New Strategic Chair for Network Dynamics at TU Dresden´s cfaed / Inaugural Lecture on 24th of October

The TU Dresden (TUD) has extended the Center of Excellence Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) by a fifth Strategic Professorship. Prof. Marc Timme from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen moved to the Elbe river in July 2017 and will continue his internationally successful research in the field of network dynamics at the TUD under the umbrella of cfaed. With the beginning of the current winter semester, his first courses start in Dresden.

The term "net" or "network" often triggers very distinct associations with different people - depending on the personal background, areas of interest and environment. Some might think of their mobile phone connectivity, others of their social contacts, and the first thing that yet others associate is their IT department. Furthermore, large cable routes for electric power supply, railway networks or nerve cell networks in the brain constitute possible links.

This little thought experiment highlights the large variety of interpretations of the term „network“. Countless processes and structures in our natural and technical environments can be regarded as networks. Both on a large and on a small scale, they are based primarily on the basic idea that often similar elements are interconnected in a complicated way. These interconnections are usually redundant. Between two elements, there are several or even multiple possible ways of passenger, matter, energy or information transport. “Here is where complexity enters the game. If the nodes are dynamic, and perhaps even the connectivity of the network dynamically changes, system-wide self-organization processes emerge, and it takes sophisticated methods and new perspectives to understand them", explains Marc Timme.

This is the starting point for his work in the field. A fundamental understanding of the structure and dynamics of complex networks in physics and biology, as well as in man-made technical and social networks, is the objective. The analysis and modelling of networked systems, in particular neuronal circuits and future-oriented power grids but also flexible and networked mobility, are important research areas of the Chair.

As an additional emphasis, new kinds of analytical methods and mathematical tools are developed to help understand these highly complex systems. On the abstract level of mathematics, questions from various fields of application often exhibit similarities. In this way, the acquired mathematical findings help to transfer conclusions from one field of application to another and thus bridge and unite different research areas. To demonstrate this, Timme mentions a surprising example: "Our research group has transferred the finding of Braess` paradox, known from the transport sciences, to alternating current (AC) power grids. The entrepreneur scientist Dietrich Braess has observed that contrary to expectation, traffic congestions may emerge because an existing construction site or a road block is removed i.e. an additional street adds to the street network. Recently, we have discovered that a related effect also occurs in power transmission grids. If a new transmission line is added to a power grid, line overloads can occur even at remote points in the grid. This knowledge can now be used to improve grid planning. "

With its broad, interdisciplinary approach, the new Chair optimally fits into the Cluster of Excellence cfaed, because it strives for creating diverse fruitful connections. On the one hand, the cfaed is exploring the entire development chain of state-of-the-art electronics, from materials to components to complex systems. On the other hand, very different concepts, methods and systems are being explored, through the "More Shots on Goal" approach and the current division into nine main research areas. Silicon nanowires, graphene, as well as new kinds of communication strategies help developing the modern, highly networked electronic systems. Prof. Timme and his team will significantly contribute to the research path "Biological Systems" and the Chair will likely develop many links to other fields. At cfaed, such links are explicitly desired.

Inaugural Lecture
On 24 October 2017 Prof. Timme will give his public inaugural lecture at the TU Dresden. This is titled "Nonlinear Dynamics of Power Grids -- Braess' Paradox, Critical Links and Nonlocal Rerouting" and will be held from 4:40 pm to 6:10 pm in lecture hall C213 in Recknagel-Bau, Haeckelstr. 3. The presentation will be held in English. Link to event announcement: http://bit.ly/2gLVUe4

About Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Marc Timme, MA
Having studied physics and applied mathematics at the University of Würzburg and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA, Marc Timme gained his doctorate with distinction (summa cum laude) in Theoretical Physics at the University of Göttingen. After two research stays at the Max Planck Institute for Flow Research and at Cornell University (USA), he was appointed one of four scientists in Germany to head a Max Planck Research Group at the Max Planck Society's chemical, physical and technical section. Consequently, he established a broadly cross-disciplinary research group on Network Dynamics at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen. Shortly afterwards, Marc Timme became an Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics at the University of Göttingen and is the Co-Chair of the Association of Socio-Economic Physics of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft e.V. (German Physical Society) since more than three years. For his research, he was awarded the Research Prize of the Berliner Ungewitter Foundation, the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society, and a Research Fellowship of the National Research Center of Italy. Link to Chair: https://cfaed.tu-dresden.de/cfnd-about

Media inquiries:
Prof. Marc Timme
Tel.: +49 (0) 351 463-33846

Matthias Hahndorf
cfaed Communications Officer
Tel.: +49 (0) 351 463-42847

cfaed
cfaed is a microelectronics research cluster funded by the German Excellence Initiative. It comprises 11 cooperating institutes in Saxony. About 300 scientists from more than 20 countries investigate new technologies for electronic information processing. These technologies are inspired by innovative materials such as silicon nanowires, carbon nanotubes or polymers or based on completely new concepts such as the chemical chip or circuit fabrication methods by self-assembling structures such as DNA-Origami. The orchestration of these new devices into heterogeneous information processing systems with focus on their resilience and energy-efficiency is also part of cfaed’s research program which comprises nine different research paths. https://www.cfaed.tu-dresden.de