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The brand new Internet portal www.doctoral-programs.de now bundles and presents all structured PhD programs in the Berlin region. It allows young researchers from around the world to search for suitable offerings in their discipline – with a selection of over 100 programs. The portal was created as a joint initiative of the Einstein Foundation and the major universities in and around Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, Universität der Künste Berlin, and Universität Potsdam.  The new English-language portal provides information about the research focus, available scholarships and application deadlines, as well as the number of places for the individual programs. It is mainly intended for university graduates from abroad who would like to learn more about doctoral opportunities in Berlin. The doctoral programs can be found either by entering search terms or browsing an overview of disciplines. Prospective PhD students can also…

Scientists discover new genetic variations in neuroblastoma - Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin Press Release:Malignant cells can 'learn' how to defend themselves against specific treatments – this also holds true for neuroblastoma and solid tumors emerging during childhood. Genetics studies using next-generation sequencing have now made it possible for a group of researchers working with pediatric oncologists at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin to gain new insights into the genetic makeup of tumors. In the current edition of the professional journal Nature Genetics*,  the scientists outline the related molecular characteristics ─ so-called signatures that elicit changes in the tumor and that are resistant to current therapeutic options. Cure rates as high as 80% can now be reached for the treatment of some cancers in children and adolescents, and is indeed a major medical achievement. Tumors that return in a relapse, however, are a different story. Treatment options remain…

Adele Goldberg and Thomas Y. Levin, highly renowned academics from Princeton University, have been awarded “Einstein Visiting Fellowships” for another two years. The program “Einstein Visiting Fellow” of the Einstein Foundation Berlin aims at integrating outstanding foreign scientists into the Berlin research landscape. Goldberg and Levin will each receive 150.000 Euro per year to oversee their own research groups at Freie Universität Berlin until October 2014.  Linguist Goldberg and media scholar Levin first became Einstein Visiting Fellows in November 2010, with groups at Freie Universität Berlin, one of Germany's leading research institutions that were granted excellence status within the country's Excellence Initiative.  Goldberg’s group is part of the university’s Cluster of Excellence “Languages of Emotions”; Levin collaborates with the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies, both institutions founded within the German Excellence Initiative to promote…

The Einstein Foundation Berlin has agreed to fund the creation of an Einstein Center for Mathematics Berlin (ECMath). ECMath will be the first centre in the new Einstein Center programme. An application has been submitted for €8 million in funding for the period 2013-2017.  The funding decision was made based on the recommendation of the Scientific Commission. It was the commission’s responsibility to judge the proposal on its scientific excellence and its importance for Berlin as a research hub. To do this, it invited a group of highly regarded international experts to Berlin to conduct a two-day assessment. The experts attested that the joint proposal put forward by the Technische Universität Berlin, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics (WIAS) and the Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum für Informationstechnik Berlin (ZIB) was of outstanding international importance. Three successful mathematical…

On 5 December 2011, the Einstein Foundation Berlin awarded its first Einstein Professorships at the TU Berlin.