Alexander von Humboldt Professorship
With five million euros, the Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Professorship is the most highly endowed research award in Germany and attracts top international researchers to German universities.
Information on applying for an AvH professorship and the procedure is available from the Research Management Division.
Current AvH professors at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences are:
Prof. Dr. Bart Thomma
Institute for Plant Sciences, Phytopathology (2021–2026)
Bart Thomma is an expert in phytopathology and came to the University of Cologne in 2021 from Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands. His work focuses on the interaction between plants and microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria in the rhizosphere. He heads the "Centre for Microbial Interactomics" at the University of Cologne.
Prof. Dr. Malte Gather
Institute for Light and Matter, Nanobiophotonics (2019–2026)
Malte Gather is an internationally recognized expert in the field of biological lasers ("biophotonics") for real-time imaging of cells in motion. He came to the University of Cologne in 2019 from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Here he heads the “Humboldt Centre for Nano- and Biophotonics (HCNB)”.