Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM
Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM
Blick über den Tellerrand Januar 2025
© freepik / Fraunhofer ITWM
Blick über den Tellerrand Januar 2025

Blick über den Tellerrand (Thinking Outside the Box) January 2025

The lecture in January 2025 is entitled »Metalheads – Why Do We All Have So Much Metal in Our Heads?«. The speaker is Prof. Dr. Sabine Becker. In her lecture, she explains why heavy metals are vital for us all.

© freepik / Fraunhofer ITWM

Series of Talks »Blick über den Tellerrand«

Our series of lectures is held in German.

Once every month, the Fraunhofer ITWM opens its doors and invites everyone who is interested to broaden their horizon. The interdisciplinary lecture series »Blick über den Tellerrand« of the Felix Klein Center for Mathematics presents different perspectives on a wide spectrum of topics in the area of science and technology.

Exciting experts from a wide range of fields will speak and discuss with the guests. Everyone is cordially invited and admission is free. The event will take place on site at the Fraunhofer Center and will also be broadcast virtually.

Blick über den Tellerrand (Thinking Outside the Box) in January 2025

»Metalheads – Why Do We All Have So Much Metal in Our Heads?«

 

Tuesday, January 28th 2024
5pm – 6:30pm

The lecture will be held in German.

Heavy metals such as zinc, copper, manganese and iron are vital for us - literally nothing works in the body without them. Zinc in particular is fundamentally involved in processes in the central nervous system (CNS), such as our ability to think, learn and remember. The extent of the influence of metals in the CNS only really becomes clear when the processes are out of balance: Cognitive disorders and even neurodegenerative diseases are the result. But what do we know about these connections so far?

About the Speaker

Sabine Becker studied chemistry at JLU Giessen, where she completed her doctorate in inorganic chemistry in 2014. She then completed a two-year postdoctoral stay at MIT, USA. She also held a visiting professorship at the University of Vienna in spring 2022. From 2017 to 2023, she was a junior professor at the TU Kaiserslautern/RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau. She is now a professor of inorganic chemistry at the same university since fall 2023. Her research focuses on oxidation catalysis with polynuclear and/or photoactivatable metal complexes and metalloneurochemistry - understanding the role of metal ions in the CNS with a focus on zinc. 

She has already received numerous awards, including three scholarships, several prizes for presentations and, in 2020, the TU Kaiserslautern award for equality and gender activities. Outside the university, Sabine Becker is a volunteer in the GDCh (German Chemical Society), of which she has been deputy president since 2023.

The event will be moderated by Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Küfer. He is the speaker for the Felix Klein Center for Mathematics and head of the »Optimization« division and »Optimization in the Life Sciences« department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM.

Participation Options:       

  1. On site in the lecture hall of the Fraunhofer ITWM,
    Fraunhofer-Platz 1, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany  
  2. By video conference via Microsoft Teams: https://s.fhg.de/tellerrand-2025-01

Technical Hints

After you have clicked on the Microsoft Teams link, a browser window will open – if you are not yet using Microsoft Teams – and you will be asked How would you like to join your Microsoft Teams meeting? You can use Microsoft Teams via a browser (e.g. Chrome) or you can download the Windows app to your desktop or install the Microsoft Teams app on your smartphone or tablet.

»Blick über den Tellerrand« (Thinking Outside the Box) is an interdisciplinary lecture series of the Felix Klein Center for Mathematics with changing topics.

If you have any questions, please contact Sylvia Gerwalin, e-mail: sylvia.gerwalin[at]itwm.fraunhofer.de, telephone: 0631-31600-4424.