Current Fellows 2024
Table of contents
Dr. Sachin Labade
Degree: PhD English Language and Literature | Program: Dresden Junior Fellowship | Timeframe: July 1, 2024 – August 31, 2024 | Host Institution in Germany: Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies, Institute of English and American Studies | Host: Prof. Dr. Claudia Lange
Dr. Sachin Labade is Associate Professor at the Department of English at the University of Mumbai, India since 2017. Previously, he completed a PhD in English Language and Literature at Savitribai Phule Pune University, India. Dr. Labade already has contacts with TU Dresden through several short guest stays and joint projects with Prof. Lange in India.
As part of his fellowship, Dr. Labade offers the block seminar "Introduction to Queer Culture in India". This seminar is interdisciplinary in nature and is open to all students in the field. The fellowship will also serve to prepare further joint research projects and publications. This should intensify cooperation with the University of Mumbai. The English Department of the University of Mumbai has already indicated its interest in establishing a joint exchange program.
Dr. Labade completed his doctorate in 2017 with a thesis on the "Positioning of the Queer in Indian Film Narrative" and continues to work on this topic in research and teaching. This topic is unusual in the Indian context, where queer issues are discussed very controversially in public and are not established in university contexts. Outside of academia, Dr. Labade is committed to education and specifically to more equal opportunities in access to English as an indispensable resource for better career prospects. In addition to teaching at the University of Mumbai, he regularly runs "English refresher courses" for teachers and schools in rural Maharashtra.
Dr. Sunil Kumar Boda
Degree: PhD Materials Science | Program: Dresden Junior Fellowship | Timeframe: May 20, 2024 – July 19, 2024 | Host Institution in Germany: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Materials Science | Host: Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Wiesmann, PD Dr. Vera Hintze
Dr. Sunil Kumar Boda works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biosciences and Biomedical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore (IIT). In 2016, he completed his PhD with the best dissertation at the Materials Research Center of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
As a fellow at TU Dresden, Dr. Boda will first get to know the current research of the Institute of Materials Science on bone and soft tissue engineering as well as biomaterials for wound healing. This also includes the research facility of the Centre for Translational Bone, Joint and Soft Tissue Research at TU Dresden's Faculty of Medicine (Prof. Michael Gelinsky, Dr. Anja Lode). This will serve as a starting point for an exchange on joint perspectives in research and teaching. In addition, Dr. Boda will be involved in teaching with PD Dr. Vera Hintze on "Materials in Biomedicine". In the long term, Dr. Boda's stay will serve to establish joint research projects and teaching assignments. This is intended to be an important contribution to the Memorandum of Understanding between the Faculty of Engineering at TU Dresden and IIT Indore, which was signed in 2016 and recently renewed.
Dr. Boda is an internationally recognized scientist in the field of biomaterials research for bone and soft tissue regeneration. To date, he has published 28 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 15 of them as first author. In addition, he patented one of his inventions on nanofiber microspheres and their application method in 2019. Dr. Boda also has international and industry-related research experience from his time as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Nebraska, USA, and in various research and medical institutions at the University of Minneapolis, USA, between 2017 and 2021. He is a member of highly respected Indian, but also European and US societies, e.g. the Indian Ceramic Society or the European Society for Biomaterials. In 2021, he received the Dr. R.L. Thakur Memorial Award from the Indian Ceramic Society, which is awarded for demonstrably outstanding contributions in the fields of ceramics, materials science, or materials engineering.
Prof. Dr. Douglas Cairns
Degree: PhD Classical Philology | Program: Dresden Senior Fellowship | Timeframe: May 1, 2024 – June 30, 2024 & April 1, 2025 – June 30, 2025 | Host Institution 1 in Germany: Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies, Institute of Classical Philology | Host 1: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Mario Baumann | Host Institution 2: Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science, Institute of History | Host 2: Prof. Dr. Christoph Lundgren
Prof. Dr. Douglas is Cairns Professor of Classics in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. He completed his PhD in Classics at the University of Glasgow in 1987.
