Research Training Groupsof the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Contents: ❙ Structured doctoral training programmes ❙ What Einstein did not know ❙School as a laboratory ❙ The dream of a hale and hearty Methuselah ❙ Transformations bylight ❙ Pitfalls of perception ❙ Women‘s hearts, men‘s hearts ❙ Big things insmall packages ❙ Messages from the Earth‘s history ❙ Fit for excellenceEd itori al

Obtaining a doctorate under ideal conditions in DFG Research Training Groups

Structured doctoral
training programmes
by Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker

Obtaining a doctorate is at thesame time the last stage ofstudy and the first stage in life as a
researcher. In this decisive phaseall doctoral candidates need to begiven the necessary latitude tocarry out independent scientificwork, develop their own ideas andearn recognition for their work.
They also require a demanding
research environment that provides
stimuli, makes exchange possible
and, where necessary, ensures spe­cialist support. The Research Train­
ing Groups (RTGs) funded andpromoted by the Deutsche For­
schungs­gemeinschaft (DFG, Ger­
man Research Foundation) have,since their inception 15 years ago,
contributed in an exemplary way
to creating these conditions for
doctoral candidates.
At one time it was typical for doc­
toral candidates to write their theses
alone in “ivory towers” or as“apprentices” to their – mostly male– doctoral supervisors, with varying
degrees of assistance and support.
However when, in the 1980s, theannual numbers of doctorates
increased to five figures and thetime taken to obtain a doctorate
became increasingly longer, theexisting model of individual supportand supervision began to reach its
limits. Consequently, in 1990, a new
funding instrument for structured
doctoral training was establishedand the first RTGs were set up.
A Research Training Group is auniversity training programme, set
up for a maximum of nine years,
which enables particularly wellqualified doctoral candidates toobtain a doctorate quickly andunder excellent conditions. It is run
by a small group of committed andrespected scientists and comprises
a coordinated research programme,
dedicated to focused and topicalquestions, and a tailor-made pro­gramme of studies. This imparts thenecessary specialist knowledge inorder to develop a doctoral thesis of
the highest possible quality within
the targeted time limit of three
years. Additionally, it ensures aprofound introduction to the branchof science in which the work is
being carried out and can, depend­ing on the subject, include practicalexperience in companies, language
and presentation courses, tech­nique workshops, etc. The univer­sity teachers who apply for RTGs
are very flexible in their arrange­ments – what is important is thatthe doctoral candidates are provid­
ed with both the specialist knowl­edge and the skills that they willneed as they strive for an academic
or non-university career after
obtaining their doctorate. The doc­
toral candidates are to direct theirgaze beyond the limits of their own
subject, design “their” RTG them­selves and be able to practise scien­tific independence at an earlystage.
he comprehensive offer isintended to support the doc­
toral candidates in their work, but
not to take up too much time. On
the contrary, RTGs and structured
doctoral training programmes aim
to limit the time to degree andlower the age at which doctoral
degrees are conferred. Enabling
doctoral candidates to concentrateentirely on the completion of theirdoctoral theses in the RTG consid­
erably shortens the length of timeneeded to earn a doctorate. On
average, DFG-funded doctoralcandidates achieve their doctorate
six months faster than their col­leagues who are funded elsewhere,
and at the conclusion of their doc­
torate are, on average, two years
younger than their counterparts inTGermany. However, the target
mark of 36 months for earning adoctorate has not yet been achievedby the others, either.
survey, carried out at the endof 2004 by the “Thesis” doc­
toral network on the situation of
doctoral candidates, showed that
one in three doctoral candidates feltthat they were poorly supported
and supervised. Another factor thatis often criticised is the frequent
dependence on a supervisor who isat the same time the employer. Defi­ciencies in the support of doctoralcandidates are obviously not
restricted to Germany. Indeed theEuropean representation of doctoralcandidates, “Eurodoc”, in its rec­ommendations on doctoral reform(submitted together with the Euro­pean University Association in Feb­
ruary 2005) called for, among oth­ers, transparent supervisory andsupport structures with clearly
defined responsibilities. This isalready established practice in the
Research Training Groups: here theallocation of each student to one
supervisor has in most cases been
replaced by a double or multiple
supervision and support system,
especially in the case of interdisci­
plinary subjects, and/or by the addi­
tional appointment of tutors or
mentors.
As the examples in this booklet
clearly show, there are RTGs in all
research fields. At the moment, thehumanities and social sciences, thenatural sciences, and the life sci­
ences (i.e. biology and medicine),each have about 30% of the
Research Training Groups. The
remaining 10% are in the engineer­ing sciences, and this is increasing.
Most of the RTGs have an interdis­
ciplinary orientation and that is no
accident, since it is becoming
increasingly clear that progress inAscience is made at the interfaces
between the disciplines. Interdisci­
plinary, innovative projects are ideal
for creating a good basis for the next
generation of researchers and theirscientific future.
An outstanding feature of the
Research Training Group is its inter­national character. The percentage
of international doctoral candidates
has increased steadily over the last
few years and is approaching the
30% mark (almost three times ashigh as the German average!). Of
the international doctoral candi­dates, approximately 26% comefrom Western Europe, 35% from
Eastern Europe, 24% from Asia andthe remaining 15% from otherregions. In addition, the number ofapplications from abroad has risen
sharply. In view of the international
competition for the much soughtafter new generation of young sci­
entists, this is a gratifying indicationof the attractiveness of the RTGs, allof which have intensive contacts
with international scientists.
In this day and age scientificprogress is impossible without inter­national networking. Therefore it is
an important criterion when review­ing proposals for setting up RTGs.
The doctoral candidates in RTGs
are involved in international coop­eration at an early stage, both bymeans of lectures and visits frominternational guest scientists, andthrough participation in congresses
and relatively long research stays atforeign host institutes.
here has been a marked
increase in the number ofInternational Research Training
Groups (IRTGs), in which a groupof German university teachers
cooperate with a partner groupabroad. Currently more than 40
IRTGs exist, most of them with
European universities, but also
three with the USA, three with
China and one, quite recent, withJapan. This variant of the ResearchTraining Groups was introduced in
1997 in order to take into accountthe international networking of sci­
ences and to permit systematic
joint training of doctoral candidates
across national borders. In the caseof the IRTGs, the same standards of
excellence apply to applicants as in
the case of the national groups.

T

Both sides must jointly run a highcalibre research and study pro­gramme, and the supervision andsupport necessary for obtaining adoctorate are also provided jointly,
as a rule by one supervisor at thehome institute and one at the part­ner institute. For the doctoral can­didates in the groups involved, astay lasting approximately six
months with the respective partneris envisaged. Right from the start oftheir careers as researchers, thecandidates in IRTGs become famil­
iar with different science systems“from the inside” and also profit
from complementary expertise anddifferent research approaches.
stablishing such IRTGs not
only leads to closer network­
ing at the level of the doctoral can­didate, but also at the sponsors‘level. For example, bilateral agree­ments have already been reachedwith a large number of partnerorganisations and ministries world­
wide concerning the joint financ­ing of International Research Train­
ing Groups. Particular commitment
is shown by the German-French
University DFH and the French
Ministry of Education, the Gradu­
ate University of the Chinese Acad­emy of Sciences and the Chinese
Ministry of Education, as well as by
the research funding organisationsin the Netherlands (NOW), Hun­gary (OTKA) and Japan (JSPS);
more agreements are in the works.
An estimated 6% of all doctoralcandidates in Germany conclude
their doctorate studies at a DFG
Research Training Group. In spe­cific terms, more than 6,000 young
scientists write their doctoral the­ses in the approximately 270 RTGs
currently in existence, an averageof 22 to 25 doctorates per RTG. Of
these, approximately two-thirds
receive their fellowships from DFG
funds; the others are doctoral can­didates financed from other funds,
who participate equally in the
study programme and can also be
granted travel funds. In total, theDFG has financed almost 600
Research Training Groups since
the beginning of the programme.
A central aim of the programmeis to contribute to the reform andfurther development of the phaseleading up to the award of a doctor­

E

ate. Research Training Groups give
universities the incentive and abili­
ty to create and try out new struc­tures for the promotion of the newgeneration of scientists. In this way,
they make models and experienceavailable for more diversified andpermanently installed programmes
for doctoral candidates. The exist­
ing models of structured doctoral
training programmes – in addition
to the DFG, for example the Max
Planck Society and several Germanstates also support similar pro­grammes – have set new standards
for guiding doctoral candidates andmeasuring university teachers. A
DFG symposium in the summer of2003 showed that there are out­
standing examples of structured
promotion of doctoral candidates
throughout Germany, and thatmeanwhile in various places and invarious fields of science, researchtraining centres have arisen or arein the process of being created. It
has also become clear that there aresubject-specific admission require­ments and subsequently different
doctoral cultures, and that theseshould continue to exist. It is anaccepted fact that no reform mayquestion the tried and proven ele­ments of the German doctoral
courses – above all their scientificprofundity. This principle applies inparticular to the inclusion of study
up to a doctorate as a “third cycle”– after the Bachelor and the Master– in the Bologna Process.
he DFG is not in a position –nor is it obliged – to set up
Research Training Groups acrossthe whole country and make it pos­sible for all university graduates toearn a doctorate in one of its struc­tured programmes. In future it
would like to concentrate even moreon promoting RTGs that set exam­
ples and show a model character ofinnovative forms of supervision andsupport, for all the various genera­tions of scientists. The establishedmeasures must be given support by
the universities or the federal gov­
ernment – to paraphrase BenjaminFranklin: “An investment in theyoung scientific generation always
yields the most interest.”

