universities and between the universities, as a result of work done by the researchers in earlier stages of their careers. Moreover, the two coordinators of the project, Professor Stefan Kramer of the Institute of Computer Science at JGU and Professor Kristian Kersting of the Computer Science Department at TU Darmstadt, are also currently active members of the Platform Learning Systems advisory committee of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), which deals with policy formation and potential funding for machine learning in Germany. One of the purposes of the new RMU project is to facilitate a lively exchange of ideas between the institutions to result in new joint projects.

There are currently a total of eight professors involved from the three universities, three from Mainz, three from Darmstadt, and two from Frankfurt. The consortium can and may be extended. "We are very pleased that with support from the RMU Initiative Funding for Research we can create a platform here in the Rhine-Main area in the field of machine learning, on which further research networks will be able to build," commented the project coordinators.

The kick-off meeting for the DeCoDeML project took place on December 18, 2018. Academics from all three universities outlined their existing research approaches and projects in the field, providing a basis for setting up and developing new collaborations.

The RMU Initiative Funding for Research
The Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) are strengthening their mutual networks through the RMU Initiative Funding for Research. From the last call for proposals comprising a total of 49 applicants, six new research projects in African Studies, Educational Research, Computer Science, Meteorology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Business Education will be funded over the coming two years, each with up to EUR 100,000 per year.

Contact:
Professor Dr. Stefan Kramer
Institute of Computer Science
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
55099 Mainz, GERMANY
phone +49 6131 39-21057
e-mail: kramer@informatik.uni-mainz.de 
https://www.datamining.informatik.uni-mainz.de/stefan-kramer/ 

Professor Dr. Kristian Kersting
Computer Science Department & Center for Cognitive Science
Technische Universität Darmstadt
64289 Darmstadt
phone +49 6151 16-24411
e-mail: kristian.kersting@cs.tu-darmstadt.de
https://ml-research.github.io/people/kkersting/index.html 

Max Bächer was an architect, ubiquitous judge in architectural competitions and a quarrelsome publicist. His estate was handed over to the German Museum of Architecture in 2012 and is now being viewed by students of art history and curatorial studies at the Goethe University Frankfurt and by architecture students from the TU Darmstadt. From the material, they have conceived and curated an exhibition that presents sub-aspects of Bächer's varied interests and activities based on seven themes. This is the first time that parts of the extensive estate material have been presented to the public. Concept and content of the exhibition were developed in a workshop under the direction of Nina Beitzen of the architectural firm Kuehn Malvezzi.

The exhibition extends over 50 metres in the form of a newly created banister through the stairwell of the Department of Architecture of the TU Darmstadt. It was opened in the framework of the symposium "Who determines architecture?", sponsored by the Rhein-Main-Universities. The exhibition can be viewed daily until 3 February from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) will assume the chairmanship under Prof. Dr. med. Helle Ulrich, Professor in the Department of Biology, Scientific Director at the IMB. The molecular biologist and director of the Institute of Biochemistry II, Prof. Ivan Dikic, is involved from the Goethe University Frankfurt. As Principal Investigator, he leads the research project "Molecular mechanisms of replication stress response". The project investigates the mechanisms that ensure the smooth course of DNA replication at particularly critical points within DNA. The TU Darmstadt is involved in three subprojects headed by Prof. Markus Löbrich, Prof. Cristina Cardoso and Prof. Alexander Löwer.

On average, about 10,000 instances of damage occur every day in the genetic material of every cell in our body - and each of these instances can in principle become a mutation that leads to the development of cancer or premature aging. To prevent this and repair the vast amount of damage, cells have a series of repair mechanisms that protect our genome. To better understand these repair mechanisms, how they are regulated and work together to remedy damage, is the goal of the SFBs funded with around 10 million euros for the first four-year funding period. 

DNA damage can be caused by environmental factors such as radiation and certain chemicals. However, they also come about through the normal metabolism of a cell, as a result of which reactive molecules are constantly being produced that damage our DNA. This damage can hinder the storage, copying and reading of genetic information. However, the cell has a variety of mechanisms for protecting and repairing its genome. 

The interaction of these mechanisms is a major determinant of the fate of a cell: It regulates the balance between cell death and survival of the cell and between the correct repair of damage and the emergence of a mutation. Therefore, DNA repair can both promote and prevent carcinogenesis. It contributes to the cytotoxic effects of cancer therapies that kill cells and to the resistance of cancer cells to therapies. In a broader context, mechanisms for maintaining genome stability also influence evolution, since they increase the genetic diversity upon which natural selection is based. In addition, DNA repair not only serves to protect our genetic material but is also used to regulate the activity of genes. 

The aim of the SFB is to investigate which sources of genome instability exist and what their biological effects are, via which signalling pathways DNA damage is detected and with which mechanisms cells protect themselves against them. Additionally, the SFB will investigate how the various DNA repair pathways are regulated and the mutual relationships between them are controlled. The latest approaches in microscopy, proteomics and genomics as well as current methods for the detection and quantification of DNA damage and DNA repair will be used. 

