We are offering a summer school course in this year’s Ferienakademie. The Ferienakademie is an opportunity for students to dive into a current computational research topic over the course of twelve days in the setting of the Northern Italian/Tyrolian Alps.

Please click here to learn more. Application deadline: 3 May 2026.

Carlos Bassani has been awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant for his project “Kinetic Pathways to Control Nanocrystal Shapes” (kineticSHAPES). With approximately €1.5 million in funding, kineticSHAPES aims to use advanced simulation techniques to uncover how nanocrystals adopt shapes such as cubes, spheres, pyramids, and plates, a phenomenon that plays a critical role in their optical, mechanical, and catalytic properties. Moving beyond classical thermodynamic models, the work seeks to map out the kinetic factors that govern shape formation, paving the way for innovations in green-energy photocatalysis and next-generation cancer therapies.

Congratulations to Carlos on this tremendous achievement — and we look forward to the exciting discoveries ahead!

For more information:
FAU News: Cubes, spheres and nanopyramids