T

Prof. Dr. Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker
is President of the DFG
Interference and quantum applications

Facts that Einstein did not knowA

has been repeatedly proven cor­rect, right up to the present day.
Thorsten Henninger, studying
for a doctorate at the European
Research Training Group “Interfer­
ence and Quantum Applications”
in Hanover, would like to take agood look at quantum effects – hewants to cause atoms to lose theirindividuality and merge in a gase­ous state, he wants to collect matter
in what is referred to as Bose-Ein­
stein condensate in such a way that
he can “photograph” the quantummechanical wave functions. As
early as 1995, American research­ers cooled several thousand rubid­
ium atoms to such an extent thatthey behaved like one single superatom. Rubidium atoms belong to
the boson class, which are atoms
that have an altogether evennumber of protons, neutrons andelectrons. Such particles always

Foto: MPI für Gravitationsphysik  t the Institute of Quantum
Optics, part of the Universityof Hanover, two small glass vacu­
um tanks are at the heart of anexperimental set-up: in them young
scientists plan to reveal the quan­tum nature of matter.
The peculiarity of quantum
physics is that in the microscopic
world the accustomed distinction
between waves and particles
becomes blurred. Depending on
the way they are considered, lightwaves are made of photons, quantaof electromagnetic energy, or parti­
cles of matter in their state of ener­
gy appear as waves. If this sounds
like sorcery we need not feel fright­
ened: After all, even the fathers of
the quantum theory, Max Planck
and Albert Einstein, wrangled withthe consequences of their discov­
ery throughout their lives. As
bizarre as the theory may seem itstrive for the same state. It is only
because of this herd instinct thatthey can condense to form a wave
packet, provided that Brownian
motion due to the temperature is
not too strong. However, Thorsten
Henninger wants to go one stepfurther – he wants to cool down not
only bosons, but also fermions(atoms that do not have an evennumber of protons, neutrons andelectrons), to close to absolute zero,“Interference is the link that
holds the Research Training
Group’s topics together.”
which is about -273 degrees Centi­
grade. Such atoms behave in an
opposite way to bosons: they repel
each other, which means they areat different locations, move at dif­ferent velocities or are distin­
guished from each other in someother way.
In the experiment, bosonicrubidium (isotope 87) and fermi­
onic potassium (isotope 40) are ina vacuum system. The physicist
bombards the atoms from six
directions with laser beams of aparticular wavelength, coolingthem down. A magnetic fielddraws the cold atoms into the
middle. Once in the magnetic trap
they are cooled further by evapo­
ration. The rubidium atoms now
form a condensate; at the sametime the potassium, since it is afermion that cannot be condensed,
forms a cloud. If the rubidium andpotassium atoms are illuminatedwith two different colours, thecompact condensate in the diffuse
cloud of potassium can be photo­

The working environment for thegravitational wave detector GEO600,
showing the vacuum tanks andpipes in the clean room.

Foto: Sven Passinger

The logo of the European Graduate
College, EGC, traced here in nanodimensions with a laser beam by Sven
Passinger.

graphed. By selecting an appro­
priate magnetic field, the rubid­
ium and potassium are then artifi­
cially linked to form a molecule.
“We want to show, for the firsttime, how fermionic potassium/rubidium molecules are physical­
ly produced,” says Thorsten
Henninger.
How the “pointlike particles”,
the atoms, in a Bose-Einstein con­densate can be aware of each othercan only be accounted for by theirwave nature. Particle waves form
an interference pattern just as lightdoes. Such a pattern may, for exam­
ple, reveal itself in the iridescenceof a soap bubble. Even if two con­densates are superimposed they
form typical interference stripes.
“Interference is the link that holds
our Research Training Group
together,” explains Professor Eber­
hard Tiemann, spokesman for the
RTG. In Hanover scientists are not
only investigating the interferenceof matter waves, in order to under­
stand fundamental phenomena
such as Bose-Einstein condensates,
but also using light and its interfer­
ence possibilities, in order to tackle
quite different problems.
The Quantum Theory was oneof the 20th century’s great revolu­
tions in physics, and Einstein’s
General Theory of Relativity was
the other. In this theory, gravitation
is no longer described as a force of
attraction as in Isaac Newton’swork, but rather as a warping ofspace-time – large masses bend thegeometry like a heavy ball on anelastic membrane, and as the forc­
es change this warping must fol­low. The wavelike structures aris­
ing from this lead to very slightvariations of the distances between
all objects in space. In Ruthe, near
Hanover, scientists are now wait­
ing for a star in the Milky Way (ornot too far away from our galaxy) to
explode as a supernova, or for two
black holes to collide, as that would
give them an opportunity to meas­
ure the gravitational waves thatare transmitted as a result – similar
to the waves in water when you
throw a stone into it.
Michaela Malec is also eagerly
awaiting such an event. “Thegravitational waves are so weakthat the distance between the
Earth and the sun would change
only by the diameter of an atom inthe event of the explosion of a starin our galaxy. Therefore we
require extremely precise meas­
uring instruments to discoverchanges in distances.” GEO600 issuch an instrument, and it func­
tions in accordance with the prin­ciple of a Michelson interferom­eter. It measures changes in dis­
tances with the help of lightrunning times between mirrors.
Some mirror arrangements, which
is what is special about thesedetectors, intensify the circulating
light power up to 1,000 times andhence permit the desired, highly
precise measurements. GEO600 is
one of six gravitational wave
detectors in existence worldwide.
Some years from now – in cooper­
ation with ESA and NASA – LISA
will also go into service. LISA is agigantic interferometer, consist­ing of three satellites, intended todetect gravitational waves in outerspace. “LISA will be concentrat­
ing on different frequency rangesof gravitational waves than theones the terrestrial detectors lis­
ten for,” says Michaela Malec.
“But the latter are not in competi­tion with one another, either. On
the contrary, if one detector meas­ures something, another one mustacknowledge the signal in order
to be certain that these are notdisturbance signals from othersources, such as seismic vibrations
or fluctuations of the laser inten­
sity or frequency.”
The physicist is investigating
sub-systems on the computer, witha “virtual detector”, in order toseparate out such disturbances insimulations. “In that way we canidentify the problem and, if it is ofa technical nature, systematically
eradicate it,” Malec explains. In
the autumn she will complete her
doctorate, jointly supervised at
Hanover and Glasgow universi­
ties. GEO600 is a joint British-Ger­man project in which the Albert
Einstein Institute of the Max
Planck Society is participating.
Michaela Malec did six months ofresearch work at the Scottish uni­
versity, a partner in the European
Research Training Group. “Thatwas immensely valuable to me,”she says enthusiastically.
There is also cooperation
between the Research Training
Group and the University of SouthParis in Orsay. The students in the
Research Training Group from
Hanover, Orsay and Glasgow will
gain experience through the inter­national exchange of ideas andknowledge and organised work­
shops, and joint doctorates are“The time I spent at the
British partner university wasimmensely valuable to me.”also an important aim. “As theprocedures for obtaining a doctor­
ate vary widely across the Euro­pean countries, we draw up a sep­arate contract for each candidate,”
explains Eberhard Tiemann. Addi­
tionally, Hanover itself provides a
stimulating environment for doc­
toral candidates. For example the
DFG Collaborative Research Cen­tre “Quantum-limited Measuring
Processes with Atoms, Molecules
and Photons” is located here, andclose cooperation with the Albert
Einstein Institute and the HanoverLaser Centre also exists. The stu­
dents of the RTG like this verymuch. “We don’t want to be onetrack specialists,” says Thorsten
Henninger.
Foto: Thorsten Henninger

A red rubidium cloud near absolutezero, approximately -273 degrees
Centigrade – Thorsten Henninger
renders the wave nature of matter
visible.

The laser centre is Sven Passinger’s
workplace. The doctoral candidate
is working on a rather practicalside of interference and quantum
effects: nanotechnology. “Theenormous progress in this field
makes it possible for us to produce
new photonic materials, such as
photonic crystals,” he reports. In
photonic crystals the refractive
index on the scale of the wave­
length of light is periodically mod­ulated; the light no longer dispers­
es and so none is lost. In future
semiconductor materials with pho­tons could replace the semiconduc­
tor materials with electron trans­
port that we use today, for example
in computer chips or general infor­
mation processing circuits. Because
photons are much faster, telecom­munications and computer tech­
nology could be accelerated.
The process with which Sven
Passinger produces such new struc­tures is called two-photon polym­
erisation. He focuses a femtosec­
ond laser beam into a resin that is
actually transparent for light of the
wavelength used but is light-sensi­
tive with half the wavelength, andthe resin then polymerises at the“We appreciate
the close contact tovarious institutes.”points bombarded by light and so
hardens. This is successfully
achieved through the two-photon
absorption. In this case, use is madeof the fact that two photons fromthe laser beam have the sameenergy as a photon of half the
wavelength. As the photon density
is only high enough when in focus,
polymerisation only takes placewhen it is also in focus. In this way
Sven Passinger can write threedimensional structures into thematerial with the help of the laser
beam and then chemically remove
the areas not bombarded. In theprocess he achieves a resolution of
up to 100 nanometres (millionth ofa millimetre). He can supplement
this method if he superimposes four
laser beams spatially and tempo­
rally so precisely that a periodic
interference pattern is obtained.
The advantage in this case is thatlarge volume structures, up to sev­
eral cubic millimetres, can be pro­
duced with a resolution in the nan­ometre range. He describes his
vision as follows: “The main attrac­
tion of photonic crystals would be if
one could succeed in using a mate­rial with a high index of refraction
so that the light can, so to speak, be
steered around the corner. The
glass fibres used today for datatransmission run in quite large
curves and a 90 degree bend would
revolutionise telecommunications.”mkTeaching of natural sciences

