Meetings

European Research Council (ERC) announced today that €677 million will be granted to 436 laureates of the ERC's 2020 Starting Grants competition. As part of the EU's Research and Innovation program, Horizon 2020, the grants will help early-career researchers build their own teams and carry out innovative projects across all scientific disciplines: from vaccine research to climate change adaptation and from nanoplastics to exploring the nature of dark matter in the Universe.

Quntao Zhuang, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and optical sciences at the University of Arizona, received a 2020 Young Faculty Award from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. The award recognizes rising stars in junior research positions whose work can benefit the Department of Defense and issues of national security.

Two common drugs used for dementia in patients with Alzheimer's disease are under examination to determine the extent to which they don't mix well together and cause a cascading event of side effects, prompting the need for even more medications.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Herbarium is part of a multimillion-dollar grant to digitize and study bryophytes and lichens, two important species in cryptobiotic communities. Jessica Budke, director of the herbarium, and colleagues from 24 other institutions across the US are sharing an award of $3.6 million from the National Science Foundation to image and digitize associated metadata for close to 1.2 million lichen and bryophyte specimens housed in their collections.

Great success for two young scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK): Dr. Martin Mascher (34) and Dr. Stefan Heckmann (38) both receive a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The current research projects TRANSFER and MEIOBARMIX of the two heads of independent research groups will thus each receive 1.5 million euros in funding over the next five years.

The most efficient way to use intermittent sources of energy, like wind and hydropower, is to store the energy that's generated if it won't be used right away. A new EU funded project has that goal as its focus.

Two MDC scientists - Kathrin de Rosa and Ilaria Piazza - have earned ERC Starting Grants to fuel their pioneering research. They are seeking answers to questions that may one day change the way we approach vaccines and think about how small molecules influence gene expression and disease.

Two University of Texas at Arlington architecture educators recently won 2020 Honor Awards from the Texas Society of Architects.