In this strategic research area, researchers investigate the properties of molecules up to complex nanostructures and cell mechanics, work on topics related to language and communication in the digital age, and deal with questions of physics, earth sciences, chemistry, mineralogy, the life sciences, mathematics, computer science and medicine.

Complex Matter

enlarge the image: Diagram: Daniel Janetzki, Visionauten
Diagram: Daniel Janetzki, Visionauten

When they are combined, individual building blocks can produce completely new properties. The Complex Matter strategic research field was established to investigate and exploit these properties. It brings together some 27 professors from the Faculties of Physics and Earth Sciences, Chemistry and Mineralogy, Life Sciences, Mathematics and Computer Science, and the Faculty of Medicine. From their respective standpoints, they investigate the elementary properties of individual objects – from tiny ions and molecules to complex nanostructures. In this way, they can develop functional units from complex matter such as sensors, catalytic converters and electronic components. One example of where the work of researchers from physics and chemistry overlaps with the biosciences is in the field of cell mechanics, where scientists are investigating how and why a cell changes due to disease.

The Complex Matter research profile area combines excellent basic research with fascinating applications. The researchers are grappling with major challenges that can only be overcome through cooperation between disciplines hitherto regarded as independent, and by closely aligning the experimental with the theoretical.

Currently, approximately 50 doctoral candidates receive excellent, structured postgraduate training at the Graduate School Building with Molecules and Nano-objects (BuildMoNa), which forms part of the research profile area.

ERC Advanced Grant: “HoldCancerBack – What Holds Cancer Cells Back?”

Project director: Professor Josef Alfons Käs
Duration 2017–2022

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enlarge the image: Professor Josef Alfons Käs
European Research Council grantee Professor Josef Alfons Käs. Photo: Swen Reichhold

Competence Center for Scalable Data Services and Solutions Dresden/Leipzig (ScaDS Dresden/Leipzig)

Scientific Coordinator: Professor Wolfgang E. Nagel (TU Dresden)
Deputy: Professor Erhard Rahm (Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Institute of Computer Science)

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Professor Marius Grundmann

Experimentalphysik/Halbleiterphysik
Institutsgebäude
Linnéstraße 5
04103 Leipzig

Phone: +49 341 97-32651
Fax: +49 341 97-32668

Language and Culture in a Digital Age

enlarge the image: Language and Culture in a Digital Age research profile area
Diagram: Daniel Janetzki, Visionauten

Language and Culture in a Digital Age is a new research profile area designed to foster research cooperation between the humanities and computer science.

The main objective of this profile area is the establishment of research alliances to analyse forms of language and culture in the digital age, to apply methods of digitisation and to examine their significance in the present. The area sees itself as a useful bridge between computer science on the one hand and the humanities and social sciences on the other. The department sees itself as a bridge between computer science and the humanities and social sciences. It is also engaged in a critical discussion of methodological principles, the establishment of productive communication and jointly fathoming new forms of research, teaching and innovative publication.

Methods for the digital representation and analysis of sources in the humanities and social sciences (such as texts, images and music) are being applied and advanced. Just as important is a consideration of the significance of increasing digitisation for materials and analyses, processes of knowledge and culture transfer, and analyses of linguistic expression and language acquisition in educational processes.

The working group #digitalegegenwart, for example, conducts critical discussions on the significance of digital technologies and media. Research is also carried out from the perspective of general and single-language linguistics, for example into the formal representation of language, its diversity, processing, and individual language use and acquisition. A variety of collaborations between computer science and the humanities receive a high level of external funding, and their successes have been internationally recognised with the award of the Humboldt Professorship for Digital Humanities to Professor Gregory Crane.

