FOKUS
The Interdisciplinary Research Center for Cooperative Functional Systems
The purpose of the Münster FOKUS-Initiative is to foster interfaculty links and collaboration between the conventionally separated disciplines of Physics, Chemistry and Biology as a platform for the formation of new competitive research structures and networks in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. This area making use of advanced physical, chemical and biological analysis techniques, synthetic methods, as well as mathematical modeling and theoretical interpretation of experimental results, appears most appropriate for this initiative which is based on interdisciplinary structures.
Basic research projects as well as exploratory industrial projects are integrated parts of the initiative. Beyond existing research groups at the University of Münster and the Center for Nanotechnology (CeNTech) taking part in this strategic development, three new faculty members were appointed to strengthen the initiative key areas of nanoscience:
- Quantitative Cell Biology: Prof. Dr. Carsten Grashoff (Biology)
https://www.uni-muenster.de/Biologie.IMZ/grashoff/en/index.html - Synthesis of Nanoscale Systems, Prof. Bart Jan Ravoo (Organic Chemistry)
http://www.uni-muenster.de/Chemie.oc/ravoo/index.html - Nanophotonics and Nanoelectronics: Prof. Dr. Wolfram Pernice (Physics)
http://www.uni-muenster.de/Physik.PI/Pernice/
- Cryo-EM of Complex Nanosystems: Prof. Dr. Christos Gatsogiannis (Faculty of Medicine)
https://www.medizin.uni-muenster.de/en/impb/institute/cryoem.html
Beyond individual international contacts of the participants, the projects within the initiative are strongly interlinked with local centers: