In the current round of research prizes from the European Research Council (ERC), two researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) have been recognized for their innovative research projects: Michaela Wiesinger and Hannes Pichler were each awarded one of the research grants worth up to 1.5 million euros.
Arithmetic of the Middle Ages
Michaela Wiesinger, researcher at the Institute for Medieval Research at the OeAW, will spend the next 5 years investigating a previously neglected field of research in the transitional phase between the Middle Ages and the early modern period: the linguistic development and spread of arithmetic.
Based on linguistic and cultural-historical observations and with the help of digital methods, she is investigating how arithmetic knowledge and calculation practices changed in the German-language written documents of that time and how the emergence of an abstract scientific language in Central Europe can be traced.
Rydberg atoms
With his ERC Starting Grant, Hannes Pichler is tackling a project on Rydberg atoms, i.e., atoms in particularly high excited states, at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information Innsbruck of the OeAW and the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Innsbruck.
Among other things, the quantum physicist is investigating how the properties of such atoms can be used for applications in quantum information processing, for example to generate highly entangled states or to implement quantum algorithms.
More than 100 million euros raised
With the two new Starting Grants, the number of prizes awarded to OeAW researchers since 2007 has increased to 62 ERC Grants and 5 Proof of Concept Grants. The OeAW was also significantly involved in a further 11 ERC grants.
In total, the OeAW has therefore brought more than 100 million euros in ERC funding to Austria. When it comes to European research grants, the OeAW is one of Austria's most successful institutions.
