ISTA Researchers Recognized in 2025

Researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) received a wide range of prestigious honors in 2025. These spanned the flagship funding schemes of the European Research Council (ERC), as well as prizes from, and memberships in, leading scientific societies — all reflecting the breadth and depth of ISTA’s curiosity-driven basic research.

ERC Advanced Grants

Four ISTA professors received highly competitive ERC Advanced Grants, together securing more than ten million Euro for ambitious, long-term projects in brain imaging, neuroscience, astrophysics, and math.

Biophysicist Johann Danzl received 2.8 million Euro for a project to improve brain tissue imaging using a new method called MOLCONN. The approach combines detailed maps of brain cell connections with information about the molecules in and around these cells, aiming to clarify how brain structure relates to its function.

Magdalena Walz Professor for Life Sciences Peter Jonas received 2.5 million Euro for the CA3-SYNGRAM. The project seeks to better understand how the brain stores and recalls information by using a new combination of techniques to study the subtle changes in brain cells and connections that happen when memories form.

Astrophysicist Zoltan Haiman received 2.6 million Euro for the Bright BHBs project, which studies the inspirals and mergers of binary black holes, including the radiation and gravitational waves they generate.

Mathematician Tamás Hausel received 2.5 million Euro for the ViaFiPoS project, which aims to bridge gaps between mathematical fields that often develop in isolation.

ERC Consolidator Grants

Two ISTA physicists, Professors Edouard Hannezo  and Maksym Serbyn, received ERC Consolidator Grants worth two million Euro each.

Hannezo’s funding supports the REFINE project, which uses theoretical models to study how cell forces, biological signals, and the geometrical constraints of embryo development interact.

Serbyn’s grant funds the QMbeyondU project, which strives to reveal new quantum phenomena and improve control over interacting quantum systems.

ERC Starting Grants

Assistant Professors Amelia Douglass and Ylva Götberg were the recipients of ERC Starting Grants of 1.5 million Euro each that support outstanding scientists at the start of their careers.

Neuroscientist Douglass will use the funding for the HypoAdapt project, which examines how animals respond to challenges such as an attacking predator, unpleasantly warm or cold temperatures, or pathogens.

Astrophysicist Götberg will use her grant for the 2SStars, which explores the science around new types of stars that existed only in theory until Götberg and colleagues confirmed their existence in 2023.

ERC Proof of Concept Grant

Professor Johannes Fink received an ERC Proof of Concept Grant worth 150,000 Euro to help commercialize a technology he developed with his group that could play a key role in a future optics-based quantum internet.

International Recognition

Professor László Erdős received the American Mathematical Society’s 2026 Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research, announced in December 2025.  

Erdős was honored together with Benjamin Schlein (University of Zurich) and Horng-Tzer Yau (Harvard University) for a series of three joint papers. The $5,000 prize is awarded each year to papers of fundamental or lasting significance in their field, or that exemplify outstanding research.

Assistant Professor Scott Waitukaitis received the American Physical Society’s 2026 Early Career Award for Soft Matter Research. Announced in November 2005, the $5,000 distinction honors his work “resolving the core mystery of contact electrification and consistently bringing clarity and rigor to complex problems in soft matter through elegant and thoughtful experiments.”

Assistant Professor Bart Pieber was honored by the Dr. Otto Röhm Memorial Foundation.

Austrian Recognition

Professor Sandra Siegert received a 6,000 Euro “Anerkennungspreis” (recognition prize) as part of the annual Science Prize of Lower Austria for her internationally published research on how microglia interact with neurons to shape brain function, work that has led to a patent application and the founding of the start-up Syntropic Medical GmbH.

Memberships and Fellowships

Professors Edouard Hannezo and Gaia Novarino were elected to the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in recognition of their internationally leading research. Novarino studies the genes behind inherited neurodevelopmental conditions such as epilepsy and autism. Hannezo’s research explores the physical principles of biological systems to better explain how self-organization emerges during embryo development.

Assistant Professor Lora Sweeney was selected as an EMBO Young Investigator (2026 -2029) for her work in developmental biology using Xenopus frogs.

Explore additional awards received by ISTA researchers here.