ERC Advanced Grants for Two Heidelberg Scientists

European Research Council funds projects in mathematics and molecular biology. Mathematician Anna Wienhard and molecular biologist Henrik Kaessmann have been awarded a prestigious grant of the European Research Council (ERC) for outstanding scientists, an ERC Advanced Grant. The ERC is making approx. two million euros available to Prof. Wienhard, who teaches and does research work at the Mathematical Institute of Heidelberg University, for her project on symmetries in mathematics. Prof. Kaessmann from the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH) is to receive approx. 2.5 million euros for a research project on the evolution of the brain of vertebrates. The two grants will run over a period of five years. The ERC is funding Prof. Wienhard's research for the second time. In 2014 she received an ERC Consolidator Grant for her work on symmetries and deformation spaces of geometric structures.