School as a laboratoryIn recent years the international
comparative school achievement
studies TIMSS and PISA haverevealed only poor to mediocre
results for German schoolchildren
for mathematics, science and read­ing literature. In particular, apply­
ing scientific concepts seems to bedifficult for German 15-year-old
pupils. As a consequence numer­
ous questions are being asked bya public concerned with the teach­ing and learning of science atschool. “In this context it is impor­tant to know what tasks and prob­
lems science teachers actually use
in lessons,” says Paul Jatzwauk,“otherwise we will never be able
to find out why German school­
children’s achievements are sopoor”. Could they really not solve
the problems or exercises in the“Why did German school­
children achieve such poor

empirically underpinned findingson their use worth mentioning,
according to Jatzwauk.
His work is part of an extensive
research programme at the
Research Training Group “Teach­ing and Learning of Science”,
which is attached to a Research
Unit of the same name in Essen.
“In a closely enmeshed way we
examine the problems of theteaching of the natural sciences atthe level of the schoolchildren, theteachers and the school system as
a whole,” explains Professor Elke
Sumfleth, spokeswoman of the
RTG.
Psychologists, researchers inchemistry, physics and biology
education and education research­ers have gathered together in
Essen for closely networked
research and are together provid­
ing the interdisciplinary dimen­
sions to the “Empirical Education
Research” programme of the Uni­

versity of Duisburg-Essen. In par­ticular, cooperation with the psy­chologists involved is somethingwhich Sumfleth, herself a chemis­
try educator, has come to appreci­“The doctoral theses
are tied closely to the
DFG Research Unit.”
ate. “That is where the methodo­
logical competence for our empiri­
cal research comes from, somethingwhich was perhaps a bit underes­
timated in the didactics of naturalsciences in the past,” she says.
What is presumably unique at a
German university is the network­ing between a Research Unit anda Research Training Group, both
funded by the DFG. “From thetheoretical and the research meth­odological point of view the the­results in comparative

achievement tests, or were they
simply not used to dealing with acertain type of questioning?
Paul Jatzwauk, who studied to
become a teacher of history andbiology in Leipzig, is now writing
his doctoral thesis at the Universi­
ty of Duisburg-Essen on the “Useof tasks in biology lessons”.
Although exercises and problems
are of central significance withregard to motivating pupils andhelping them learn, and althoughteachers frequently structure their
biology lessons using exercises
and problems, there are few

Video recordings are an important
instrument for the empirical researchin the RTG “Teaching and Learningof Science”.

Graduiertenkolleg Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht

studies?”ses of the fellows will be tiedclosely to the Research Unit,
which contains several interdisci­
plinary projects dealing with the
improvement of teaching in thenatural sciences,” says Elke
Sumfleth.
For his doctoral thesis, connect­
ed to the project “Tasks and Prob­
lems in Teaching Natural Scienc­es”, Paul Jatzwauk has selected asample of 25 biology lessons at theclass level 9 (roughly equates to
16-year-olds or 5th form) at vari­
ous upper secondary schools in“Experimenting places
high demands on learning.”

North Rhine-Westphalia. His ana­
lytical interest is focused on thefeatures and requirements of exer­
cises and problems used in biology
lessons, the way they are used andthe difficulties of pupils when
dealing with those tasks.
To illustrate the process natureof teaching and to analyse interac­tion and instruction sequences heuses video recordings. For deeper
analysis of the videos he has devel­
oped a special system of catego­ries. Finally, he would like toanswer the question as to how thecharacteristics of the use of tasks
and problems in biology lessons
are reflected in schoolchildren’sachievements. He hopes that one
day he can make a contribution to
guides for everyday teaching
being developed on the basis of
basic research.
The holder of a degree in psy­chology from Bochum University,
Hubertina Thillmann deals, in her
doctoral thesis, with the analysis
and promotion of learning by
experimenting in natural science
lessons. Teachers still consider
experimenting in these subjects as
the method of choice for arousing
the interest of the pupils, motivat­
ing them to learn, training theirability to cooperate and conveying
to them the natural scientific way
to acquire knowledge.
From relevant literature andfrom other research work within
the project “Diagnosis and Promo­tion of Learning and ProblemSolving Processes in Natural Sci­
ence Teaching”, Hubertina Thill­mann knows that, contrary to
expectations, the learning effec­
tiveness of classroom experiments
conducted by schoolchildren
themselves is quite low. She wants
to find out why the expected learn­ing success is so seldom achieved.
One possible reason, she suggests,
could be found in the specific reg­ulatory demands of learning
through experimenting. Since inthis case, unlike conventional
learning with texts, the informa­tion must not only be absorbed
and retained, but must first of all
be generated by systematic
experimenting.
In order to do research on
pupils’ regulatory competence
required for classroom experi­ments, Hubertina Thillmann isusing a computer-assisted learn­ing environment in which the way
the pupils proceed during experi­
menting is recorded online. She
can subsequently analyse, forexample, how the child regulates
the progress of his/her own learn­ing process. “I initially use thecomputer-based experimenting
environment as a diagnostic
instrument. It was developed in
the Research Unit, as a diagnostic
instrument,” she states.
In a further step the results ofher doctoral thesis are intended tocontribute to one day being able
to individually assist schoolchil­dren so that they are able to learn
more successfully, based on theexperiments carried out in the nat­ural sciences. Her hope is thatteachers are “better able to moti­
vate their pupils for self-regulated
learning”.
Alexander Kauertz completed acourse of study for a teaching postin mathematics and physics in
Dortmund. With his doctoral thesis
he has set himself the aim of devel­
oping an achievement test in phys­
ics for schoolchildren at the 10thyear level (approximately 16-17year-olds). His thesis is related tothe project “Vertical Linkage andCumulative Learning in Natural
Science Lessons”. One of his ideas
involves addressing the complexi­ty and inner networking of thefacts and relationships for physics
teaching in a new way. “The con­ventional structure of text books
and curricula, with headings suchas optics, electricity or mechanics,
does not support learning,” hesays, and postulates that learning
physics is easier for pupils if they
get to know the subject matter
through a vertical linkage. His
concept contains some basic ideas:“Matter, energy or nature of sci­ence make it possible to repeated­
ly look at certain physical contents– but always from a different pointof view.”
In practical terms, teachingaccording to basic ideas meansthat concepts, once they havebeen learned at successive year
levels, are always increasingly dif­ferentiated, broadened and deep­
ened. The content is therefore
continued and each aspect
becomes more and more stronglyinterlinked over the course of time.
“In this way cumulative learning
becomes possible”, Kauertz says,“and pupils have a chance to use
what they already know for learn­
ing new physics concepts.”
Following up the concept ofbasic ideas, Kauertz is construct­
ing tasks for a physics achieve­
ment test. There must be at least“How can physics
knowledge alreadyacquired be used forlearning new concepts?”

approximately 150 items to be able
to measure and diagnose pupils’
physics achievement. “The con­struction of the physics items is themost sensitive and difficult part of
my work,” he says. Once they arelater established in the school sys­tem, Kauertz hopes teachers will
want to ensure that their pupils
pass the test. “Then things will get
exciting. As the items of theachievement test correspond tothe concept of the basic ideas, in a
backwash effect it will turn outthat one day physics teaching in
general will function according tothis principle.”
db

Molecular targets of the ageing process and strategies for the prevention of ageing

The dream ofa hale and hearty Methuselaht the age of only 27, Tanja
Maresch should actually haveother things to worry about. But
the biochemist studies wrinkles
with obvious enthusiasm. It is on
the outer shell of our body that it
first becomes apparent that youth
is ephemeral. In the course of life,
damage and defects unavoidably
accumulate within the body – inthe genes, the proteins or lipids.
Typical degenerative changes
manifest themselves on the skin,in muscles, in bones, and in oureyesight and hearing. “The popu­
lation is growing increasingly
older,” says Tanja Maresch andmeans this in a double sense.
Although the great successes inmedicine
have
enormously
increased our life expectancy, they
still cannot stop the process ofageing.
Since time immemorial we havewanted to slow down the ticking ofour biological clocks but are only
just beginning to understand how
ageing is triggered at the molecu­
lar level. Tanja Maresch is study­
ing for her doctorate in the
Research Training Group “Molec­
ular Targets of Ageing Process andStrategies for the Prevention of
Ageing”, based at the Institute forEnvironmental Medicine at the
University of Düsseldorf. “It is
known today that oxidative stressis one of the main factors trigger­

ing and maintaining ageing proc­
esses,” says Professor Jean Krut­mann, spokesman of the RTG. This
stress is caused by free oxygen
radicals or oxidants; but exactly
what mechanisms they spark off in
the organs in each case is stilllargely unknown.
Free radicals arise as perfectly
normal waste products in the cell
metabolism, created by the mito­
chondria found inside each cell.

Tobias Jung studies how defective
proteins are distributed in nerve cells
and how to put an end to them.

Foto: Tobias GremmelAFoto: Tobias Gremmel

Severalhundredoftheseorganelles colonise every cell andeach one has double-strand DNA
rings with 37 genes at their dis­posal that participate in metabo­lism. The mitochondria generateenergy in the form of adenosine
triphosphate (ATP), and at thesame time produce free radicals,
oxidants that have an unpaired
electron and are therefore very
reactive. This is the cause of oxi­
dative stress; in order to obtain the
missing electron, the free radicals
attack cell constituents including
the proteins of the respiratory
chain and the mitochondrial DNA,
which is only slowly repaired. In
young cells the free radicals are
kept in check by protective mech­anisms, the anti-oxidants, but dur­ing the ageing process the balanceshifts in favour of the aggressive
substances.
The concentration of free oxy­
gen radicals increases the speed
at which we age. It is determined10by the predecessors within the cell
but also by external factors, suchas ultraviolet radiation or defec­
tive nutrition, which stimulate theproduction of oxidants. “The corearea of research here in Düssel­
dorf is the question of how exter­
nal factors can trigger and accel­
erate ageing,” explains Jean Krut­“Each doctoral candidate
has several “complementary”
doctoral supervisors.”
mann.
“The
InstituteforEnvironmental Medicine is uniquein Germany.”
One source of premature age­
ing is solar radiation. “Whoever
constantly exposes his or her skinto the sun is punished by light age­ing,” Tanja Maresch explains. “Wealready know that light-aged skinshows more mutations in the mito­

chondrial DNA. At the same time
reactive oxygen species also playa role.” She would like to find out
how the mutations, oxidative stressand ageing-induced cell changes
are interrelated, and presumes
that the process sets a vicious cir­cle in motion: the UVA radiation
penetrates as far as the true skin,
the dermis, and produces the reac­
tive oxygen species which thencause, among other things, muta­
tions in the mitochondrial DNA.
As a result the proteins are incor­
rectly coded, the respiratory chain
develops defects and even more
free radicals are produced. “Theeffect, according to our thesis, thenintensifies itself without further
external input.” In her work she isconcentrating on a specific muta­

Tanja Maresch examines the damage
too much sunbathing causes in the
mitochondria of skin cells.

