Season’s Greetings!

Dear friends and colleagues,

2018 was a year of change for HITS. Two research groups successfully completed their work at the institute: Siegfried Schloissnig and the “Computational Biology” group bid adieu after five years of intensive work culminating in two publications in “Nature.” Additionally, Volker Springel left HITS after more than eight years to become director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, and his group here also came to an end. We are delighted that the concept of our founder, Klaus Tschira, will live on as the institute continues to support brilliant young researchers by giving them the greatest possible freedom to complete their research and supporting their careers. We will continue this work in the future: Three new research groups are planned at HITS for 2019.

We were also able to welcome guests from all over the world this year at events such as the Open House event and the International Astroinformatics Conference, which took place in Germany for the first time. Last but not least, we are pleased that two of our scientists earned rankings as “highly cited researchers” worldwide.

Just before the holidays, it is important to help those who are less well off. That’s why we have decided to donate money to two charities instead of sending gifts to our friends and partners. The Klaus Tschira Foundation has provided us with a total of 5,000 euros for this purpose, which will be divided evenly between the “Waldpiratencamp” (“Forest Pirate Camp”) – which is organized by the Children’s Cancer Foundation – and the “Kinderplanet” (“Children’s Planet”) project.

We wish you all Happy Holidays and a successful New Year! We hope that 2019 will be just as wonderful as the past year has been, and we would be thrilled to have you join us again in future activities!