Further developing modern technologies, changing material properties with precision, or researching cultural interactions in Eurasia – the START projects funded in 2019 span a wide range of topics, from physics and materials science to Iranian studies.

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.

 

Decisive step in modern technology

Decisive step in modern technology
FWF-START-Preisträger 2019 Moritz Brehm
© FWF

Silicon is the dominant material of the digital world as all integrated chips are based on it. However, digitalization based on silicon electronics will clearly reach its limits in the foreseeable future. This project investigates a fundamentally new approach for extracting light from silicon-compatible group IV materials. The success of this project could be a decisive step in the integration of silicon-based light sources in modern semiconductor components.

 

Principal investigator

Moritz Brehm

Research insitution

University of Linz, Institute of Semiconductor and Solid State Physics

Project title

Silicon Light Emitters Based on Defect Enhanced Quantum Dots

Mathematical methods for universal problems

Mathematical methods for universal problems
FWF-START-Preisträgerin 2019 Christa Cuchiero
© FWF

This project focuses on mathematics and financial economics. The finance part is concerned with robust empirical features that can be observed universally across various financial markets, share classes, and, in particular, over time. The mathematics part deals with universally occurring model classes and probabilistic properties which unite phenomena that, at first glance, often seem unrelated. The goal is to develop a probabilistic framework that allows universal phenomena to be studied using universal mathematical methods.

 

Principal investigator

Christa Cuchiero

Research insitution

Christa Cuchiero, University of Vienna, Department of Statistics and Operations Research

Project title

Universal Structures in Mathematical Finance

Cultural Interactions in the Mongol Empire

Cultural Interactions in the Mongol Empire
FWF-START-Preisträger 2019 Bruno de Nicola
© FWF

The rise of Genghis Khan and the expansion of the Mongol Empire in western Eurasia in the 13th century had a dramatic impact on the Islamic world. The Mongols are generally regarded as unstoppable nomadic warriors. This project starts from the hypothesis that the interaction of the nomadic rulers with resident elites went so far as to initiate a process of vigorous mutual cultural borrowing. The project will also develop two openly accessible digital databases.

 

Principal investigator

Bruno De Nicola

Research institution

Austrian Academy of Science, Institute of Iranian Studies

Project title

Nomads’ Manuscripts Landscape

New types of extremely hard materials

New types of extremely hard materials
FWF-START-Preisträger 2019 Christoph Gammer
© FWF

The word glass is usually associated with glass for windows. However, metals can also form a glass. They have very attractive properties, but, like window glass, they can break catastrophically. In this project, metallic glasses are produced with specifically arranged nanocrystals. This makes it possible to develop new materials that are extremely hard but do not break catastrophically. This previously unachieved combination of properties is fundamental for the future development of highperformance materials.

 

Principal investigator

Christoph Gammer

Research insitution

Austrian Academy of Science, Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science

Project title

Nanoscale Strain Mapping of Metallic Glass Composites

Phenomena at the unsharpness threshold

Phenomena at the unsharpness threshold
FWF-START-Preisträger 2019 Jose Luis Romero
© FWF

Time-frequency analysis studies various phenomena of the domains of time and frequency simultaneously. It is a broad field that comprises not only many areas of mathematics, but also acoustics, wireless communication, statistical data analysis, and mathematical physics. The limits within which simultaneous time-frequency analysis is possible are determined by the uncertainty principle. The project deals with problems in which the uncertainty limit is reached.

 

Principal investigator

José Luis Romero

Research institution

University of Vienna, Faculty of Mathematics

Project title

Time-Frequency Analysis, Randomness and Sampling

Change material properties in a targeted manner

Change material properties in a targeted manner
FWF-START-Preisträger 2019 Richard Wilhelm
© FWF

In his project, Richard Wilhelm studies surfaces on the atomic scale. They are irradiated by bright laser flashes and bombarded almost simultaneously with pulses of charged particles. This is made possible by an ultrafast ion source which can fire high-energy charged atoms at a material sample. This project is the world’s first ion scattering experiment in which the time sequences can be observed with such precision. This enables us to make specific changes to material properties using customized pulses.

 

Principal investigator

Richard Wilhelm

Research institution

TU Wien, Institute of Applied Physics

Project title

Ion Impacts in Real-Time (time4ions)

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