Foto: Ilaria Dalla Rosa

Ageing processes take place in the
mitochondria, the energy suppliers of
the cells. The green colouring is due tofluorescent marking.

tion, referred to as the common
deletion, which comprises about
one-third of the mitochondrial
genome. On a skin equivalentmodel she wants to exactly meas­
ure the damage: primary skin cells
mixed with collagen join together
in a three-dimensional matrix onwhich they can sow keratinocytes,
cells from the upper layer of theskin; in that way a centimetre-highmodel is obtained, which exactly
reflects the natural structure of theskin. It has enormous advantages,
as cell cultures react differently
from living skin and as test per­sons naturally cannot be irradiatedindefinitely.
Ilaria Dalla Rosa, who studied
biology at Bologna, is also dealing
with the effect of UV radiation on
the mitochondrial genome. The
Italian biologist focuses on topoi­
somerase II, an enzyme that is not
fully understood. “In fact it isvital,” she says, “since processes
such as cell division cannot func­tion without topoisomerase II”.
The enzyme manipulates the
topology of the cell nucleus DNA
by rotating, splitting the molecules
or adding additional windings to
the double strand; in that way it
puts order back in the genes ifthey have become confused dur­ing reading or copying processes.

The enzyme also plays a role in
the DNA of the mitochondria.
“Topoisomerase II becomes active
if damage has been caused by UVlight,” says Ilaria Dalla Rosa, but
the enzyme recognises the dam­age and responds with doublestrand ruptures and self-destruc­tion. Scientists presume that thismechanism strengthens small
defects so much that degenerationof the whole genome is the conse­
quence. Ilaria Dalla Rosa would
like to find out whether the muta­tion rate is accelerated if the cell
produces too much topoisomerase
II during UV radiation. And cananti-oxidants perhaps prevent thisor topoisomerase II inhibitors
retard light ageing?
The research field of this RTG,
which has been in existence since
the summer of 2004, is quite
sharply focused. This provides theadvantage of very close coopera­tion, for example also between the
RTG and the DFG Collaborative
Research Centre “Molecular andCellular Mediators of Exogenous
Noxae”. “The students of the
Research Training Group are very
intensively supported,” says Jean
Krutmann. For example, each doc­
toral candidate must also work inother laboratories and has, inaddition to his/her own doctoral
supervisor, further “complemen­tary” supervisors who provide
feedback appropriately.
“It is good to perceive otherparts of the mosaic apart from ourown,” confirms Tobias Jung. His
part of the jigsaw puzzle is a pro­tein complex that acts like a kindof waste disposal service: the pro­teasome. “If oxidants stress a cell,
defective proteins are produced
which can no longer perform theirtask and have to be removed.
That is done by the proteasome.”
At present he is working on neu­rons which he obtains from the
hippocampus of mice and subjects
to biochemical stress, for example
with hydrogen peroxide, which istransformed into a very unpleas­
ant radical when it encounters
iron, copper or zinc in the cell. In
that way he can observe how thedamaged proteins are distributedand how the proteasome decom­
poses them.

One of the great problems of
our quite elderly society is neuro­
degenerative illness, which physi­
cians also call dementia. Whenparts of the brain fail in old age
this is thought to be also due tooxidative stress and to the fact thatthe protective mechanisms in thenerve cell are no longer function­
ing. Alzheimer’s disease is themost frequent of all dementia ill­
nesses. Besides the amyloid
plaques, deposits appearing at an
early stage between the neurons,
above all in the hippocampus andin the cerebral cortex, bundles oftau protein are a characteristic
identifying feature in the case of
Alzheimer’s syndrome. At a later
phase of the illness these tau pro­teins clot in the nerve cells them­selves and block neural transmis­
sions. Their density is directly
related to mental decline. The pro­teasome obviously does not recog­“It is good to also perceive
other pieces of the mosaic
within the RTG.”
nise this defective protein. “There
are already medicines in existencethat influence the activity of theproteasome,” says Tobias Jung.
But because they are still in theirinfancy there is still a lot to bedone by scientists like him.
Also in the case of dementia ill­
nesses it is likely that risk factors
from the environment, such as
nutrition or fine dust, are in play.
We would all like to live for a longtime without growing old, whether
this involves such serious old-age
phenomena as Alzheimer’s syn­drome or infirmity, or “mere”
blemishes, such as the skin losing
itselasticity. Industry has alreadyproduced various fountains ofyouth in the form of anti-ageing
agents – from skin creams to hor­mone replacement products anddietary supplements. “But a lot of
it is just hot air,” judges Jean Krut­mann. “Therefore we scientists
have a special responsibility towork honestly and on a wellfounded scientific basis, on a prob­
lem that affects all of us.” mk11

Sensory photoreceptors in natural and artificial systems

Transformations by lightLight is the main source of energy
for life on our planet. Plants
have evolved to utilise the energy
from sunlight, using chlorophyll.
Light also serves organisms as asource of information, is the cata­lyst of many chemical processes,
can be converted directly into elec­
tricity by means of photovoltaic
systems, and is used as a radiation
medium for the healing of manyillnesses. But the related key words,“photosynthesis”, “photo-sensor
technology”,“photochemistry”
and “phototherapy”, suggest why
our knowledge of the interaction oflight and matter is still very incom­
plete or full of gaps. “In order toarrive at fundamentally new find­ings,” says Professor Bernhard
Dick, spokesman of the ResearchTraining Group “Sensory Photore­
ceptors in Natural and Artificial
Systems” at the University ofRegensburg, “biologists and physi­
cists, chemists and physicians needto interact on an interdisciplinary
basis, and this does not have a very
long scientific tradition and often
involves a difficult learning
process.”
Bernhard Dick is a chemist, spe­cialising in spectroscopy. When hejoined the teaching staff at the RTG
he initially thought all he needed
to do was to make his specialist
knowledge available to others.
However, he quickly discoveredthat he had let himself in for a sci­
entific adventure that still fasci­nates him and spurs him on. “Dur­ing my time at school, biology was
still a more descriptive science.
Here in the RTG I am suddenly
learning an infinitely large numberof new things in the field of molec­
ular biology.”
The “Sensory Photoreceptors in
Natural and Artificial Systems”
RTG focuses on understanding theprinciples of natural photorecep­
tors and developing conceptions
for the simplest possible artificial
photo-systems. From the outset it
was a challenge for all involved to12adjust to the different terminolo­
gies of the different disciplines –physics, biology, chemistry andmedicine – and to develop a com­mon language. The fourteen fel­lows in the RTG, with their doctoral
theses at the interfaces between
medicine, chemistry, physics andbiology, are integrated into thefront line of internationally orien­tated basic research, since many
details of the mechanisms thatorganisms use to receive and proc­
ess light signals are still completely
unknown.
“A physicist can say different
things than a chemist or biologist
about the interaction of matter andlight,” says Bernhard Dick. There­
fore, he and his colleagues rarely
miss the weekly interdisciplinarylectures, which, over several
semesters, provide all members of
the RTG with a tour d’horizon on
the actual state of knowledge con­cerning light absorption.
“In our field of research, newknowledge is obtained almost
daily,” Berhard Dick reports. Cur­
rently six groups of photoreceptors
are known: rhodopsins, phyto­chromes, xanthopsins, crypto­
chromes, phototropins and what
are known as the BLUF proteins.
The last four groups are blue light
receptors – that is, substances thatabsorb light at a wavelength of
between 400 and 500 nanometres.
The last three of these are charac­
terised by flavin-based photochem­
istry. “That is, however, somethingthat we have known for only a few
years, and Regensburg researchers
from the RTG were notably
involved in the decoding of thereaction mechanisms,” says Profes­
sor Dick, with pride.
Flavins are naturally occurring
yellow dyes; an important sub­stance of this group is riboflavin,which belongs to the vitamin B2
complex. In the Research Training
Group, Professor Dick has alreadydiscovered some tricky points ofinterdisciplinary cooperation, since

the chemical behaviour of the fla­
vins held a surprise in store. He
had based some research work on
the assumption, often made bychemists, that the reactions of fla­
vin proteins proceed according to aredox reaction, which means thatelectrons would be transferred.
However, it turned out that some­thing completely different hap­
pened. “In the light-driven reac­tion a real chemical bond is formed
between the flavin and an aminoacid, which is then broken again“Biologists, chemists,
physicians and physicists finda common language.”
after some minutes.” For Professor
Dick this is an indication of the factthat “supposedly reliable subject
knowledge must be consideredwith care at the disciplineboundaries”.
In his doctoral thesis, ChristianVogl is now examining those pro­teins that carry a flavogroup. “Bestsuited to this are proteins whichcarry modified flavogroups, that isradioactively marked ones, or thosethat have been changed in theredox potential,” he reports. In
order to obtain them, it has so far
been the practice to develop theprotein structure, replace the natu­
ral flavogroups with synthetic ones
and finally restore the protein to its
original configuration. As the yieldof modified flavoproteins with thismethod is relatively low, Vogl
would like to set up an expression
system on the basis of the soil bac­terium Bacillus subtilis. “The bac­terium is supposed to receive theinformation to produce as much as
possible of a certain protein and at
the same time to take up the artifi­
cial flavins supplied from the out­side and to build them into thedesired proteins.” If all goes wellhe will have “killed two birds with

Two types of Bacillus subtilis – on
the right, a culture that has been
genetically modified in such a way thatit overproduces riboflavin and releases
it into the surrounding culture medium.
On the left, the genetically unchanged
culture which only produces as much
riboflavin as it needs to function. It
does not release any into the medium
so that here there is no fluorescence tobe seen under the ultraviolet light.

iour with “knockout” flies thathave no Rh7.
“My work here in the RTG
involves cell membranes,” reports
Christian Horn. Each cell is sur­rounded by a membrane, whichcontains, for example, receptors
for relaying signals or those thatviruses dock onto in order to infil­
trate the cell. An important groupof proteins within the cell mem­brane is what is known as ionchannels. “After countless experi­ments and constant improvements,“We are working on new
findings in our field of
research almost every day.”in 1976 Erwin Neher and Bert Sak­mann were the first to succeed inmeasuring the flow of ions throughindividual channels in the cell
membrane of a muscle fibre,”reports Horn, “and they wereawarded the Nobel Prize for thatin 1991.”