Prof. Cairns will complete his fellowship in both the Department of Classics and the Department of History. The theme of emotions will act as an overarching bracket linking all sub-projects. The fellowship includes workshop and discussion formats for students, doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers as well as joint publication activities.
Prof. Cairns' stay will deepen existing collaborations. He is the recipient of the Anneliese Maier Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and has already worked closely with the Department of Classical Studies at TU Dresden on a wide range of research activities during the associated funding period from 2018-2024. Now the basis for joint project proposals is to be laid. The topic of emotions fits perfectly with the main areas of work of Prof. Lundgren and Prof. Baumann.
Prof. Cairns is a leading international expert on the role of emotions in various social and political contexts in the field of ancient studies. He has taught and researched at international universities, including the University of Otago, New Zealand and the University of St Andrews, UK, before being appointed Professor of Classics at the University of Edinburgh in 2004. Prof. Cairns has received numerous academic awards, including research fellowships from the Humboldt Foundation and the Leverhulme Trust. He is President of the Classical Association of Scotland.
Dr. Yihui Wang
Degree: PhD Traffic Information Engineering and Control | Program: Dresden Senior Fellowship | Timeframe: May 1, 2024 – August 1, 2024 | Host Institution in Germany: "Friedrich List" Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, Institute of Railway Systems and Public Transport | Host: Prof. Dr. Nikola Bešinović
Dr. Wang has been working as an Associate Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Rail Traffic Control and Safety at Beijing Jiaotong University since 2018. She completed her doctorate in Traffic Information Engineering and Control at the Delft Center for Systems and Control at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
During Dr. Wang's stay at TU Dresden, the existing cooperation with the State Key Laboratory of Rail Traffic Control and Safety at Beijing Jiaotong University will be further expanded. In particular, collaboration is planned on the topic of influencing train traffic in subway systems in the event of natural disruptions such as floods or storms. This research work will subsequently be published in a joint publication. There are also plans to prepare a joint project proposal on this topic for submission to the National Natural Science Foundation of China and a joint workshop application to the Sino-German Center for Science Promotion.
In teaching, Dr. Wang will hold a one-day seminar on "Traffic Management in Urban Rail Systems" and also provide supervision and ad hoc sessions for master's students and PhD students on their research projects.
Dr. Wang is an established researcher in the field of metro operations and rail traffic incident management. She has published in leading journals in the field, including Transportation Research Part B and IEEE Transactions. She is also actively involved in organizations such as the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences and the International Association of Railway Operations Research and has given guest lectures in Europe and Asia.
Dr. Tomasz Dębiec
Degree: PhD Mathematics | Program: Dresden Junior Fellowship | Timeframe: April 1, 2024 – October 1, 2024 | Host Institution in Germany: Faculty of Mathematics, Institute of Scientific Computing | Host: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Markus Schmidtchen
Dr. Tomasz Dębiec is an Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw, where he also completed his PhD in mathematics in October 2020. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Sorbonne Université, France, from 2020 to 2022.
As part of the fellowship, Dr. Dębiec is working on a joint research project with Prof. Schmidtchen, which investigates how different mathematical modeling paradigms can be combined in the context of polymorphic tissues. To this end, Dr. Dębiec is further expanding the mathematical methodology he has developed in a number of recent papers. In particular, the project concerns the combination of two modeling paradigms - viscoelastic tissue models and inviscid tissue models.
Dr. Dębiec will organize a one-week workshop for advanced Master and PhD students between the University of Warsaw and the Technical University of Dresden on "Recent Advances in Tissue Growth Modelling". The workshop will focus on recent advances in mathematical tissue growth modeling. In addition, Dr. Dębiec will give an introductory block lecture on scalar conservation laws, a class of fundamental mathematical equations that describe the conservation of a physical quantity as it evolves in space and time.
Dr. Dębiec's main research interest is the analysis of partial differential equations arising in mathematical physics and biology, e.g. in fluid mechanics, tissue growth and the dynamics of structured populations. In 2021, he received the International Stefan Banach Prize July for his doctoral thesis in mathematical sciences from the Polish Mathematical Society.
