Fabian Schmidt appointed to the „Junge Akademie“

June 11, 2016

A total of ten new members, including Fabian Schmidt of MPA, have been appointed to the Young Academy at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (BBAW) and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. On 11 June 2016, they were introduced in an official ceremony in Berlin, starting a new phase in the interdisciplinary work of the Young Academy.

After studying physics at the Humboldt University Berlin, Fabian Schmidt received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is currently head of a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, funded by a Marie Curie fellowship and a Starting Grant by the European Research Council ERC (from September 2016).

Fabian Schmidt’s research focuses mainly on cosmology and gravitational lensing. He studies the composition of the universe, its history and evolution. As gravitational lensing depends only on gravity, this effect can be used as a tool to determine the total amount and distribution of matter, both visible and dark matter. 

"Being chosen for the Young Academy is not only a recognition of my previous research, it also gives me the opportunity to share ideas with excellent young scientists from completely different areas," said Fabian Schmidt. "Many of the issues and challenges that we face are actually interdisciplinary, such as Big Data. I am really looking forward to the regular meetings and interdisciplinary working groups."

The Young Academy was launched in 2000 as the world's first academy for outstanding young scientists and is jointly organized by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (BBAW) and the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Its members are elected from all scientific disciplines as well as the arts. They explore the potential and limitations of interdisciplinary work, aim to encourage discourse between science and society, and bring new ideas into the science policy debate.

The members of the Young Academy are elected for a period of five years. The Young Academy is free in choosing how they work. Members meet regularly in various working groups as well as a plenary session three times a year, to discuss current research projects and decide on joint projects and publications. To this end, each member receives a total research budget of 30,000 EUR for joint scientific projects.

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