???aural:Bildanfang??????Großansicht des Bildes???Prize winners: Jochen Guck, Matthias Tschöp, Robert Schober and Michael Weiss (from top left to bottom left). © Privat/University of Cincinnati???aural:Bildende???

The four renowned researchers’ fields are biophysics, communications engineering, medicine and mathematics: Jochen Guck, Robert Schober, Matthias Tschöp and Michael Weiss were recently selected as Alexander von Humboldt Professors. The honour, which is linked with up to five million euros in prize money, is the most highly endowed international research award in Germany. It is awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Each year since 2008 the foundation has honoured internationally leading researchers of all disciplines who are active outside of Germany. They are to conduct groundbreaking research at German universities. Prize winner Jochen Guck is considered one of the world’s best and most innovative researchers in the field of biophysics. In future, the 38-year-old researcher from the University of Cambridge in the UK will work at Technische Universität Dresden. Robert Schober, communications engineer at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, is to conduct research at Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. The 40-year-old researcher is an internationally leading expert in communications engineering and wireless communications. Matthias Tschöp comes from the University of Cincinnati in the USA. The 44-year-old medical scientist and diabetes researcher is to take up a chair at the Technische Universität München and work at the Helmholtz Centre in Munich. The mathematician Michael Weiss has been offered a new chair of mathematics at the University of Münster, where the 55-year-old will strengthen geometry research. The prize winners have commenced appointment negotiations with the German universities that nominated them for the prize. The award ceremony for the new Humboldt Professors will take place in Berlin in May 2012.