What can Greenland’s ice tell us about the history of our climate? How do different ecosystems and their biodiversity develop? And can we develop materials that organize themselves? The START projects funded in 2018 span a wide range of topics, from geology to ecology to physics.

Along with the FWF Wittgenstein Award, the FWF START Awards are among Austria’s most prestigious and highly endowed scientific awards. The FWF START Awards give excellent, up-and-coming researchers the opportunity to pursue their research with long-term planning horizons and financial security. The six winning projects come from all disciplines and will receive funding of up to €1.2 million each.

 

Developing material that organizes itself

Developing material that organizes itself
FWF-START-Preisträgerin 2018 Emanuela Bianchi
© FWF

Emanuela Bianchi is a physicist at the TU Wien, Vienna University of Technology. At the Institute of Theoretical Physics, she works on the properties of the surfaces of materials. Her START project Heterogeneously Charged Colloids for Material Development deals with the question of how to develop functional materials capable of self-organization.

 

Principal investigator

Emanuela Bianchi

Research Institution

TU Wien, Institute for Theoretical Physics

Project title

Heterogeneously Charged Colloids for Material Development

Making wood calculable

Making wood calculable
FWF-START-Preisträger 2018 Josef Norbert Füssl
© FWF

As a civil engineer at TU Wien, Josef Norbert Füssl is studying the properties of wood as a construction material. With the START Prize funding he intends to use Making Wood Predictable through Computational Methods as his project‘s title, thus contributing to the increased future use of this natural building material.

 

Principal investigator

Josef Norbert Füssl

Research institution

TU Wien, Institute of Mechanics of Materials and Structures

Project title

Making Wood Predictable through Computational Methods

Making forces measurable in highest precision

Making forces measurable in highest precision
FWF-START-Preisträger 2018 Philipp Haslinger
© FWF

Philipp Haslinger works at the Atomic Institute of TU Wien. With his START project Atomic Interferometry in an Optical Resonator, the physicist wants to improve atomic interferometers, which can measure forces with the highest precision, for instance the Earth’s acceleration and the phenomenon of dark energy.

 

Principal investigator

Philipp Haslinger

Research institution

TU Wien, Atomic Institute

Project title

Atomic Interferometry in an Optical Resonator

Developing new materials with quantum computers

Developing new materials with quantum computers
FWF-START-Preisträger 2018 Oliver Hofmann
© FWF

Physicist Oliver Hofmann works at the Institute of Solid State Physics, Graz University of Technology. In his project MAP-DESIGN he studies the structure of materials, in particular how their components arrange themselves in relation to each other. This knowledge can be used to develop new materials based on quantum mechanical computer simulations.

 

Principal investigator

Oliver Hofmann

Research institution

Graz University of Technology, Institute of Solid State Physics

Project title

Hybrid Interfaces in Thermodynamic Equilibrium

Exploring how biodiversity emerges

Exploring how biodiversity emerges
FWF-START-Preisträger 2018 Robert Junker
© FWF

In his project Sequential Emergence of Functional Multidiversity, Robert Junker deals with the question of how different ecosystems and their diversity of species develop. The biologist works at the Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Salzburg. Biodiversity is essential to the preservation and sustainability of ecosystems.

 

Principal investigator

Robert R. Junker

Research institution

University of Salzburg, Department of Ecology and Evolution

Project title

Sequential Emergence of Functional Multidiversity

Investigating the climate archive in ice

Investigating the climate archive in ice
FWF-START-Preisträgerin 2018 Gina Elaine Moseley
© FWF

Gina Elaine Moseley works at the Department of Geology, University of Innsbruck. In her Northeast Greenland Speleothem Project she is researching Northeast Greenland’s climate history through sinter deposits in caves (speleothemes) up to 600,000 years old. This is one of the Arctic regions that is likely to suffer the greatest impact from climate change.

 

Principal investigator

Gina Elaine Moseley

Research institution

University of Innsbruck, Department of Geology

Project title

Northeast Greenland Speleothem Project

Discover more

FWF START Award
FWF START Award winners 2023
FWF START Award
FWF START Award winners 2022
FWF START Award
FWF-START-Preisträger:innen 2021
FWF START Award
FWF-START- und Wittgenstein-Pokale
FWF START Award
FWF-START- und Wittgenstein-Pokale
FWF START Award
[Translate to English:]
Scroll to the top