Dr. Samira Sasani
Degree: PhD English Literature | Program: Dresden Junior Fellowship | Timeframe: April 1, 2024 – July 31, 2024 | Host Institution in Germany: Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies, Institute of English and American Studies, Chair of English Literatures | Host: Prof. Dr. Stefan Horlacher
Dr. Samira Sasani completed her PhD in English Literature at the University of Shiraz, Iran, in 2012. Since then, she has been working as an Associate Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics at the University of Shiraz.
At TU Dresden, she will be working on a research project on "The Myth of Modern Cities in Literature and Film: A City of Frankenstein". For this purpose, Dr. Sasani will connect Iranian, English and French films and literary texts. Her main interest lies in the myth-forming quality of cities and their representation in literature and film as well as the "cross-cultural relations" that become apparent, for example between Paris, London and Tehran. During her stay, Dr. Sasani will also offer a seminar on "Modernist and Postmodernist English Novels" as well as two public guest lectures.
Dr. Sasani's research interests include postcolonialism, migration novels and diaspora literature, Persian literature, and city and architecture in fiction and film. She has already published two monographs with German publishers. She has also received prizes and awards, as well as two invitations to the University of Toronto, Canada. She has been a member of the Comparative Literature Committee at the Faculty of Humanities at Shiraz University since 2012.
Dr. Katharina Fellnhofer
Degree: PhD Social and Economic Sciences| Program: Dresden Senior Fellowship | Timeframe: February 1, 2024 – July 31, 2024 & June 1, 2024 – August 31, 2024 | Host Institution in Germany: Faculty of Business and Economics, Chair of Business Administration | Host: Prof. Dr. Lars Hornuf
Dr. Katharina Fellnhofer has been awarded the prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship, funded by the European Commission and hosted by the ETH Zurich and Harvard University from 2021 to 2023. She holds a doctorate in Social and Economic Sciences from the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
As part of the fellowship, Dr. Fellnhofer and Prof. Hornuf are conducting a joint research project to investigate the extent to which intuitive decision-making can be used in business. On the one hand, they will analyse how results generated by artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to train people to improve their intuitive decision-making skills. On the other hand, it will be investigated whether people can be trained to recognise human or AI-generated results. Such a distinction is, among other things, the basis for recognising biases and errors in algorithms. For example, humans should be able to distinguish whether financial advice comes from an AI or whether the AI has made a mistake when generating the advice. Dr. Fellnhofer will also take part in a public event at TU Dresden. The long-term goal of the fellowship is to establish cooperation in the field of intuitive decision-making between TU Dresden and ETH Zurich.
Dr. Fellnhofer's research focuses on social psychology, gender differences, sustainable entrepreneurship and social innovation. After completing her dissertation, Dr. Fellnhofer established an Austrian enterprise to lead research and innovation projects. Through this company, she has managed a research portfolio totalling over 9 million euros. Furthermore, Dr. Fellnhofer has been serving as independent expert for the European Commission and several governments and authorities. Additionally, she is a publicly appointed, sworn, and court-certified expert witness for business consultancy, the science of management, and business administration. So far, she has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles dedicated to entrepreneurship in high-impact journals.
Dr. Binbin Liu
Degree: PhD in Mechanical Engineering | Program: Dresden Senior Fellowship | Timeframe: January 13, 2024 – March 31, 2024 | Host Institution in Germany: "Friedrich List" Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, Institute of Transport Planning and Road Traffic | Host: Prof. Dr. Regine Gerike
Dr. Binbin Liu works as a Senior Researcher at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, where he completed his PhD with distinction on the dynamics of rail vehicles and wheel-rail contact in 2016.
His research project at TU Dresden aims at developing a fast approach to estimate the wear distribution over the wheel-rail contact area, which is suitable for integration into the simulation of rail vehicle dynamics. As part of the collaboration, a new calculation method for estimating wheel wear is to be developed. The long-term goal of the collaboration is to develop a fast and reliable wheel wear model for practical applications, which will lead to scientific publications and establish industrial collaborations. Dr. Liu will also be involved in teaching and hold, among other things, seminars on wheel-rail contact mechanics and vehicle dynamics. He will also hold interdisciplinary workshops on wheel-rail contact modelling and wheel-rail damage prediction.
