More accurate predictions of epidemics are important for combating infectious diseases and protecting public health. A research team at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) has developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) for this purpose. It combines classic models of disease spread with modern deep learning methods to better capture differences in the temporal and spatial progression of an epidemic.

Today, Armin van de Venn successfully completed his doctorate under the supervision of FIAS Fellow Jürgen Struckmeier - "summa cum laude". His extension of established mathematical frameworks opens up new perspectives on the deep structure of spacetime and the origin of the cosmos.

Chen Li from the research group of FIAS Senior Fellow Horst Stöcker successfully defended his doctoral thesis on September 22, 2025. Using machine learning algorithms, he optimized decision-making problems in power grid models that arise due to fluctuations in renewable energies.

Shuai Han from the research group of FIAS Senior Fellow Horst Stöcker successfully defended his doctoral thesis on September 22, 2025. He investigated a novel integration of mechanistic epidemic models with modern deep learning to achieve both high predictive accuracy and crucial interpretability in epidemiological forecasts.

Tom Reichert, postdoc at FIAS, received the FAIR-GSI PhD Award 2024 on 28 January. In his doctoral thesis at Goethe University, Reichert investigated the collisions of heavy atomic nuclei at different energies. He used and developed theoretical transport simulations to understand matter under these extreme conditions.

Megha Chakraborty gained her doctorate at Goethe University on 26 November. She uses deep learning as a tool to decode seismological data. Impressive publications and the award of the title „summa cum laude“ reflect her successful research.

Dark Energy is a subset of energy that accelarates the expansion of our universe. A new research work at FIAS studies the impact of dark energy inside our galaxies. The research shows that in order to have stable galaxies the repulsion force of dark energy cannot exceed two orders of magnitde of the known value from cosmology. This study suggests that dark energy plays a role stronger than expected even in the closeby universe.

FIAS PhD student Armin van de Venn presented his work at the international conference "Metric-Affine Frameworks for Gravity 2024" in Estonia.

Jan Hammelmann completed his doctorate in the group of FIAS Senior Fellow Hannah Elfner.

FIAS PhD student Chen Li spoke as an invited speaker at the ‘Strommarkttreffen’ (Electricity Market Meeting) in Berlin. He presented his findings on optimising power dispatch using machine learning. Researchers at FIAS have developed a state-of-the-art AI system that balances out weather-dependent fluctuations in the electricity grid and thus ensures the efficient and reliable distribution of electricity from sources such as solar and wind (https://fias.news/en/news-publicity/ai-solution-avoids-weather-dependent-fluctuations-in-the-power-system/).

The research project ‘Investigation of compact stars with heavy baryons and quarks’ by FIAS Fellow Armen Sedrakian entered its third funding period in May 2024. The German Research Foundation (DFG) approved the application for research funding for a further two years.

Physicist Shriya Soma successfully defended her thesis on 16th April. Her PhD on constraining the neutron star equation of state using deep learning techniques was supervised by FIAS Fellows Horst Stöcker and Kai Zhou.

Images from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team show that the black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) in the centre of our Milky Way is surrounded by strong, spiral-shaped magnetic fields. The team led by FIAS Senior Fellow Luciano Rezzolla played a key role in this study.

The high amount of solar and wind energy makes it difficult to ensure a stable power supply. A state-of-the-art AI system developed by FIAS researchers compensates for these weather-dependent fluctuations. It ensures efficient and reliable distribution of electricity from sources such as solar and wind to meet energy needs even in changing weather conditions while minimising costs.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration – including the group led by FIAS Fellow Luciano Rezzolla - has released new images of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87. They confirm predictions of the general theory of relativity.

At the end of October, Manjunath Omana Kuttan successfully defended his doctoral thesis at Goethe University's Department of Physics. Omana Kuttan finalized his PhD after three and a half years in the Deepthinkers group at FIAS, supervised by FIAS Senior Fellow Horst Stöcker and FIAS Fellows Jan Steinheimer and Kai Zhou.

Lightning is a natural phenomenon that has fascinated humans for centuries. However, understanding the complex structures of lightning has been a challenge for scientists due to the vast amount of data involved. In a recent study, researchers from FIAS and University of Groningen have developed a novel method to understand lightning structures using machine learning. This knowledge will also help us to avoid lightning dangers in the future.

KISS enables faster, more flexible and more efficient evaluation of research data based on AI simulations. With Dr. Kai Zhou as PI, FIAS is participating in the joint project "Artificial Intelligence for the Fast Simulation of Scientific Data" (KISS) funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

In his new book, Luciano Rezzolla takes us on a voyage of discovery to black holes. In doing so, he manages to reach readers of all knowledge levels and to draw a fascinating arc from the basic principles of gravity to the modern research results of relativistic astrophysics. The popular science book was published in German by C. H. Beck; the English version by Cambridge University Press is available since March 2023.

A mathematically inspired extension of Einstein's general theory of relativity provides new insights into space and time. In their recent publications, David Vasak et al. of Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) describe how the torsion of spacetime can explain the dark energy of standard cosmology.