The DFG's coordinated programme SFB funds long-term research collaboration lasting up to twelve years in which researchers work together as part of a cross-curricular research programme. The goal is an institutional focus and structural formation through the processing of innovative, demanding, complex and long-term conceived research projects through the coordination and concentration of persons and resources at the applicant universities.

Press contact for more information:
Dr. Ralf Dahm
Director of Scientific Management
Institute of Molecular Biology gGmbH (IMB)
Ackermannweg 4
55128 Mainz
Tel. +49 (0) 6131 / 39 – 21455
Fax +49 (0) 6131 39 21421
Email: press@imb.de

With the project "Afrikaner*innen im Rhein-Main-Gebiet" (Africans in the Rhine-Main region), the African Studies Rhine-Main alliance, founded in May 2016 by the universities of Frankfurt, Mainz and Darmstadt, wants to make a scientific contribution to the highly topical, politically and socially much discussed subject of language and integration – from the specific perspective of African linguistics. For this purpose, Professor Nico Nassenstein from the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Professor Axel Fleisch from the Institute of African Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt investigate how migrants from Africa approach new linguistic realities in Germany and which perceptions they have of both their own languages and the target language. "Initially, we will be working with colleagues we already know from research environments in West and Central Africa. We will then broaden the range of the study and approach participants from the entire Rhine-Main region," explained Nassenstein. Interested parties from the Rhine-Main region who would like to participate in the study within the scope of the RMU project can as of now contact littig@uni-mainz.de via email for further information.

The RMU cooperation project is outstanding in that Africanists are conducting their research in Germany and not on the African continent. They focus on the mechanisms that are decisive in whether linguistic integration functions or fails. In Europe, linguistic integration is typically understood as being primarily dependent on the successful acquisition of the target language and its structure. However, language acquisition mainly takes place in informal contexts outside the classroom. This spontaneous language learning, which often goes hand in hand with creative learning strategies and can be unexpectedly successful, has hardly ever been the subject of scientific investigation. Over the next two years, Dr. Sabine Littig from JGU and Professor Abdourahmane Diallo from Goethe University will research this linguistic integration.

Joint Bachelor's degree program in African Studies
The African Studies departments at Mainz and Frankfurt successfully applied for financial support from the 2017 RMU Initiative Funding for Teaching and are now planning a joint Bachelor's degree program in African Studies. It will bundle the courses offered at both universities and will comprise diverse subject areas concerning African linguistics and other research branches of African Studies. "This joint Bachelor's degree program will offer our students a far wider spectrum of languages and topics," said Professor Axel Fleisch. The new program is to combine linguistic expertise with subjects from sociolinguistics and media studies as well as linguistic anthropology and communication studies, which will also play a role in the curriculum.

African Studies Rhine-Main
Goethe University Frankfurt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and TU Darmstadt pool their expertise in the field of African research in the interdisciplinary African Studies Rhine-Main alliance. In addition to the disciplines of Anthropology and African Studies, other areas such as Egyptology, Linguistics and Literature, Geography, Botany, and Economics are also involved. The pivotal entity serving the African Studies Rhine-Main alliance is the Center for Interdisciplinary African Studies (ZIAF) in Frankfurt.

The RMU Initiative Funding for Research
The Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) are strengthening their mutual networks through the RMU Initiative Funding for Research. From the last call for proposals comprising a total of 49 applicants, six new research projects in African Studies, Educational Research, Computer Science, Meteorology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Business Education will be funded over the coming two years, each with up to EUR 100,000 per year.

Contact:
Professor Dr. Nico Nassenstein
Department of Anthropology and African Studies
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
55099 Mainz, GERMANY
phone +49 6131 39-20356
e-mail: nnassens@uni-mainz.de
http://www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de/3036.php

Professor Dr. Axel Fleisch
Institute of African Studies
Goethe University Frankfurt
60325 Frankfurt am Main, GERMANY
phone +49 69 798-28262
e-mail: a.fleisch@em.uni-frankfurt.de
https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/71087855/Axel-Fleisch

The Mercator Science-Policy Fellowship-Programme is entering the third round. Once again, the Rhine-Main universities hosted leaders from politics, administration, the media and the non-profit sector to promote a structured exchange between science and do justice to the needs of decision-makers in various politico-administrative and socially relevant positions. The interests of the Fellows, newly admitted in 2018, ranged from digitization to artificial intelligence, from questions on the German party system to cooperation and development, education, arts and cultural mediation, mobility, the future of work, new trends in the life sciences and media and communication.

In the third year, the Fellowship-Programme has established itself as a form of dialogue between science and the policy sector at the Rhine-Main universities that is unique within Germany and which benefits both sides: The executives receive new scientific perspectives on their work areas, and the scientists involved in the three research-intense universities learn more about the practice and thus gain important impulses for their own work.