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Wissenschaft
Dr Juliane Schaer is studying bat malaria parasites, Dr Tobias Rupprecht is researching the Russian Empire as an ally of anti-colonial states and movements in the 19th century, and Dr Stijn van Tongeren works on integrable deformations in holography
Three new research groups and projects are now active at Humboldt University of Berlin (HU), funded by the Heisenberg Program of the German Research Foundation (DFG):
The group „BATMAL – Fledermaus-Malaria-Parasiten (Haemosporida) – Untersuchung vielfältiger Wirt-Parasiten-Systeme“, led by biologist Dr Juliane Schaer, the project “Anti-Colonial Empire: Russia in Global History since the 19th Century”, led by historian Dr Tobias Rupprecht at the Department of History and the group led by physicist Dr Stijn van Tongeren, entitled “Integrable Deformations in Holography”, at the Institute of Physics.
„BATMAL – Fledermaus-Malaria-Parasiten (Haemosporida) – Untersuchung vielfältiger Wirt-Parasiten-Systeme“
Her research focuses on the interaction between host and parasite – more specifically, between bats and the malaria-related parasites. Biologist Dr. Juliane Schaer is investigating the unique characteristics of these parasites, their diversity and evolutionary history, as well as the infection dynamics and their effects on mammalian hosts. Starting in June, the research group leader in the Department of Molecular Parasitology at the Institute of Biology will receive a five-year Heisenberg grant.
This enables her to collect long-term data, expand collaborations with other scientists and study wildlife populations, among other places, in northern Uganda. “In certain fruit bat populations, 80 to 90 percent of animals are infected with malaria.” Her goal is to understand why infections in bats – unlike in other mammals such as humans – tend to be relatively harmless. “These animals, which can live for up to 20 years, show no obvious symptoms of desease such as fever. We are investigating whether the infections may nevertheless have long-term effects on organs such as the liver and lungs.”
The risk of becoming infected oneself is highly unlikely, as only a handful of the approximately 550 insect-transmitted and host-specific malaria parasite species are capable of infecting humans. Bat parasites nevertheless provide „a unique system to investigate fundamental questions about the evolution and biology of malaria parasites“, explanes Juliane Schaer.
„Anti-Colonial Empire: Russia in Global History since the 19th Century”
The focus is on an alliance that continues to this day: in the 19th century, the late Russian Empire sought to win over anti-colonial actors. Conversely, political movements, elites and rulers outside Europe used their ties to St Petersburg to pursue their own domestic and foreign policy objectives. “In doing so, the project deliberately moves away from a perspective that views non-European actors primarily as passive objects of imperial policy, and highlights their agency“, says Tobias Rupprecht.
Drawing on selected case studies of the then-independent states of Siam (now Thailand), Ethiopia, Persia and Afghanistan, the historian, who holds a PhD, intends to work with researchers from these countries to analyse how pro-Russian groups sought to cooperate with Russia and what motivated them to do so. Source material will also shed light on political movements and groups in western China, Korea and the Ottoman Empire that looked to Russia for support.
Tobias Rupprecht examines the tensions between Russia’s role as an expanding empire and as a partner to anti-colonial forces, and the contributions made by academia, religion and civil society networks to the establishment of these relationships. The project contributes to the global history of the Russian Empire whilst also opening up new perspectives on contemporary geopolitical constellations: Anti-Western alliances with Russia have their roots in historical traditions dating back to the 19th century.
“Integrable Deformations in Holography”
Stijn van Tongeren’s research focuses on highly complex quantum field theories in theoretical physics, used to describe the behaviour and interactions of elementary particles. “However, as it is usually only possible to perform the desired exact calculations approximately, we investigate idealised, highly symmetric quantum field theories that are so simple that we can determine exact solutions,” says the physicist, who holds a PhD.
What makes his project – funded by the Heisenberg Fellowship since September 2025 – unique is that it systematically moves away from these simplified initial theories: “We modify them in a controlled manner so that we retain the ability to perform exact calculations whilst at the same time being able to describe a broader spectrum of possible theories.” To implement this technically, the existing mathematical methods must be adapted in a suitable manner. The findings, in turn, are to improve understanding of complex models of the real world.
In this project, holography refers to the linking of different theories of particle physics across various dimensions: “This is comparable to holography in the real world, where the information contained in a three-dimensional image can be captured in a two-dimensional object – but this is merely an analogy,” says van Tongeren. “My research is fundamental research with no immediate industrial applications. It is intended to help deepen our understanding of the mathematical structure of our universe.”
The Heisenberg Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG):
The aim of the Heisenberg Programme is to enable outstanding researchers who meet all the criteria for appointment to a long-term professorship to prepare for a senior academic leadership role and to pursue further research topics during this period.
Dr Juliane Schaer
Institute of Biology, Humboldt-Universität
E-Mail: schaerju@hu-berlin.de
Dr Tobias Rupprecht
Department of History at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
E-mail: Tobias.Rupprecht@hu-berlin.de
Dr Stijn van Tongeren
Institute of Physics (Theoretical Physics) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
E-mail: svantongeren@physik.hu-berlin.de
https://www.dfg.de/de/foerderung/foerdermoeglichkeiten/programme/einzelfoerderun...
https://juliane-schaer.org/
https://www.hu-berlin.de/forschung-lehre/forschungsinformationssystem/projekt-de...
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