Christian Greiner receives one of the three Adolf-Martens-Prizes 2018, presented by the president of the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM). With the award, the Adolf-Martens Fond honors outstanding research of young scientists in material sciences and testing, analytical chemistry, safety technology and associated fields. Christian Greiner leads the Emmy-Noether group “Materials Tribology” and, in 2017, obtained a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for his project “Deformation Mechanisms are the Key to Understanding and Tayloring Tribological Behaviour”.

Multiprecision algorithms mix different precision formats to get faster computation run-time – currently saving up to 20%. While preserving double-precision quality in the output, intermediate calculations can run on a lower precision format. In memory bound algorithms, where the data transfer volume slows down the computation, more-compact precision formats can reduce the pressure on the memory bandwidth. Hence, decoupling of the arithmetic from the memory format is essential, says Hartwig Anzt in a Let’s Talk Exascale podcast. As multiprecision algorithms are not limited to special-function units, a strong focus lies on interoperability.

The international Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN) has improved the upper limit of the neutrino mass almost by the factor of 2 and made it on the cover of the Physical Review Letters. Based on a purely kinematic method, KATRIN has narrowed down the absolute mass of neutrinos to less than 1.1 electron-volt (eV) at 90% confidence within only four weeks. After 1000 days of data taking, an even higher sensitivity of 0.2 eV will be reached. YIN speaker Kathrin Valerius coordinates the analysis activities at KIT. Overall 20 institutions from 7 countries are part of the KATRIN collaboration.

The business journal CAPITAL chose YIN speaker Kathrin Valerius as one of Germany’s “Young Elite 2019” in the category science and society. Each year the honors go to the top 40 under 40 from economy, politics, science, and society. All these young talents have the potential to influence and shape the future of Germany. On November 21st, they came together at the “Young Elite Summit” in Berlin to exchange ideas beyond their usual sphere of action and set new impulses for society. Among the honorees from the previous years who spoke at the summit was Nora Szech, professor for political economy at KIT (pictured left).

„HoloMed“ unterstützt Chirurgen im Operationssaal: Das intelligente System erstellt anhand von Aufnahmen der Computertomografie und Magnetresonanztomografie ein Modell tiefliegender Körperstrukturen. Über eine Augmented Reality-Brille zeigt HoloMed dem Arzt Führungskanal und Zielbereich der chirurgischen Instrumente präzise an. Bei der Entwicklung haben sich Björn Hein, Franziska Mathis-Ullrich und Christian Kunz auf die Punktion am Gehirn fokusiert. Mit dem Innovationspreis NEO fördert die TechnologieRegion Karlsruhe GmbH jedes Jahr zukunftsweisende Technologien.

Swiftly measuring and adapting the concentration of active medical substances within the body – Frank Biedermann and his team present a simple, inexpensive method for the Alzheimer medication Memantin in the journal Chemical Science. There, a molecule serves as synthetic receptor dye and “hides” in a second, barrel-shaped molecule. When the active agent displaces the dye, the latter can be determined in medically relevant concentrations in the blood serum outside the barrel molecule. The scientists also issued a guideline on how to transfer the method to other medications and dyes.