ATTENTION: This website will no longer be updated, last update: May 2020. Please visit the new website of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
With a value of five million euros, the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship is the most highly-endowed research award in Germany and draws top international researchers to German universities.
From 2020 to 2024, additional Humboldt Professorships can be awarded in the field of Artificial Intelligence.
Great flexibility, exemplary freedom of research and, last but not least, a vast amount of money: since 2008, the Humboldt Professorship has been attracting top international researchers to Germany.
But the stars from abroad do not only help German universities to score in science. They are also expected to be a breath of fresh air and change the system. Reviewers have now examined whether the Professorship is achieving its goals. At the start, says , all the public attention took a bit of ... more
Robots, cuneiform, bioinformatics, museums and aesthetics research – the Humboldt Professorship knows no disciplinary boundaries, only intriguing ideas and questions. To mark the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Germany's most valuable research award, KOSMOS spoke with several of the award winners about their experiences. In this report, we talk with the literary scholar Elisabeth Décultot.
If you want to trace the history of knowledge transfer in the aesthetics of the 18th century, as Elisabeth Décultot does, you need old books – and they exert a particular fascination on the literary scholar. At the Interdisciplinary Centre for European Enlightenment Studies in Halle and in ... more
If you manage to acquire a five-million-euro professorship for your university, you get upheaval and envy into the bargain. This was a concern that was raised ten years ago when the first Humboldt Professorships were awarded. Things have changed.
A conversation with Enno Aufderheide, Secretary General of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, on recruiting research luminaries and the benefits they bring German universities. more
To mark the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Germany's most valuable research award, KOSMOS spoke with several of the award winners about their experiences. In this report, we talk with the computer scientist Oliver Brock.
To build robots that can deal with everyday tasks and situations just as well and as efficiently as people can – that is Oliver Brock’s mission. He is not so much interested in the routine of certain activities, but rather, in how robots manage in dynamic situations and unstructured ... more
Prominent female researchers are rare, amongst Humboldt Professors, too. What academia and the Foundation can do about it.
The IBM Research Centre in Zurich likes to showcase the successful physicist, Heike Riel. When TU München raised the possibility of a Humboldt Professorship a year ago, alarm bells rang in Zurich. They made her an IBM Research Fellow, the highest accolade the company grants. For five years, the ... more
To mark the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Germany's most valuable research award, KOSMOS spoke with several of the award winners about their experiences. In this report, we talk with the ethnologist Sharon Macdonald.
“Museums are extremely important for our societies because that is where people decide which things will play a role in the future,” says Sharon Macdonald in response to a question about her scientific interests. The British ethnologist investigates the criteria and decision- making processes ... more
Five researchers from abroad have been selected to receive Germany’s most valuable international research award in 2021 and make the move to Cologne, Dresden, Leipzig, Potsdam and Tübingen.
A biophysicist, a robotics expert, a psychologist, a microbiologist and a hydrologist have been chosen to receive Germany’s most valuable international research award. Each Alexander von Humboldt Professorship comes with up to €5 million in funding. The Alexander von Humboldt Professorship is ... more
Two researchers from abroad have been selected to receive Germany’s most valuable international research award in 2020 and make the move to Erlangen-Nuremberg and Munich.
The biophysicist Kristian Franze and the computer scientist Daniel Rückert have been chosen to receive Germany’s most valuable research award. The Alexander von Humboldt Professorship is granted to eminent researchers of all disciplines who have been working abroad up to this time. The ... more
Up to 30 professorships to be awarded as a contribution to the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy
Up to 30 additional Alexander von Humboldt Professorships in the field of Artificial Intelligence are to be filled in the years up to 2024. Through these professorships, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation intends to contribute to the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy which ... more