Today’s standard techniques ofartificially building up cell mem­branes and testing their function
still have their tricky aspects. It is
unsatisfactory to mount them infront of a type of aperture dia­phragm, since that way they do notlast long, or to lay them on a solid
substrate, since then it is only pos­sible to take measurements on one
side. Horn has now developed asubstrate consisting of a nanostruc­tured surface of porous aluminium
oxide, which makes it possible tomeasure the products of diffusion
at both sides of the membrane. He
has tested it with bacteriorho­
dopsin, a protein that transports
protons through membranes under
the influence of light.
Horn’s doctoral thesis is almost
completed. “I was able to measure
the flow over a course of several
days,” he says. With a conventional
measuring arrangement the system
would only have functioned for a
few hours. Due to its long-term sta­bility his technique is possibly ofinterest for the development of bio­
sensors. dbChristian Vogl

one stone,” he will have obtained a“plentiful production” of flavopro­
tein, in order to be able to study theblue light absorption as well as thesubsequent reactions in the pro­tein, and he will also have obtained
a variation of artificially modified
proteins. There are quite a few
stumbling blocks: “First of all what
we must do is study the mechanismof the absorption of the artificial
riboflavin into the bacterium. Is
that really possible? And if so, canI optimise that?”
Wolfgang Bachleitner is in
search of a yet unknown photore­
ceptor that synchronises the inter­
nal clock of fruit flies. In order toadjust each day to the 24-hourrhythm of the Earth, many organ­
isms use light as a timer. “In thecase of the fruit fly, Drosophila mel­anogaster, it was proven that sev­
eral photoreceptors and/or pig­
ments can be used for the synchro­nisationof
thiscircadianoscillation,” Bachleitner reports:“The compound eyes, ocelli, Hof­bauer-Buchner eyelets, and theblue light photo pigment crypto­
chrome.” The Research Training
Group has discovered, however,that what are known as knockout
mutants, fruit flies that completely
lack these receptors, neverthelessrespond to light, indicating, Bach­leitner presumes, that there are
more photoreceptors, as yet undis­
covered. He suggests, “It could be
the gene with the designation Rh7,
that is, a seventh rhodopsin, thesequence of which was discoveredin the genome of the fruit fly.”Bachleitner has now produced amutant of the fruit fly in which theRh7 over-expresses, which meansthat it is highly concentrated, andhe would like to compare its behav­

13Conflict and cooperation between social groups

Pitfalls of perceptionT

dpa-Fotoreport

owards the end of 2004, Dutch
film maker Theo van Gogh, who
was provocative in his views on
Islamic tradition, was murdered by
a Moroccan immigrant. In the
Netherlands, until then so proud of
its liberal immigration policy, thistriggered an outbreak of xenopho­
bia, which was responsible fornumerous mosques and Koran
schools going up in flames. Whatmechanisms are responsible for
Moslems no longer being allowed
to feel at home in the Netherlands
following the murder? How did the
feeling of “us” against “them”, theMuslims, arise and develop?
“The others – this concept canbe interpreted in an extremely flex­
ible way,” says Professor Amélie
Mummendey, a social psychologist

14

and spokeswoman of the ResearchTraining Group “Conflict andCooperation
betweenSocialGroups” at the University of Jena.
At a football match of the German
Bundesliga, for example, a fan from
Mönchengladbach perceives the
opponent footballers from Munichas “the others”. On the other hand,at an international game, they
belong to “his” national team –even if the opponents come fromthe Netherlands, which is geo­
graphically much closer.
Psychologist Mirjam Dolderer
has taken the case of the murder ofTheo van Gogh as the starting
point for her doctoral thesis. Her
main interest is research on stereo­
types. “So far what has been main­
ly studied is whether the percep­

tion of a whole group can be posi­
tively influenced if a member of analien group is respected,” shereports. However, from the relevant
literature it is well known that, as arule, this is not the case. The posi­tive perception of an individual is
not generalised but viewed as an
exception, “a process which, in
psychology, is known as sub-typ­ing”. In her doctoral thesis Dolder­er is now examining what happens
if, instead, a member of a social
community confirms in an extreme
way the characteristics or ways of
behaving ascribed to his/her group,
such as the murderer of van Gogh.
Psychologists call this a stereotype.
“Does this then reinforce thestereotype?”
In order to address this issue,
Dolderer has first of all determined,on the basis of a questionnaire,
how the population perceives peo­
ple of Arab origin. Besides this con­trol group, she also polled a second
group, and at the same time she
asked them to also state what they
could remember of the details of
the murder of van Gogh. A thirdgroup was asked to remember
details of the murder of Rudolph
Mooshammer in Munich early thisyear. The result was that those who
were reminded of the murder ofMooshammer judged people ofArab origin considerably morenegatively. By contrast that picture
was not changed by the memory of
the van Gogh murder.
The behaviour of an individual
had therefore contributed to a rein­
forcement of the stereotype. “Butnot where I would have expected
it,” says Dolderer. “After being
reminded of the Mooshammer
murder, individuals found the pic­
The murder of Theo van Gogh,obviously motivated by religious
fundamentalist thinking – here persons
attending the funeral in Amsterdam –enraged the population of theNetherlands.

ture of people of Arab origin clearly
more negative, although this mur­der – contrary to the one in the
Netherlands – was based not a reli­gious/political conflict, but on
greed.” Mirjam Dolderer now
wants to check different explana­tion patterns in a follow-up study.
The dynamics and change proc­
esses within and between groups
are the theme of the research inJena. “The more global the world
becomes, the more associatedcamp formations become a prob­lem,” says Professor Peter Noack,
who teaches educational psycholo­
gy in Jena and is also involved in
the RTG. Amélie Mummendey
underscores the relevance of thearea of research, saying “Lookwhat happens when two compa­
nies or two neighbouring schools
are to be merged. The long-stand­ing ideas of groups clash and solu­
tions are mostly not obvious.”“The RTG is a fantastic crystal­lisation point for the promotion ofresearch on intergroup relations,”
says its spokeswoman. “In addi­
tion to the doctoral candidates wehave involved postdoctorate staff
and our work here radiates out as
far as basic studies.” From theoutset she planned and set up an
International Research Training
Group in psychology. “Three more
universities, in the United King­dom and in Belgium, are involved.
“The subject is international andin the group of colleagues our RTG
now ensures an overlap of the var­ious sub-disciplines of develop­
ment-psychology, educational andsocial-psychology,” remarks Pro­
fessor Noack.
The University of Jena has rec­ognised the opportunities for uni­
versity research provided by the
Research Training Group and has
provided an old villa quite close to
the Institute of Psychology, to be
used as the head office. “This rela­
tively luxurious setting is not to beunderestimated in the develop­
ment of the RTG’s own identity. At
the same time, it ensures that there
is pressure to also achieve some­thing good,” says Amélie Mum­mendey. She knows that the devel­
opment phase of an RTG is a com­plicated, complex matter. Different
life phases and objectives collide;rules have to be made and must
prove suitable in practice.
Since early 2004, Daniel Geschke
has been a member of the ResearchTraining Group. In his doctoral the­sis he examines the phenomenonof acculturation, i.e. the process ofdifferent cultures growing togeth­
er. For this purpose, Geschke asked
the inhabitants of the district ofJena where there was considerable
trouble concerning the location of a
new centre for asylum seekers in
the middle of last year, about theirattitudes to strangers. “And thatwas even though it was only a mat­

“Psychology is international,
and therefore so is the
Research Training Group.”
ter of about 100 asylum seekers – anegligible number compared with
the German majority of about
20,000 inhabitants.” Geschke col­lected the opinions of the residents
concerning foreigners in two
rounds of interviews, one before
the opening of the centre for asy­
lum seekers and a second one quite
some time later. In this way hewants to determine whether theoriginal fears match the actual per­ceptions in everyday life.
“The initial results of my workshow, for example, that the local
German residents were not willingto assimilate foreign elements into
their own culture,” he reports.
Geschke knows that acculturationis actually often accompanied by
prejudices or fear of violence andcrime, although it is often of great
benefit to the host population.
Therefore his first results did notsurprise him. His hypothesis thatthe perceptions of the persons
polled correlate with their individ­
ual political preferences seems to
be confirmed. “What I think about
what the foreigners want puts me
into either a positive or a negative
basic frame of mind concerningthem, and is also decisive in thematter of the policy I would like to
see applied to the foreigners.”
The majority spoke in favour ofa policy of assimilation in the firstround of questions; their wish wasthat the migrants should adapt tothe predominant German culture.
Geschke is now eagerly awaiting
the results of the second round ofquestions. Have the prejudicesbecome stronger? Or, and thiswould really please him, have theperceptions of the foreigner in theprocess of acculturation perhaps
changed positively?
Psychologist Ilga Vossen is justabout to complete her doctoral the­sis. In the Research Training Groupshe has compiled data on a phe­nomenon that she calls “lack offit”. That has something to do withthe fact that members of an organi­sation have ideas about what theideal picture of a member is. “Suchan ideal typical prototype becomes,
for example in a company, thestandard for the assessment of thestaff,” says Vossen.
Lack of fit now describes theindividual variance from this ideal
picture, the ideas about being
dependent upon the context andthe sector. Only a few years ago thesignificance of the lack of fit for theselection of applicants was experi­mentally proven – achievements,for example, were assessed morepoorly.
Ilga Vossen has now analysed
how women in organisations per­ceive themselves and found that,
depending on the degree of their“lack of fit”, they behave in com­pletely different ways. “If women
do not feel that they fit into anorganisational structure well – forinstance in a technical environ­ment dominated by men – they
identify themselves less with theirown group, that is with their female
colleagues.” On the other hand,
Vossen ascertained that a high pro­totypicality – women in advertisingand marketing, for example –brings about a situation in which
they identify themselves strongly
with their female colleagues.
“This varied group identification
with the female colleagues deci­
sively influences the extent towhich women dedicate themselves
to a company and how much they
achieve,”concludes
Vossen,because “women are willing tocommit themselves more to a com­pany if they are perceived as proto­
typical.”
db15

