Honors and Distinctions in 2009

Henrik Braband, Postdoctoral research assistant at the Department of Anorganic Chemistry, was awarded a grant for young researchers under the Ambizione program for his project “Polyoxo Technetium Chemistry”.

Hugo Bucher, Full Professor of Paleozoology, was appointed to the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Natural Science Collections of the Federal State of Bavaria.

Camillo de Lellis, Full Professor of Pure Mathematics, was awarded the “Guido Stampacchia” Gold Medal, now in its third year.

Ueli Grossniklaus, Full Professor of Developmental Plant Biology, won an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant of 2.497 million euros over five years for the project “MEDEA” (Mechanisms of Epigenetic regulation in Development, Evolution and Adaption).

Harold Haefner, Professor Emeritus of Geography, was named an honorary member of the Geographic Ethnographic Society of Zurich.

Peter Hamm, Full Professor of Physical Chemistry, received an ERC Starting Grant of 2.4 million euros for the project “DYNALLO: Towards a Dynamical Understanding of Allostery.”

Heinz Heimgartner, Professor Emeritus of Organic Chemistry, was awarded the title “Doctor Honoris Causa” by the University of Lodz, Poland.

Michael Hengartner, Full Professor of Molecular Biology in the endowed chair of the Ernst Hadorn Foundation, was elected as a member of the of the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina).

Roland K. O. Sigel, Associate Professor of Chemistry, specializing in bioanorganic chemistry, received the Werner Prize 2009.

Christian von Mering, Associate Professor of Bioinformatics, received an ERC Starting Grant in support of his project “Uncultivated Microbes in Situ – a Computational Approach to determine their Molecular Functions and Microbial Ecology.”

Charles Weissman, Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biology in the chemical-genetic field of study, was awarded the Federal Republic of Germany’s Knight Commander’s Cross. He was also named an honorary member of the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research.

Claudia R. Binder, SNSF Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography, was called to and accepted the post of Full Professor of System Sciences, Innovation and Sustainability Research at Karl-Franzens University, Graz, Austria.

Jörg Conradt, Postdoctoral research assisant at the Institute of Neuroinformatics, was called to and accepted the post of Junior Professor of Systemtheoretic Neuroscience, in the Centre of Excellence “Cognition for Technical Systems,” at TUM Technical University Munich, Germany.

Julia M. Fritz-Steuber, SNSF Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, was called to and accepted the post of Professor of Cellular Microbiology at the University of Stuttgart, Germany.

Peter Gallant, Privatdozent at the Department of Zoology, was called to and accepted the post of W2 Professor at the University of Würzburg, Germany.

Hubert Hilbi, Privatdozent at the Department of Zoology, was called to, but did not accept, the post of Professor in Emergent Infectious Diseases Research at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. He was also called to a teaching appointment as W2 Professor of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene at Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany (decision pending).

Benedikt Korf, Assistant Professor of Human Geography at the Department of Geography, was called to, but did not accept, the post of Assistant Professor of Human Geography at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Hansjörg Scherberger, Senior Teaching and Research Assistant and Privatdozent at the Department of Neuroinformatics, was called to and accepted the post of Professor in the Neurobiology Lab, German Primate Center, Göttingen, Germany.

Ben Townsend, Postdoctoral research assisant at the Department of Neuroinformatics, was called to and accepted a postdoctoral post at the Institute of Microsystems Technology, University of Freiburg, Germany.

Joris van Wezemael, Senior Teaching and Research Assistant at the Department of Geography, was called to and accepted the post of Assistant Professor of Human Geography at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Christoph Vorburger, Senior Teaching and Research Assistant at the Department of Zoology, was called to and accepted the post of SNSF Assistant Professor with the Department of Integrative Biology at ETH Zurich & EAWAG Dübendorf, Switzerland.