CeMM Director Giulio Superti-Furga new Member of ERC Scientific Council
Giulio Superti-Furga, Scientific Director of CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Professor for Medical Systems Biology of the Medical University of Vienna has been appointed Member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council (ERC), on the 10th anniversary of its existence, for a function period of 4 years.
The European Research Council is the most important and prestigious funding institution for basic research in any field conducted within the European Union. Excellence is the sole criterion for selection; there are neither thematic priorities, nor geographical or other quotas for funding. Perhaps the most important funding programme of the ERC is the ERC Starting Independent Research Grant, promoting early scientific independence of promising talents with 2 million Euros over a period of 5 years. It has created a very positive impact on the attractiveness of Europe as research area. But the ERC has also other programmes, such as the ERC Advanced Investigator Grant, which fosters innovation carried out by established scientists with a proven scientific track record of excellence. Having been awarded two ERC Advanced Investigator Grants over the years and two ERC Proof-of-Concept Grants, to explore the application potential of research ideas, Giulio Superti-Furga, who also acted as ERC panel member in the past, knows the ERC well and is well suited to offer his experience to the organization that this year celebrates its 10th anniversary.
The ERC is governed by the Scientific Council, consisting of eminent European scientists and scholars including Nobel Prize laureates. Members are nominated by an independent search committee and appointed by the European Commission. Since 2014 Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, a renowned French mathematician, is President of the European Research Council. From 2010 to 2013 Professor Helga Nowotny, a Viennese Professor of Social Studies of Science held this prestigious position. She was also a founding member of the ERC in 2007. In 2017 the European Research Council is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
The ERC Scientific Council acts on behalf of the scientific community in Europe to promote creativity and innovative research. Giulio Superti-Furga: “It is a great honor to accept this important responsibility, which has had a tremendously positive impact on basic research in Europe. My aspiration is to contribute to a more science and innovation-friendly climate in Europe by promoting excellence in research and ensuring that politicians protect and promote the ERC as the most successful research funding scheme of the EU. Results from basic research accompany us at every step and should therefore become a core theme in everyday life - in education, in the media and in public discussions. Society and politics must have the courage to invest in new projects, to keep pace with scientific developments and associated implications. It is important to understand science as a fundamental component of our culture and of our future and a motor for innovation and competiveness also for the European industry."
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Photos:
Giulio Superti-Furga in front of CeMM building (©Heribert Corn/CeMM)
Giulio Superti-Furga in CeMM laboratory (©CeMM)
Giulio Superti-Furga Ph.D., is an Italian citizen working in Vienna, Austria. He performed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Molecular Biology at the University of Zurich, at Genentech Inc. in San Francisco and at the IMP in Vienna. He was a postdoctoral fellow at EMBL Heidelberg and became Team Leader there in 1995. From 1997 to 2000 he served as Guest Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Bologna. In 2000, he co-founded the biotech company Cellzome Inc. and served as Scientific Director. Since 2005 he has been Director of CeMM, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in the middle of the large general hospital campus in Vienna. From 2005 to 2014 Giulio Superti-Furga was a Visiting Professor of Molecular Pharmacology at the Medical University of Vienna, where he was appointed as Professor for Medical Systems Biology in 2015. In Vienna he co-founded the biotechnology companies Haplogen and Allcyte.
As Scientific Director of CeMM, Giulio Superti-Furga has been fostering the precise and preventive medicine of the future by integrating basic research and clinical expertise to pursue pioneering diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Among his major achievements to date are the elucidation of basic regulatory mechanisms of tyrosine kinases in human cancers, the determination of the precise mechanism of action of several drugs and the discovery of fundamental organization principles of the proteome and lipidome.
He is a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the European Academy of Cancer Sciences, and the Academia Europaea. His scientific impact is complemented by his community work. He was serving as Chair of the board of the EMBL Alumni Association from 2008 to 2015, is a founding member of the EU-LIFE consortium (www.eu-life.eu), and has initiated “Genom Austria” (www.genomaustria.at), an educational citizen science project on genome sequencing allowing a wide public to consider and discuss the advantages and challenges of genomic medicine.
He is married to a Viennese and has two children.
http://cemm.at/research/groups/giulio-superti-furga-group/
The mission of CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences is to achieve maximum scientific innovation in molecular medicine to improve healthcare. At CeMM, an international and creative team of scientists and medical doctors pursues free-minded basic life science research in a large and vibrant hospital environment of outstanding medical tradition and practice. CeMM’s research is based on post-genomic technologies and focuses on societally important diseases, such as immune disorders and infections, cancer and metabolic disorders. CeMM operates in a unique mode of super-cooperation, connecting biology with medicine, experiments with computation, discovery with translation, and science with society and the arts. The goal of CeMM is to pioneer the science that nurtures the precise, personalized, predictive and preventive medicine of the future. CeMM trains a modern blend of biomedical scientists and is located at the campus of the General Hospital and the Medical University of Vienna. www.cemm.at
The Medical University of Vienna is one of the most traditional medical education establishments with nearly 8,000 students and approximately 5,500 staff members, and one of the most important top-level biomedical research institutions in Europe. Its international outlook is one of its most important pillars and the research focus is centered on immunology, cancer research, imaging, brain research and cardiovascular diseases. www.meduniwien.ac.at
For further information please contact:
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Mag. Wolfgang Däuble
Media Relations Manager
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CeMM
Research Center for Molecular Medicine
of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Lazarettgasse 14, AKH BT 25.3
1090 Vienna, Austria
Phone +43-1/40160-70 057
Fax +43-1/40160-970 000
wdaeuble@cemm.oeaw.ac.at
www.cemm.at
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