Sex- and gender-specific mechanisms in myocardial hypertrophy

Women’s hearts, men’s heartsW

hen the heart no longer beatsproperly the quality of life isvery adversely affected. About 10
percent of all people over 70 yearsof age suffer from such a cardiac
insufficiency, where the pumping
action of the body’s most importantmuscle is restricted. The conse­
quence is usually heart failure. Oneof the most frequent causes of car­diac insufficiency is myocardial
hypertrophy, an abnormal over­growth of the heart muscle. We
know the phenomenon above allfrom competitive athletes, althoughquite normal everyday stress also
contributes to the growth of themuscle. High blood pressure, a val­
vular defect, or a hereditary dispo­
sition are further potential factors.
At the beginning this effect is­perfectly healthy since the heart
simply adjusts to the additionalstrain. At a later stage, however,
the hypertrophy has fatal conse­
quences, which start with, forexample, the supply of blood to theenlarged organ no longer being
guaranteed or the metaplastic
processes being deregulated.
It was only during the last ten
years that doctors have learned
through studies of the populationthat the hearts of men and womenfunction differently. Young womenare apparently better protectedfrom cardiovascular disease thanmen; however, once menopause
has set in, such diseases not only
occur more often, they also show
more severe development, caus­
ing the women to die earlier. But
why is that the case? In animal andcell culture experiments genderspecific influences have not yet
been adequately researched. “Wehave taken on the task of filling
the gap in our knowledge,” says
Professor Vera Regitz-Zagrosek,
spokeswoman of the ResearchTraining Group “Sex- and Gen­
der-specific Mechanisms in Myo­cardial Hypertrophy,” in whichgroups from the German Heart
Institute in Berlin, the Charité
16

Hospital, the Max Delbrück Cen­tre for Molecular Medicine, theFree University and the Humboldt
University are cooperating, withfunding by the DFG. In earlier
times, biomedical and pharmaceu­
tical research neglected genderspecific differences. Male experi­mental animals were at the fore­
front and clinical studies mainly
involved men.
The finding that women are
more seriously affected by myo­cardial hypertrophy after meno­
pause encourages the assumptionthat oestrogen plays a decisiverole. Oestrogen could have a pro­tective function, as the ovaries inthis period of life gradually stop

“Our dialogue with medical
researchers sharpens our
focus on clinical problems.”
producing this sexual hormone.
Experiments with animals havealready confirmed this assumption– rats with a lack of oestrogendeveloped a hypertrophy, whileothers, which had oestrogen
administered, did not. Thi Hang
Pham would like to find out more
about the reasons for this. The
biologist, who was born in Viet­nam and grew up in Germany, iswriting her doctoral thesis on theeffect of oestrogen on the heart.
The steroid hormone not only
influences the regions that prepare
the female body for reproductionby, for example, programming the
mammary glands for milk secre­tion. It also has effects on the brain,
the liver and the pancreas. In the
cardiovascular system, it influences
the growth processes of the heart,the formation of connective tissue
and also the content of calcium,
one of the most important biochem­
ical substances that ensures thecontraction of the muscle. Oestro­gen is a messenger substance thatworks by setting cell receptors inmotion. These receptors, which arelocated on the cell surface or in thecell interior, convey a message
from the exterior of the cell into thecell interior and/or to the cell
nucleus. Substances such as oes­
trogen develop their effect only by
setting these receptors in motion,for example when the organism is
exposed to stress. “I am trying tofind out how the oestrogen recep­
tors function and how they differ
between men and women,” says
Thi Hang Pham, since men also
have the female sexual hormone,but in a very much smaller quanti­
ty. The doctoral candidate is con­centrating on the interaction part­ners – where proteins interact withthe receptors, on what circum­
stances stimulate this interaction
and on what the molecular reac­
tions look like. She is also taking aclose look at the metabolic path­ways, and she wants to find out
what happens if she switches thereceptors off or switches them on
too strongly. Her medium is yeast,
into which she incorporates oestro­gen receptor domains while search­
ing a gene library for possible
interaction partners. As yeast is
only a limited model, she will later
validate her results on the basis ofexperiments with animals.
Ultimately scientists would liketo know whether the possible pro­tective function of oestrogen
receptors could be used therapeu­
tically. This is, however, an
extremely difficult task. “What isuseful at one point, is harmful atanother,” Thi Hang Pham says,
because different types of oestro­gen have conflicting characteris­tics. The fatal damage this hor­mone can cause has been seenfrom the side effects that can occur
during oestrogen treatment of
women during menopause; it canpromote breast cancer andendometrial cancer. If it is neces­sary to use oestrogen at some time,
an exact determination of thoseFotos: Vera Regitz-Zagrosek, H. Pelzer

signal transduction pathways thatsuppress a hypertrophy is vital.
For the differences between men
and women, however, it is first of
all the genes on the X or the Y
chromosome that are responsible.
In his doctoral thesis Jörg Isensee,
who has a Master’s degree in life
sciences, would like to identify thehereditary factors whose regula­tion is influenced by gender. In
order to determine to what differ­
ent degrees certain genes are
switched on or off, he examines
cardiac tissue of both sexes andfrom several age groups. He isinterested in protein expression:
the synthesis of a protein according
to the building plan encoded in the
DNA of a gene. With DNA microarrays he can experimentally com­pare the expression of several
thousand genes. On the glass sur­face of a microscopic slide a minia­
ture robot arranges the DNA
sequences in rank and file andfixes them. “I hope that I can findcandidate genes that are alreadyswitched on differently in womenthan in men in the healthy heart,and that are involved in the devel­
opment of hypertrophy,” he says.
Sexual hormones also have aneffect on protein expression since
the most important oestrogen
receptors are also transcription fac­
tors, which means that they bindoestrogen and at the same timeswitch genes on in the cell nucleus.
A higher concentration of the hor­mone apparently amplifies thiseffect and triggers a signal cas­cade. Jörg Isensee hopes that hewill ultimately obtain a clearer pic­

ture of the gender differences in
the heart.
“The lively and positive cooper­
ation between the working groups
yields a lot of synergies,” VeraRegitz-Zagrosek believes, and thefellows of the Research Training
Group profit from their examina­tion of other disciplines and meth­ods. The biologists particularly
appreciate the dialogue with medi­
cal researchers: “We are very much
focused on the molecular details
and hence it is good to learn how to
see the whole body through theireyes,” says Thi Hang Pham, andJörg Isensee adds, “In that way weidentify the medically relevant
issues and practical clinical prob­
lems.” Of course this applies inreverse as well; since after all it is
only the progress in molecular bio­
logical research that is able to clar­
ify more and more fundamental
mechanisms involved in the cause
and development of diseases.
Aysun Karatas makes use, forexample, of the clinically quite
thoroughly examined effects ofhypertension. The biologist, anative of Istanbul, is investigatingin her doctoral thesis what genderspecific factors independent ofhypertension promote the develop­
ment of a hypertrophy. If bloodpressure-increasing substances areadministered to mice, the result isdamage to the kidneys and a
hypertrophy of the left ventricle
within a few weeks. If the bloodpressure is lowered by medicines,
she can study the damage in isola­tion from the hypertension. Aysun
Karatas is now carrying out com­

Oestrogen can influence the activity ofproteins. Cardiac fibroblasts, cells whichbuild up the connecting tissue, were
stimulated with rising concentrations of
the hormone; with gel electrophoresis
the proteins were cut open (left). On
the right, the evaluation – the points
show protein spots, the quantity ofwhich increases or decreases inaccordance with increasing oestrogenconcentrations.

parative research on male andfemale mice to see what could pro­voke the enlargement of the left
ventricle in each case. Her interest
is focused on calcineurin, a proteinthat binds calcium. Does hypertro­
phy develop when the signal trans­
duction pathway of calcineurin is
disturbed? And is it again the oes­
trogen that activates the metabolic
pathway of the calcineurin?
Answers to this are to be found byusing knockout mice, lacking thegene to produce the oestrogen
receptor.
Medical research on the sexes isstill a young subject area and VeraRegitz-Zagrosek emphasises, withpride, the pioneering work being
performed by the Research Train­
ing Group in this field. The naturalscientists and medical researchers
involved are learning on an inter­disciplinary basis and at an inter­national level. “The fact that theCentre for Gender in Medicine
could be founded at the Charité
Hospital in 2003 is also something
we have to thank this RTG for.”
mk
17

Micro-macro interactions in structured media and particle systems

Big things in small packages
S

production or handling have to bedried,” he says, adding, “and thatis expensive”. About ten percent of
total industrial energy consump­tion is used in drying processes.
To enable optimisation of theenergy expenditure for the trans­
formation of moisture into steam,engineers are trying to illustratesuch drying processes using math­ematical modelling and computer

Gabriela Saageeveral films on the website of
the Research Training Group“Micro-macro Interactions in Struc­tured Media and Particle Systems”
convey a graphic impression of theresearch work in Magdeburg. The
solid-state physicist Gabriela Saagehas, for example, placed a discreteelement simulation of a thoroughmixing process for granules on thenet. This simulation is quickly

2D simulation of the heat transmission in mechanically mixed bulk material:
temperature distribution in the bulk material.

