Hector Fellow Academy

Welcome to the Hector Fellow Academy

We Create Synergies to Promote Interdisciplinary Cutting-Edge Research

The Hector Fellow Academy is a young academy of sciences. It offers a platform for networking, interdisciplinary exchange, and mutual inspiration to the laureates of the Hector Science Award. In addition, the Academy supports promising young researchers.

About the Hector Fellow Academy

Interdisciplinary Network for Cutting-Edge Research

The Hector Fellow Academy was founded in 2013. Today, this network consists of 23 professors and 19 young scientists working in the areas of natural and engineering sciences. New research topics and innovation are instigated by bringing together these outstanding scientists across institutions and scientific disciplines. The Hector Fellow Academy strengthens research in Germany and contributes to solving global challenges by raising awareness of socio-political issues.

Interdisciplinary Research

The main concern of the Hector Fellow Academy is the promotion of interdisciplinary exchange between its members, who work together across research institutions, disciplines, and research fields. The Academy members are the Hector Fellows - professors of STEM-subjects - and young researchers supported by the Hector Fellow Academy. Annual symposia provide the opportunity to exchange ideas within the Hector Fellow Academy and to enter a dialog with the general public. Furthermore, Hector Fellows may receive financial support from the Academy for joint innovative multidisciplinary scientific projects and conferences.

Multidisciplinarity as a Fundamental Principle:

• Network of top-level researchers from natural sciences, engineering, medicine & psychology
• Cooperation across institutions
• Research in interface areas
• Interdisciplinary exchange & mutual inspiration
• Impulses for innovative research approaches

Promotion of Young Scientists

One of the key elements of the Hector Fellow Academy is the support of young researchers. The Academy offers Ph.D. positions to ambitious graduate students. As part of the application, a self-developed innovative research idea in the research field of one of the Hector Fellows has to be submitted. This idea is to be investigated by the students during the three years of their Ph.D. phase. The young scientists are employed as research assistants at the Institute of the respective Hector Fellow, who in turn is the supervisor of their doctoral thesis. Moreover, the Academy supports young scientists (usually postdocs) working in one of the interdisciplinary projects of the Hector Fellows.

The doctoral students, as well as the postdocs, have the opportunity to expand their research expertise and to acquire management know-how by attending courses at the HECTOR School of Engineering and Management, Technology Business School of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Furthermore, the Academy fosters active international networking of their young scientists at e.g. the annual symposia.

Advantages for the HFA Young Scientists:

• Membership in an excellent research network
• Cooperation with top-level researchers
• Additional management courses & further training offers
• Research on latest scientific issues
• Room for visionary ideas
• Financed positions and material expenses