Using artificial intelligence to decipher ancient scripts, developing sustainable alternatives to fossil-based raw materials in the chemical industry, or making nano-movements visible. The START projects funded in 2022 span a wide range of topics, from classical philology to life sciences to mathematics.

Along with the FWF Wittgenstein Award, the FWF START Awards are among Austria’s most prestigious and highly endowed scientific awards. The FWF START Awards give excellent, up-and-coming researchers the opportunity to pursue their research with long-term planning horizons and financial security. The total amount of funding requested was approx. €116 million, of which roughly 53% came from the Natural Sciences and Technology, 25% from Biology and Medicine, and 22% from the Humanities and Social Sciences. The six winning projects, three of which are headed by women, come from all disciplines and will receive funding of up to €1.2 million each.

 

Using AI to decipher ancient texts

Using AI to decipher ancient texts
FWF START Award winner 2022 William Barton
© FWF/Dominik Pfeifer

William Barton, a specialist for Greek and Latin, is using artificial intelligence to help decipher the diary of Hellenist Karl Benedikt Hase, which is composed in Ancient Greek and was believed to have been lost. By doing so, the START Award winner hopes to gain new insights into the Greek language, the history of Greek literary studies, and the intellectual culture of the 19th century.

Since 2017, William Barton has worked as a postdoc at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies in Innsbruck. The native of Great Britain studied at University College London and the University of Calgary. He received his PhD from Kings College London in 2015. His main research focus is Ancient Greek literature since the Renaissance.

Principal investigator

William Barton

Research institution

Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft Innsbruck, Institute for Neo-Latin Studies

Project title

A Life in Ancient Greek: The Secret Diary of K.B. Hase

Investigating a new protein marker

Investigating a new protein marker
FWF START Award winner 2022 Elfriede Dall
© FWF/Frank Wimmer

If the protein legumain is found outside its usual place in the human cell, there is a good chance that the affected person suffers from cancer or Alzheimer’s. Microbiologist Elfriede Dall of the University of Salzburg is investigating the functions of the protein in its unfamiliar environment. Detailed study of these functions is intended to provide a basis for the development of relevant drugs.

Elfriede Dall received her doctoral degree in molecular biology from the University of Salzburg in 2013. Since 2014, she has been a senior scientist at the University of Salzburg. Dall’s previous FWF project, which has been ongoing since 2018, is also devoted to legumain research.

 

Principal investigator

Elfriede Dall

Research institution

University of Salzburg, Department of Biosciences and Medical Biology

Project title

Functional Studies on Extra-Lysosomal Legumain

Testing the boundaries of mathematics

Testing the boundaries of mathematics
FWF START Award winner 2022 Sandra Müller
© FWF/Luiza Puiu

Mathematician Sandra Müller of Vienna University of Technology is analysing various forms of infinity stemming from set theory. She is trying to more closely link the theory of large cardinal numbers and the determinacy axiom – two theoretical approaches which at first sight do not have much in common. In her START project, she is attempting to expand the theoretical basis upon which mathematics is built.

Sandra Müller received her doctoral degree in mathematics from the University of Münster in 2016. Until 2021, she was a postdoc, assistant professor, and L’Oréal Austria Fellow at the University of Vienna. Since 2021, the researcher from Germany has been working at Vienna University of Technology as part of the Elise Richter career program.

 

Principal investigator

Sandra Müller

Research institution

Vienna University of Technology, Institute of Discrete Mathematics and Geometry

Project title

Determinacy and Woodin Limits of Woodin Cardinals

Making nano-movements visible

Making nano-movements visible
FWF START Award winner 2022 Marcus Ossiander
© FWF/Sabine Hoffmann

Ultrashort pulses can be generated with light from the extreme ultraviolet spectrum, thus enabling precise measurements on the atomic time scale. However, there are no suitable lenses for this light spectrum. Physicist Marcus Ossiander wants to remedy this situation by employing new nano-optics, which are used, for example, in virtual reality glasses.

Marcus Ossiander received his doctoral degree in ultrafast physics from Munich and, for the last two-and-a-half years, has been conducting research at the University of Harvard, where he is working on meta-optics. His work combines new technological approaches such as meta-optics with very fundamental questions – a “nice balance”, as the researcher says. He will carry out his START project at Graz University of Technology.

 

Principal investigator

Marcus Ossiander

Research institution

Graz University of Technology, Institute of Experimental Physics

Project title

Extreme-Ultraviolet Meta-Optics for Attosecond Microscopy

Finding sustainable alternatives to fossil-based resources

Finding sustainable alternatives to fossil-based resources
FWF START Award winner 2022 Stefan Pflügl
© FWF/Luiza Puiu

Biotechnologist Stefan Pflügl of Vienna University of Technology is studying how fossil resources can be replaced in the chemical industry by sustainable alternatives. He draws for this on bacterial metabolic processes from the early days of Earth’s history.

After completing his dissertation at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna and research stays at the University of Kent and Munich University of Technology, he is currently researching at Vienna University of Technology, where he is working on sustainable biological processes. He uses bacteria to create base products for chemical processes from residual materials.

 

Principal investigator

Stefan Pflügl

Research institution

Vienna University of Technology, Institute of Chemical, Environmental and Bioscience Engineering

Project title

Formate-Based Acetogenic Bioproduction of Fuels and Chemicals

Studying how humans disturb animals in their search for food

Studying how humans disturb animals in their search for food
FWF START Award winner 2022 Petra Sumasgutner
© FWF/Daniela Matejschek

Humans are encroaching on many species in nature. Behavioral scientist Petra Sumasgutner is using global datasets on short-eared owls and common ravens to study how human-related disturbances affect the way they search for food and the consequences thereof. This also involves the use of machine learning.

Since 2020, Petra Sumasgutner has been a postdoc in the Konrad Lorenz Research Center for Behavior and Cognition in Grünau im Almtal. She received her doctoral degree in zoology from the University of Vienna in 2014. In subsequent years, Sumasgutner conducted grant-funded research at the Universities of Turku and Cape Town and participated in cooperative projects with the University of Montpellier, the University of Lund, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Ulaanbaatar.

Principal investigator

Petra Sumasgutner

Research institution

University of Vienna, Konrad Lorenz Research Center

Project title

Acceleration for Food

Discover more

FWF START Award
FWF START Award winners 2023
FWF START Award
FWF-START-Preisträger:innen 2021
FWF START Award
FWF-START- und Wittgenstein-Pokale
FWF START Award
FWF-START- und Wittgenstein-Pokale
FWF START Award
FWF-START- und Wittgenstein-Pokale
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