downloaded and started and showsa rotating drum containing balls,
which become thoroughly mixed
as it rotates. To make it easier tofollow the process closely the balls
are marked in different colours. “A
typical situation that we have indrying processes,” comments Pro­
fessor Evangelos Tsotsas of theInstitute of Process Engineering.
“From food to plastic granules,
from catalysts to pills, material
commodities are mostly solids,
which at some point during their18

simulations. By examining thewhereabouts of individual granuleparticles at given times, they hopeto draw conclusions regarding bet­
ter process conditions, for example
to determine the optimum particle
size for the drying process. To
achieve this, close cooperation withmathematicians and physicists isnecessary.
In fact many substances andmaterials in nature and in technol­
ogy have a microstructure that, to alarge degree, determines theirmacroscopic behaviour, and it isoften easier to study and describe
on the small scale the mechanisms
responsible for behaviour on alarge scale. To do this one must fil­ter out and examine the informa­tion relevant to macro-behaviour,“since not everything to be foundat the micro level is important foran understanding of the macrobehaviour”, explains Professor
Gerald Warnecke, mathematician
and deputy spokesman of the RTG.
“For this purpose we use statisticalmethods and mathematical mod­els, which we can partly take overfrom other contexts, but usually wehave to adapt them or develop
them completely from scratch in aninterdisciplinary dialogue withengineers and physicists.” The
result is that in the Magdeburg
RTG computer simulations arebeing produced that can then be
checked to see whether the calcu­
lated sequences tally with the real­
ity in the experiment. For mathe­
matician Warnecke this is a stimu­
lating challenge “which is all very
complex and usually not achieva­
ble with existing mathematicalmethods”.
For example, in her doctoral
thesis Dana Zöllner is developing
a mathematical model for thegrowth of grains in polycrystalline
materials, since in polycrystalline
substances, such as metals, chang­
es in grain structures caused by,for example, heating or cooling
have a decisive effect on the mac­
roscopic properties. “There arevarious approaches for modelling
this micro-structural develop­
ment,” reports the doctoral candi­date. “One possible method is theMonte Carlo simulation based on
the Potts model, which was pre­sented for the first time in 1984 forthe simulation of grain growth in
two dimensions,” she adds. Mean­
while the performance of comput­
ers has increased considerably,enabling 3D simulation at reason­
able cost.

Dana ZöllnerWith a modified Monte Carlo algorithm Dana Zöllner succeeds in simulating the
growth of a crystalline micro-structure in three dimensions.

In order to achieve a threedimensional simulation of a grain
structure whose growth character­istics correspond to a real structure,
Dana Zöllner has developed amodified Monte Carlo algorithmwith which she can already excel­
lently simulate the temporal devel­
opment of the crystalline microstructure of very large grain struc­ture in three dimensions. In a
Monte Carlo simulation, work isdone in a model with randomly
selected values; in this case it is thelattice points of the crystals andtheir change against time. Zöllner
implemented the algorithm in an
object-oriented programming lan­
guage so that during the simula­tion she can observe the grain
structure and also the data of thestructure.
“At the moment they are still
ideal typical growth processes,”
she says. “We have a long roadahead of us until we can illustrate
our simulations so close to realitythat in metallurgy, for example,
experimental efforts would nolonger be necessary.” In a first step,
she believes, the general algorithm
now available could be extended
in such a way that, for example,
occlusions in the material that curb
the grain growth could also be
simulated.
Mariya Nacheva from Bulgaria
had already obtained her degree inengineering in Magdeburg before
she joined the Research Training
Group. In her doctoral thesis she is
now dealing with the controlled
cooling of metal surfaces at very

high temperatures by means ofdrops of liquid. She is not experi­
menting in a metallurgical labora­
tory either, and for her, too, what is
important is the elaboration of thebasics for later computer simula­tions which could replace or short­en more expensive experiments inreality.
In industrial practice, for exam­
ple, steel is tempered by its being
cooled swiftly from the red-hot
state in a liquid medium. In thiscase, what is known as the Leiden­
frost problem occurs: a vapour film
forms between the hot surface andthe cooling liquid, and this pre­vents direct contact between themetal and the liquid.
It is only below the Leidenfrost
temperature that this vapour film
collapses and the direct contact
with the cooling liquid then leads
to accelerated cooling of the metal.

“Most of the fellows of our
Research Training Group
come from abroad.”
It is obvious that the position of thisLeidenfrost temperature exerts agreat influence on the future prop­
erties of the material. It is depend­
ent upon the characteristics of thecooling liquid and naturally also
the way the liquid is applied to the
hot metal.
In her work, Mariya Nacheva is
now developing a mathematical
micro-model for a representative

volume element in which a single
drop of cooling liquid can beobserved, with the alteration of
the influence parameters of its
application to the hot metal sur­face above the Leidenfrost tem­
perature, because “the greatest
part of the heat transferred to thedroplets by the hot surface is trans­mitted in the initial phase of directcontact”, she reports. Future work
will also involve integrating thetime-dependent spreading of thedrops as a function of the drop
diameter and the speed of theirapplication to the hot metal sur­face, as well as their surface rough­ness. Nacheva mentions, “It isonly on the basis of a micro-model
developed in such a complex man­ner that we can make statements“I found the Magdeburg
Research Training Groupin the Internet.”about the characteristic heat trans­mission coefficient of a spray at
the macro level.”
While studying mechanicalengineering at the Indian Instituteof Technology, Sreedhar Karicame across the website of the
RTG in Magdeburg and decided,
at short notice, to apply for a fel­lowship in Germany. In his doc­
toral thesis he is trying to develop,
at the micro level, a mathematicalmodel for the macro-behaviour of
a composite material in which
piezoelectric ceramic fibres areembedded in a soft basic matrix.
His work also integrates physical,
technical and mathematical spe­cialist knowledge.
“Kari’s uncomplicated approach
to Magdeburg is typical of thedevelopment of the Research Train­
ing Group “Micro/macro Interac­tion in Structured Media and Parti­cle Systems,” says Gerald War­necke. “We first considered striving
for international cooperation withother universities, but internation­ality has more or less establisheditself of its own accord in a different
way. Fifteen of our eighteen doc­
toral candidates come fromabroad.”
db
19

Proxies in Earth history

Messages from the
Earth’s history

Foto: Christine Franke

On board the research vessel
Meteor: Gravity cores are won fromthe seabed.

M

any geoscientists have a par­ticularpredilectionforforaminifera. These unicellularmarine organisms have existed formany millions of years. What makes
them useful is the fact that they
form a calcareous shell that remains
preserved over long periods of the
Earth’s history; the information on
the past that is stored in them pro­vides an outstanding climate
archive. “What interests us is how
during the history of the Earth theclimate and environment situation
have changed and how extreme
climatic situations came about,”says Professor Helmut Willems,
20

spokesman of the International
Graduate College “Proxies in Earth
History” at the University ofBremen, EUROPROX. “With thesefindings we can better understandglobal dynamics and find climatic
models for future developments.”
Because there were, of course,no thermometers or other instru­
ments in primeval times, scientists
have to rely on proxies – in otherwords organisms, for instance,that today live in their own quite
specific ecological niches and canbe traced far back into the historyof the Earth – like the fossil
archives of tiny creatures such as

coccoliths, dinoflagellata or theforaminifera mentioned above.
These are what fascinate Elisa
Guasti, a geologist from Parma in
Italy who has just completed her
doctoral thesis. She is a specialist
in the Paleocene epoch that start­
ed 65 million years ago. At thattime an enormous shallow sea
called Tethys covered an areafrom Spain to Indonesia. When
Africa and Europe were pushed
together, the seabed sediments
were raised and, over time, solidi­
fied to form rock. In Tunisia, Jor­dan and Egypt a search is now onfor traces left by the Tethys Sea inthe rock formations there.
During the Paleocene a green­house atmosphere prevailed – it isgenerally believed to have started
with the global catastrophe of ameteorite impact, which also led
to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Flora and fauna recovered slowly.
The end of this epoch, the transi­tion to the Eocene, was the climax
of this warm age. About 55 million
years ago the temperatures in thewaters of the tropical oceans roseby several degrees Centigrade.
Elisa Guasti finds data concerning
the environment during that 10
million-year epoch in the calcare­ous shells of the foraminifera. The
individual types can be distin­
guished by the morphology of theshells. In the samples of the rockElisa Guasti carefully registers thestatistical frequency of the various
types. Scientists already knowwhether they prefer a warmer orcolder climate, and so the watertemperature at a given time canbe determined. This can be
deduced even more precisely from“Because Bremen has sucha good reputation for our
subject we are pleased to
be in Germany.”of how the marine environment in
the Gullmar Fjord on the west coastof Sweden has changed over thelast 2,000 years.
In present-day Europe the icebound to the north and south poles,
and the North Atlantic drift and the
Gulf Stream, ensure that we have atemperate climate. Sediment sam­ples from a 7.5 m long drilling corethat Helena Filipsson brought backfrom an expedition to the Gullmar

Fjord provide the material for her
studies: like her Italian colleague
she examines foraminifera in orderto read off the environmental andclimatic changes from the distribu­
tion of species, the ratios of oxygenand carbon isotopes, as well as thedeposits of organic carbon. “Thesediments have a high accumula­tion rate; it amounts to one centi­
metre a year,” she explains. “Inthat way we have an ultra-hightime resolution.” The climate exerts
a considerable influence on thesensitive system of the North Atlan­
tic – and vice versa. The North
Atlantic oscillation, changes in thepressure ratio between the Iceland
low in the north and the Azores
high in the south, is the decisive
factor for short-term climatic varia­
tions. It has an effect on surface
temperatures and the waterexchange in the depths of the fjord.
Helena Filipson is studying suchchanges, and at the same time
investigating whether or not envi­
ronmental pollution overlays theseeffects.
The two experts on foraminifera
were pleased to come to Bremen,
they assure us, “because the spe­cialist area of marine geo-sciencehas such a good reputation here”.
For example the DFG ResearchCentre Ocean Margins is also
located here. A further advantage
is the internationality – not only doyoung scientists from various coun­tries do their doctoral studies here,
they also cooperate with partner
universities in Amsterdam andUtrecht. “Because the need formore internationalisation arose
during the research work of the
Research Training Group, we inte­
grated further partners into thesecond funding phase currently inprogress – the Massachusetts Insti­
tute of Technology (MIT) in the
USA and the universities of South­
ampton and Bordeaux,” says Hel­
mut Willems. In the long term theintroduction of a “European doc­
toral degree” in the sense of the
Bologna Agreement is envisaged.
It goes without saying that the
research is not restricted to fossil
messages from the past. In order todevelop and try out new proxies,
and to refine existing ones and todesign models from them, an inter­

