discovered_01_2015 - Editorial

discovered 01 .15 EDITORIAL WWW.HZDR.DE DEAR READERS, Success in science would be impossible without young talent! And since the world’s best minds have their pick of research institutions around the globe, it takes a genuine, substantial effort to recruit them. Excellent infrastructures and excellent lab conditions certainly help attract young scientists. But sometimes, coincidence plays a role, as well. Josefine Metzkes, for example, who had just graduated in Halle, Germany, with a major in physics, happened to hear a report about the inauguration of our high-power laser DRACO on German radio. It made her curious about Dresden, and today, as she is about to complete her doctorate, she knows that coming here was the right decision, even though the conditions for experimentation were not always ideal. For more than a year, DRACO was packed away under several layers of plastic film to prevent damage to its sensitive optics while construction was under way to expand the ELBE Center for High-Power Radiation Sources. A decisive asset for Dresden as a science location is its University of Technology, which trains excellent young scientists in the natural sciences. When it comes to choosing their PhD program, the graduates are spoilt for choice. Various institutions are vying for gifted students: There are three Max Planck institutes as well as three Leibniz institutions, twelve institutes or departments of the Fraunhofer Association, HZDR and another Helmholtz location, the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus and the TU Dresden itself. Leaders of the Dresden scientific community understood early on that despite all competitiveness, true success requires close collaboration. Therefore, the non-university institutes and TU Dresden joined forces in an alliance called DRESDEN-concept. It is partly due to this alliance that TU Dresden was able to earn the coveted status of University of Excellence, which in turn attracts even more international top scientists to Dresden. It would not be possible to support and train the approximately 150 doctoral candidates currently at HZDR without supervisors who were particularly dedicated and firmly rooted in their area of expertise. In our section ‘Portrait‘, you will meet Stephan Winnerl, who is one of these body-and-soul scientists. You will also meet cancer researchers Esther Troost und Manja Kubeil. However, we can’t introduce you to every top junior researcher from each of our eight HZDR institutes – for one, because we are fortunate enough to have several bright and ambitious doctoral candidates and post-docs leading each field. But also because we want to showcase the diversity of our research activities, which is why the topics covered in this issue of ‘discovered’ range from functional materials and nano-filters to chemical reactors, a regulatory mechanism on the cellular level, accelerator research and immunotherapeutic treatment of cancers. We hope you enjoy meeting our talented young researchers! Christine Bohnet Communications and Media Relations at HZDR COVER IMAGE: She has already climbed a few important steps on her career ladder. After completing her PhD with outstanding results, Claudia Arndt is now working on ways to use the antibodies she studied in future cancer therapy. Photo: André Forner

Seitenübersicht