Jean-Pierre Tignol is Professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium). He is an outstanding mathematician, working in algebra, more specifically in the field of quadratic forms and linear algebraic groups. His scientific quality is certified by a publication list comprising more than 80 research articles and several books. Jean-Pierre Tignol has collaborated with most other mathematicians in this research area. In the early 1990s, Tignol initiated the currently very active topic of extending concepts and results from quadratic form theory to the study of algebras with involution.

Professor Tignol has been very supportive to young mathematicians and has written a large number of research articles in collaboration with various young researchers. Furthermore he is an excellent speaker with the ability to express complex mathematical ideas in a way understandable by a general audience. Therefore he will not only provide great support to the research group of Zukunftskolleg Fellow Karim Johannes Becher who nominated Jean-Pierre Tignol for the Senior Fellowship. During his visits in Konstanz Professor Tignol will also be a great asset to the interdisciplinary atmosphere in the Zukunftskolleg. The Zukunftskolleg warmly welcomes him during his first stay in April 2010.

A portrait of the philosopher and Zukunftskolleg Fellow Franz Huber has been published in the magazine "forschung 1/2010" of the German Research Foundation (DFG). The article entitled "Rising Star" can be found on page 15 in

http://www.dfg.de/download/pdf/forschung_magazin/forschung_2010_01.pdf

In der Kategorie Sachbuch/ Essayistik entschied sich die Jury, den Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse an den 60jährigen Ulrich Raulff für sein Werk “Kreis ohne Meister. Stefan Georges Nachleben. Eine abgründige Geschichte“ (Verlag C.H.Beck) zu vergeben. Ulrich Raulff ist Mitglied des wissenschaftlichen Beirats des Zukunftskollegs. Mehr Informationen finden sie hier:

leipzig-seiten.de/index.php

Irene Albers is a Professor of Romance Philology and General and Comparative Literary Studies at the FU Berlin since 2004. The alumna of the University of Konstanz is one of the most distinguished and creative Romance studies scholar's of her generation. Her work not only covers the diversity of Romance literatures from the early modern period, on the one hand, and of the 19th and 20th centuries, on the other, but comprises a broad range of literary-theoretical and cultural-theoretical topics and questions as well. Professor Albers is also actively engaged in various, respectively interdisciplinary research fields: Relations between literature and photography in the 19th and 20th centuries; Primitivism and the Modern Age: Michel Leiris's ethnological poetics; Body language and emotions in Romance novels from  Boccaccio through to the 17th century.

Professor Albers is the Principal Investigator in two Excellence Initiative projects at the FU Berlin. (The "Languages of Emotion" Cluster and the "Friedrich-Schlegel-Graduate School of Literary Studies"). Her associated experience with interdisciplinary projects will provide valuable impulses at the Zukunftskolleg for contentually similar, but methodologically different project designs. The young researchers at Konstanz will also benefit from Irene Albers' experience and contacts as well as from her great commitment to promoting young scholars.

Irene Albers was nominated for the Zukunftskolleg Award and the associated Senior Fellowship by Junior Professor Johanna Kißler, who was a Fellow at the Zukunftskolleg up until December 2009.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Women's Affairs of the University of Konstanz the Akademie am See:"Brain Gain" is held on 29/30 July 2010. More information is available here.

Jonathan Weisberg is Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is an outstanding scholar in the areas of Philosophy of Science and Logic and a specialist in Epistemology and Decision Theory. For his excellent work in the field of Formal Epistemology he was awarded with the renowned Rutgers Young Epistemologist Prize.

During his visit in Konstanz in March 2010, Jonathan Weisberg will collaborate with the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group of Zukunftskolleg Fellow Franz Huber who holds a long-lasting cooperation with Professor Weisberg. Together with Eric Swanson (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) Jonathan Weisberg and Franz Huber are organizing the Formal Epistemology Festivals, a series of thematically focused events in Formal Epistemology. This year’s conference will be held at the University of Toronto, on May 11-13, 2010. Besides the preparation of this event Jonathan Weisberg and Franz Huber will work on a joint paper on the relation between belief and degrees of belief which is a focal research topic in Franz Huber’s group. Jonathan Weisberg will give lectures on his research e.g. on 15 March at the Monthly Monday Meetings of the Formal Epistemology Research Group (TBA, see http://www.uni-konstanz.de/philosophie/fe/index.php?article_id=4 ).

The annual report of the Zukunftskolleg “Progress 2009” has been released in February 2010 and is available here.

The conference “Changing People, Changing Brains” on April 8-10, 2010 in Konstanz is co-organised by Iris-Tatjana Kolassa and Nathan Weisz, both Fellows of the Zukunftskolleg, together with Zukunftskolleg Alumna Johanna Kissler. It is co-funded by the Zukunftskolleg. For more information please visit

http://www.psychologie.uni-konstanz.de/abteilungen/clinicalpsychology/changing/

The Zukunftskolleg will host the annual University Day of the Hegau-Bodensee-Seminar on 26 February 2010. The Hegau-Bodensee-Seminar has been promoting particularly interested lower secondary (Sec I) through to upper secondary (Sec II) school pupils and students enrolled at general grammar schools in the administrative district of Konstanz. Besides working groups and presentations, a University Day is held once a year. Sixty pupils are expected to attend this year with whom Gunhild Berg, David Ganz, Anna Lipphardt and Karsten Rinke will discuss aspects of their research work. More Information can be found here.

Between December 2009 and the beginning of February 2010 the Zukunftskolleg could welcome four up-and-coming researchers as new Fellows. They all had succeded in the latest procedure for Fellowship grants. The Call for Applications had concentrated on the two key topics ‘Foundations of Social Justice’ and ‘Mixed Feelings’.

Martin Bruder is a psychologist who was previously a scientific project manager at the Head Office of the German Council of Science and Humanities in Cologne. His project at the Department of Psychology focuses on ‘Regulatory Functions of Social Emotions in Cooperation and Competition’.

Psychologist Anne Hauswald, previously a postdoctoral research assistant at the Department of Psychology at the University of Konstanz will perform her project on ‘Social emotions and the human mirror neuron system’ also at the Department of Psychology.

Psychologist Margarita Stolarova was previously a post-doc at the Department of Psychology at the University of Konstanz and a Subject Librarian for Psychology and Education at the University’s Library. She was also an Associated Fellow of the Zukunftskolleg since September 2008. Her two projects focuse on ‘Recent advances in the developmental cognitive neurosciences and what they really tell us about the care needs of children, especially of those up to three years of age’ and ‘Early child development in the context of non-parental care’ at the Department of Psychology.

Attila Tanyi is a philosopher and was previously a researcher at the Department of Philosophy of the Stockholm University in Sweden. His project focuses on ’Morality and Overdemandingness? The Case for Authority’ at the Department of Philosophy.