Cyclic Optimization (RU 5171)

Cyclical structure building and optimization are two central areas of research in grammar theory, but only a fraction of the research on these mechanisms involves their interaction. Researchers at the Institute of Linguistics, led by Prof. Jochen Trommer, are investigating the empirical coverage of models combining cyclicity and optimization, and aim to extend this to a comprehensive representative subset of grammatical phenomena and to tap the full theoretical potential of these approaches. The individual subprojects of the research group investigate the interactions between all grammatical modules (morphology, syntax, semantics and phonology), and systematically compare different cyclic optimization approaches for the same or closely related types of empirical data. An additional computational linguistics sub-project investigates abstract, formal properties of cyclic optimization approaches across the boundaries of grammatical sub-domains.

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Interaction of Grammatical Building Blocks (RTG 2011)

The Research Training Group 2011, “Interaction of Grammatical Building Blocks” has successfully trained doctoral students with a focus on the phonology, morphology and syntax of natural languages until 2023.

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The following projects are receiving funding under the European Commission’s current Framework Programme, Horizon 2020:

The following project was funded under the previous EU Framework Programme FP7:

Professor Barbara Stiebels

Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (Spezialisierung: Sprachtypologie)
Beethovenstraße 15
04107 Leipzig

Phone: +49 341 97-37604
Fax: +49 341 97-37609

Mathematical and Computational Sciences

enlarge the image:
Diagram: Daniel Janetzki, Visionauten

This research profile area covers mathematical and computational sciences in the broad sense: the dovetailing of mathematics, theoretical physics and computer science with natural sciences and medicine.

There is a particular focus on structural questions that arise directly from challenges in the natural sciences. These include exact mathematical models for physics, standardisations of field theories, limits of predictability, the nature of chance and computability, self-organisation of living matter, the structure of large networks, and how to handle large amounts of data. One goal is the identification of new applications.

Researchers in this profile area are for example involved in the DFG Research Training Group Quantitative Logics and Automata, the International Max Planck Research School “Mathematics in the Sciences”, and the Big Data Competence Centre “ScaDS Dresden/Leipzig”.

Strong Dynamics and Criticality in Quantum and Gravitational Systems (RTG 2522)

The aim of Research Training Group 2522, “Strong Dynamics and Criticality in Quantum and Gravitational Systems”, is to investigate and compute the emergence of complexity in gravitational and quantum field theories starting from their foundations. The working groups concentrate on examples of physical topicality or conceptual relevance, such as gravitational wave phenomena and black holes on the gravity side, and dynamics and criticality near phase transitions on the quantum side. The RTG is run in cooperation with the Friedrich Schiller University Jena.

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Competence Centre for Scalable Data Services and Solutions Dresden/Leipzig (ScaDS Dresden/Leipzig)

Scientific Coordinator: Professor Wolfgang E. Nagel (TU Dresden)
Deputy: Professor Erhard Rahm (Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Institute of Computer Science)

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HorseVetMed: Telemetric Veterinary Medical Technology

Project director: Professor Walter Brehm (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Surgical Veterinary Clinic)

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GEISER: From Sensor Data to Internet-Based Geo-Services – BMWI

Project director: Professor Axel-Cyrille Ngonga Ngomo

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AMSL Electronic Resource Management. Optimised Usage and Allocation Control for Electronic Media in Saxon University Libraries 

Project director: Leander Seige (Leipzig University Library, IT) 

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EXPLOIDS: An Innovative, Data Protection-Preserving Attack Detection System for Computers

Project director: Professor Martin Bogdan (Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Institute of Computer Science)

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International Max Planck Research School “Mathematics in the Sciences” (IMPRS MiS)

The doctoral programme offers junior researchers a broad spectrum of mathematical fields, including geometry, partial differential equations and functional analysis, stochastics, and discrete mathematics. The IMPRS MiS is run by the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, the Institute of Mathematics, the Institute of Computer Science and the Faculty of Physics and Earth Sciences

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Professor Rainer Verch

Gravitationstheorie
Brüderstraße 16
04103 Leipzig

Phone: +49 341 97-32423
Fax: +49 341 97-32450

Professor Gerik Scheuermann

Bild- und Signalverarbeitung
Augustusplatz 10
04109 Leipzig

Phone: +49 341 97-32251
Fax: +49 341 97-32252

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