Alumni meetings

This year’s academic program began with lectures by current and former scholarship-holders. Lisa Voskuhl, a junior research group leader from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Duisburg-Essen, opened the proceedings by citing numerous oil spills from the past few decades and their catastrophic impact on the environment. The main focus of her research, however, is on natural emissions of petroleum. She has shown here that nature can well handle the toxicity of oil: In her investigation of these special habitats, she has identified a number of algae that are capable of degrading oil. Ms. Voskuhl’s findings to date indicate that, above all, communities of these organisms can be put to favorable use in very rapidly degrading oil from leakages. She intends to develop new methods based on these findings to confine the impact of future oil spills.

Michael Heide, a junior research group leader at the German Primate Center in Göttingen, reported on his current research under the title “Cerebral organoids: From the myth of mini-brains to a golden opportunity for evolutionary research.” Pluripotent stem cells can serve as a basis for studying early stages in the formation of neurons and their precursor cells. The models support both evolutionary research and the investigation of disorders in cerebral development.

Franziska Traube from the Institute of Biochemistry at the University of Stuttgart presented her work on “New nucleoside analogs for the treatment of aggressive acute myeloid leukemia.” Acute myeloid leukemia, the most aggressive form of leukemia, is still difficult to treat. The new molecule presented – a carbocyclic DNA nucleoside analog – leads to DNA damage, influences gene expression, and could therefore be used in the treatment of a wide range of leukemia subtypes. Despite the narrow therapeutic window, it promises significantly milder side effects than approaches used to date.

A further lecture dealt with the very beginnings of life. Under the title “The origin of life: Molecules, meteorites, and magic?”, Robert J. Mayer from the Department of Chemistry at TU Munich presented prebiotic reactions and processes that may have led to the formation of complex organic molecules on the young Earth. Some key steps in these reactions have now been confirmed in the laboratory and in computer simulations. Mr. Mayer also mentioned meteorites as a possible source of elements and molecular building blocks that could have played a major role in the origin of life. Even though many questions still remain unanswered, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the origin of life can be explained without magic by methods of evolutionary chemistry.

Kay W. Axhausen, one of the Daimler and Benz Foundation’s first scholarship-holders and Professor Emeritus of Transport Planning and Systems at ETH Zurich, then spoke on the topic of “E-Bike City: An alternative for urban traffic?”. In his project, visions are developed for a climate-oriented transportation policy of the future. Citing the city of Zurich as an example, he explained how the existing transportation infrastructure could be overhauled. The focus is on the proposal to reserve half of the road space for climate-friendly vehicles such as e-bikes, bicycles, and electric scooters, with all addresses still remaining accessible via a system of one-way streets. Together with an extension of the local public transport system, this would create an attractive alternative to the car. The presentation gave rise to lively discussion about political and societal majorities for such a transformation and to what extent it could be transferred to other cities.

The program concluded with an intriguing evening lecture, “The power of computer models” by Prof. Dr. Bernd Simeon from the Department of Mathematics at RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau. He showed how mathematical models and simulations shape our understanding of reality and influence our decisions, and what opportunities and risks this holds for science, technology, and society. On the basis of numerous examples from climate modeling, technology, and infectiology, Mr. Simeon demonstrated how faulty model assumptions or inadequate data can engender misleading forecasts and serious errors. The increasing displacement of classic models by machine-learning AI applications makes transparency even more difficult, Mr. Simeon continued. He advocated heightened awareness when dealing with simulations and presented strategies for the validation of results; these strategies were examined in greater detail in the following discussion.

The group concluded the evening with Palatinate specialties in the Spinnrädl wine and beer bar. On the Sunday morning the participants undertook a guided tour of Kaiserslautern, which ended with a visit to the Japanese Garden. After then having lunch together at Ristorante Filippo, they returned home with new impressions and acquaintances.

The foundation would particularly like to thank Leila Taghizadeh Ghoochany for her great commitment in preparing and organizing this gathering, which was an all-round successful experience thanks to her efforts.