Dr. Liu's research focuses mainly on the dynamics of rail vehicle systems as well as contact mechanics and active control of rail vehicles. Dr. Liu has so far obtained three projects from international industrial funding agencies and has been involved in several Horizon 2020 projects. In addition, Dr. Liu has been working on scientific research projects with international universities and companies such as the University of Salford, the University of Sheffield, UK, the Warsaw University of Technology, Poland, the Technical University of Valencia, Spain, and Vtech CMCC, the Netherlands. Dr. Liu is also a member of the International Association for Vehicle System Dynamics and Associate Editor of Vehicle System Dynamics.
Prof. Dr. Carlos E. Cava
Degree: PhD Material Science | Program: Dresden Senior Fellowship | Timeframe: January 1, 2024 – June 30, 2024 | Host Institution in Germany: Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Institute of Materials Science, Chair of Materials Science and Nanotechnology | Host: Prof. Dr. Gianaurelio Cuniberti
Prof. Dr. Carlos E. Cava has been working as an Associate Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Federal Technological University of Paraná (UFPR), Brazil, since 2020. He obtained his PhD in Material Science in a tandem program between UFPR and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.
At TU Dresden, he will be working with Prof Cuniberti's research group on a project on gas sensors and produce a prototype for measuring breath alcohol for medical diagnostics. Using machine learning technology, the aim is to select combinations of materials that are calibrated to recognise gases that are markers for medical diseases in the breath. The prototype will be developed to recognize traces of ammonia in an environment that simulates human exhaled air. Subsequently, the same methodology will be applied to other gases such as acetone and methane. Prof. Cava is also involved in the training and supervision of students, including lectures in the courses "Introduction to Bionanotechnology" and "Nanostructured Materials".
Prof. Cava has expertise in 1D and 2D nanomaterials and their potential applications, e.g. in memory devices, solar cells and gas sensors. At his home university, he heads a research group in the field of thermodynamics and nanotechnology. He also coordinates a Master's programme and is involved in supervising students. To date, he has supervised more than 20 theses. Prof. Cava is a member of the Society for Materials Research Brazil.
Prof. Dr. Yanina Fasano
Degree: PhD Physics | Program: Dresden Senior Fellowship | Timeframe: January 1, 2024 – March 31, 2024 | Host Institution in Germany: Faculty of Physics, Institute of Solid State and Materials Physics, Chair Experimental Physics & Leibniz Institute of Solid State & Material Research | Host: Prof. Dr. Bernd Büchner
Prof. Dr. Yanina Fasano has been working as an Adjoint Professor at the Instituto Balseiro at the Cuyo National University in Argentina since 2021. She has also been a research fellow at the National Research Council of Argentina since 2014.
During her stay at TU Dresden, Prof. Fasano will investigate the layered material trigonal PtBi2 using scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy in order to gain insights for basic research and possible applications in quantum technology. The aim of the project is to find out more about the topological nature of superconductivity in this material and to investigate the influence of interfaces and defects. In addition, Prof. Fasano is planning a lecture in Dresden on the topic of "Phenomenology of Condensed Matter", in which she will give a comprehensive overview of the current state of the art in terms of structural, thermodynamic, magnetic and electronic properties of materials relevant to applications such as quantum computing. Prof. Fasano has already been a visiting scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research in 2021/2022 and 2023. During these stays, she conducted experiments on scanning tunnelling spectroscopy in iron-based superconductors.
Prof. Fasano is one of the leading experimental scientists in the field of superconductivity in Argentina and has gained an international reputation in the field of spectroscopic properties of superconductors. She is the recipient of the 2021 Houssay Prize, awarded by the Argentinian Ministry of Science, and the Georg Forster Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Prof Fasano has published a total of 69 papers to date, including in renowned journals such as Nature. She is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Argentinian Neutron Beam Laboratory (LAHN), which is currently being built in Buenos Aires. She is also the national coordinator of the Commission for Physics Scholarships of CONICET, the Argentine National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, and an active member of the Argentine Physical Society.