Foto: Christine Franke

the ratio of the oxygen isotopes 18
and 16 that were stored in the cal­cium carbonate of the shells at thetime they formed; the isotopes are
distinguished by the number of
their neutrons in the atomic nucle­
us; the warmer the water, thehigher the ratio. Also, the salt con­tent of the ocean was apparently
high at that time, which allows
conclusions to be drawn concern­
ing the water circulation. In warm
extensive seas plankton multiply
and thus the quantity of organic
material increases. From the ratioof the carbon isotopes it is possi­
ble both to deduce the productionof oceanic carbon dioxide and tofollow the circulation of thewater.
Journeys through time into the
Earth’s past make clear to what agreat extent the oceans, atmos­
phere and biosphere interact. At
the end of the Paleocene it is likelythat gas hydrates on the seabed,which released methane and car­bon dioxide, produced a green­house atmosphere; today it ishuman beings who are polluting
the environment with gases andother harmful substances, forexample by over-fertilising. It iswith these anthropogenic effects
that Helena Filipsson is working.
The Swede has completed her doc­
torate at the University of Göteborg
and is now conducting postdoctoral
research in the Research Training
Group that deals with the question

Christine Franke removes a sediment
sample from a drilling core.

disciplinary approach is necessary.
Among the eight specialist disci­plines, geochemistry and geophys­
ics play just as great a part aspalaeontology.
Christina Franke points to acryogenic magnetometer; a small
conveyor belt carries sedimentcubes into a measuring container,
sheathed in a protective cover,which measures magnetic signals
at the extremely low temperatureof -268.9 degrees Centigrade, theboiling point of liquid helium. In
the “Marine Geophysics” work­
ing group the geologist identifies
magnetic nano-particles andmicro-particles from pelagic sedi­ments of the equatorial Atlantic
along a very complex east-west
profile. The samples contain, in
addition to microfossils, quartz
particles, clay minerals or mag­netic minerals. Magnetite, for
21

“The introduction of aEuropean doctoral degree isenvisaged.”edly changed in the course of the
Earth’s history, and because theorientation of the ferrimagnetic

moments in the mineral grains,similar to a “frozen” compass nee­dle, is stored, she can date thesample quite precisely. In addition
the successive sediment layers do
not simply lie on top of one anoth­er. Ocean currents or wind willtransport particles over long dis­
tances. She can also determine
the origins of such particles withthe help of magnetic examina­
tions. “In the magnetic signals wehave seen that in the western partof the equatorial Atlantic the finemagnetic fraction and the coarser

Foto: Helmut Willems

instance, is one of the classic fer­
rimagnetic minerals that are high­ly suitable as proxies. Since theEarth’s magnetic field has repeat­

Calcareous dinoflagellata in thetransmitted light microscope – theseunicellular organisms indicate warmer
temperatures of the surface water, forinstance in the older deposits of the
Quaternary period.

Foto: Mahyar Mohtadi

one are obviously not as coupled
as in the east,” she explains, “andthat is related to the load of sedi­ment particles”. Her work supple­
ments that of her colleagues. For
example, she can explain whether
and when the magnetic material
was diluted by the introduction ofcarbonate, since high productivity
increases the non-magnetic car­bonate percentage in the sample.
“The nice thing about working
here,” says Helena Filipsson, “isthat we get to know the methods ofother working groups and in thatway look beyond the quite narrowhorizon of our respective areas ofwork”. The aim of the next stage of
EUROPROX is to join together theparts of the jigsaw puzzle evenmore, to produce an overall pictureof certain periods of the Earth’s his­tory. “We want to apply for a
research vessel so that various
working groups can jointly takesamples and examine them in one
place. With the multi-proxyapproach we want to supply themodellers with enough data for a
picture of climatic change,” says
Willems. 
mk22

Unicellular marine organisms, theforaminifera, tell the story of past
climatic situations. The species can be
distinguished by the pattern of thecalcareous shells.

Interview

Fit for excellenceS

usanne Albers, holder of the
Chair for Parallel and Distri­buted Computing at the Depart­
ment of Computer Science at the
University of Freiburg, obtained
her doctorate in the early 1990s as
a fellow in the “Informatics”
Research Training Group at the
Saarland University. Following that
she carried out research and taught
at the Max Planck Institute forInformatics and at various German
universities. In addition, she spenta year as a postdoc at the Interna­
tional Computer Science Institutein Berkeley, USA. Albers partici­
pates as a university teacher in the
Freiburg Research Training Group“Embedded micro-systems” and isa member of the DFG Senate andGrants Committees on ResearchTraining Groups.

? How can one find a suitable

Research Training Group after
completing one’s studies?
! In my case it was the recom­
mendation of a professor followed
shortly afterwards by a corre­
sponding advertisement in thepress. Today many people alsofind a Research Training Group
matching their subject via theinternet – either they browse
through the pages of the DFG orof the university. The websites of
the RTGs are easy to find andoften provide very extensive infor­
mation. Most of the sites are alsoin English, as many persons inter­
ested in RTGs are from abroad.

? What memories do you associate with your time in
Saarbrücken?
! The “Informatics” ResearchTraining Group was an essential
element of my later scientificcareer, since without the RTG I
would not have been involved
with cutting-edge research soquickly and I wouldn’t havelearned how to be scientifically

self-reliant at such an early stage.
In short the RTG intensified andaccelerated the processes I went
through.

? What do you attribute that to?
! It is simply a fantastic idea thatduring doctoral studies one canconcentrate completely on
research work and not to be tied
up with additional teaching or
administrative obligations. During
my time in the RTG, I quickly
learned that to produce good
research results, work must be
done in depth. But to be able topenetrate those depths one needs
to be able to concentrate fully on atask; it’s easier to get to the top if
one is not distracted. Moreover
the time spent on doctoral studies
becomes shorter in that way. I
remember fondly the times whena working day was still a whole
day for research.

? That sounds almost like monastic silence.

! Not at all. All of the members of
the Research Training Group met
for a seminar once a week and wewere able to exchange ideas andexperiences there. We gave lec­tures in turn and all becameacquainted with one another’swork, projects and results. At
those seminars I got food forthought for my own doctoral the­sis, even if the subjects were quite
different. But one always picks
something up: how to tackle anissue; if a certain approach would
also be of advantage in my work,
etc. During the discussions sparks
leapt across.

? Is that the reason why you still

commit yourself to the ResearchTraining Groups today?
! Naturally, the whole matter is aprocess that the DFG initiated in1990 and has gone on developing

since then. I find it exciting tohave been there at the beginningand to now continue to support
this process and be able to makemy own contributions. During thecourse of the last 15 years, theDFG has continuously fosteredand improved the Research Train­
ing Groups programme. This
deserves credit, because as aresult, here in Germany, we havesomething that’s very successful
and that does not exist elsewhere.
That’s why the Research Train­
ing Groups are so attractive.
Meanwhile the applicants comefrom every country imaginable
and many Research Training
Groups have become internation­
alised, having established cooper­
ation with universities in othercountries. These ensure that themembers of the RTGs travel
abroad for research stays and con­ferences: a period of only a few
weeks at a university in anothercountry is an experience which isimportant for the career and isalso personally enriching. Science
is international, and according to
my observations the RTGs areexactly the right structure formaking progress in the interna­
tional business of science, and forsucceeding in the long term.
Marion Kälke and Dieter Beste
spoke to Susanne Albers
23

Research Training Groups

Data and facts
Research Training Groups(RTG) are university training
programmes, funded by the
DFG, that are set up for a lim­
ited period to promote earlystage researchers.
In the RTG, doctoral candidates are given the opportu­
nity to carry out their workwithin the scope of a coordi­
nated research programme
supported by several univer­sity teachers.

Humanities

44

Social and Behavioural Sciences

31

Biology

59

Medicine

16
Agricultural and Forestry Science, Horticulture and Veterinary Medicine
9
Chemistry
24
Physics
30
Mathematics
20
Geosciences (incl. Geography)
10
Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing Technology
9Electrical Engineering, Information Technology and Systems Engineering
17
Building Construction and Architecture1

33.0

Distribution of the Research Training Groups (RTG) according to subject area
33.0 –
RTG financed

32.3

Financed solely elsewhereThroughout Germany

30.0 –

International
Research
Training Groups (IRTG) ena­
ble the joint training of doc­
toral candidates between agroup at a German university
and a partner group abroad.

➜ The DFG currently funds
about 270 RTGs, includ­ing more than 40 IRTGs.
➜ In these RTGs approx.
6,000 doctoral candidates
are writing their theses.
➜ The number of doctoralcandidates from abroad
is approaching 30%.
➜ A total of 41% of doctoralcandidates are women.

www.dfg.de/gk/en

29.5 –
29.0 –
28.5 –

Humanities& Socialsciences

30.1

30.1

30.5 –

Biology  &Medicine

30.4

30.9

30.7

31.0 –

31.1

31.5

31.5 –

31.6

32.0 –

30.0

32.5 –

Average age

A programme of study com­plements and, as a rule,
extends the individual areasof specialisation of the mem­bers of the RTGs and struc­tures their cooperation. An
interdisciplinary orientationof the research and study pro­gramme is desired.

Naturalsciences& Mathematics        Engineering
Science &Informatics

Total

Average age of doctoral candidates upon completion of doctoral thesis
between April 2003 and March 2004.

At www.dfg.de/gk/en persons interested in working toward adoctoral thesis can find a list of all current Research Training
Groups that announce their fellowships on their websites. Uni­
versities wish­
ing to propose
RTGs shouldseek
advicefrom the DFG
Head Office
beforehand as,
due to the highlevel of inter­
est, only thevery best andmost suitableproposals canbe funded.

EDITORIAL DETAILS: Published by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn ❙ Responsible: Dr. Jörg Schneider, Director of Research Training
Groups and Research Careers Division ❙ Conception and editorial work: Mediakonzept (www.mediakonzept.com), Düsseldorf

24

Text: Dieter Beste (db), Marion Kälke (mk) ❙ Cover: Andreas Rzadkowsky ❙ Design: Lutz Stolz ❙ Translation: Janet Brümmer