Postdoctoral Fellows

Proposal Topic: plant-microbial interactions; metabolic models;

PhD Institution: Sun Yat-sen University, China

Host and Institution in MPG: Zoran Nikoloski, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology

Host at WIS: Asaph Aharoni

Proposal Topic: Elucidating the dynamics of collective behavioral transitions in C. elegans

PhD Institution: Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

Host in MPG: Dr. Serena Ding, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany

Host at WIS: Prof. Nir S Gov, Department of Biological and Chemical Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science

Proposal Topic:  Large-Scale Forcing of Antarctic Extremes: Blocking High– Atmospheric Rivers coupling and climate mode linkages

PhD Institution:  Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. 

Supervisors: Prof James Renwick and Prof Adrian McDonald

Host and Institution in MPG:  Prof. Sarah Kang, Climate Dynamics department,  Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany

Host at WIS:  Prof. Shira Raveh-Rubin, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences,  Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel 

Proposal topic:
Bridging nanoscale and microscale mechanics in multilamellar lipid membranes to create biomimetic vesicle systems that emulate natural multilayered architectures such as myelin sheaths and lamellar bodies.

PhD Institution:
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering.

Host and Institution in MPG:
Dr. Rumiana Dimova, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces.

Host at WIS:
Prof. Jacob Klein, Weizmann Institute of Science.

Proposal Topic: Integrating spatiotemporal multi-omics and proteomics to construct a high-resolution 4D atlas of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus tissue damage, for the purpose of functionally dissecting pathogenic immune circuits and engineering curative, immune-resetting therapeutics.

PhD Institution: The University of Oxford

Host and Institution at the MPG: Prof. Matthias Mann; Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry 

Host and Institution at the WIS: Prof. Ido Amit; Department of Systems Immunology

Proposal Topic: Pushing the Boundaries of Biomedical Research with High Field 19F Overhauser Dynamic Nuclear Polarization

PhD Institution: Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.

Host and Institution in MPG: Prof. Marina Bennati at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences. 

Host at WIS: Prof. Ilya Kuprov

Proposal Topic: Interplay of epigenome and metabolome in normal and malignant differentiation

PhD Institution: German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

Host and Institution in MPG: Prof. Alex Meissner at Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Laboratory of “Genome Regulation”,Berlin, Germany

Host at WIS: Dr. Efrat Shema, Laboratory of “Decoding the Cancer Epigenome”

Proposal Topic: Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation and Biomineralization

PhD Institution: Prof. Shu-Hong Yu, University of Science and Technology of China, China

Host and Institution in MPG: Prof. Peter Fratzl, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and

Interfaces

Host at WIS: Prof. Assaf Gal

Proposal Topic: Deciphering molecular mechanisms of unconventional mRNA translation as a source of targetable neoantigens in cancer

PhD Institution: Georg-August University of Göttingen & Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences

Host & Institution in MPG: Prof. Marina V. Rodnina & Prof. Stefan W. Hell, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences

Host at WIS: Prof. Yardena Samuels

Proposal topic: Novel electrochemical and transition metal-catalyzed activation of dinitrogen (N₂) for introducing amino groups into organic molecules.

PhD Institution: Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.

Host and Institution in MPG: Prof. Beatriz Roldan Cuenya at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society. 

Host at WIS: Dr. Samer Gnaim

Proposal topic: Elucidating the Enigmatic Role of the Silk Protein Gel in Mollusk Shell Biomineralization 

PhD Institution: Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel 

Host and Institution in MPG: Prof. Peter Fratzl Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces 

Host at WIS: Prof. Lia Addadi, Prof. Steve Weiner & Prof. Asaf Gal

Vinod Kumar was born and brought up in Hyderabad, India. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Hyderabad, under the supervision of Prof. R. Chandrasekar, where he worked on the design and fabrication of organic-crystal-based photonic integrated circuits. He is currently working on enhancing the sensitivity of quantum measurements in the NV-based sensors at the Experimental Quantum Biosensing Laboratory under the guidance of Prof. Mouzhe Xie at Arizona State University.

Proposal: Enhanced scattering properties of extremely birefringent scattering media

MPI host and institution: Prof. Silvia Vignolini, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Am Mühlenberg,  Potsdam-Golm, 114476, Germany.

WIS host: Prof. Dan Oron, The Harry Weinrebe professor of laser physics, Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot 76100, ISRAEL.

Proposal Topic: Transchromatic homotopy theory and categorification

PhD Institution: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Host and Institution in MPG: Tobias Barthel, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics

Host at WIS: Shachar Carmeli

Proposal Topic: Computer-Aided Design of Green Solvents for Closed and Open Shell Transition Metal Catalysis  

PhD Institution: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India

Host and Institution in MPG: Prof. Matthias Stein, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems Magdeburg, Germany  

Host at WIS: Prof. Leeor Kronik

As of January 2026, Ravi joined as a Ramanujan faculty fellow at the  Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, India. His research specialization is computational chemistry, focusing on catalytic mechanisms, open-shell systems, and bioinorganic processes, along with teaching and mentoring students.

Host and Institution at MPG: Babette Döbrich at Max Planck für Physik (MPP) Host at WIS: Gilad Perez PhD Institution: Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz

Topic: Ultralight dark matter with masses below 1 eV evolve classically, and their coupling leads to an apparent evolution of the fundamental constants of the Standard Model. In a theoretical model developed at WIS, the dark matter candidate causes temporal oscillations in the strength of the flavour-changing mixing angles, as parameterised in the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix. Such oscillations can be searched for in precision experiments such as the Kaon experiment NA62 at CERN. During his time at MPP and WIS, Prisco will develop the phenomenological analysis of the CKM angle oscillations at NA62. He will also study, both theoretically and phenomenologically, how future nuclear clocks based on the isomeric transition of Thorium-229 can be used to increase the sensitivity to ultra-light dark matter, as well as to serve as general "QCD-ometers", tracking with unprecedented sensitivity even minute changes in the properties of the strong interaction caused by physics beyond the Standard Model.

During his time at MPP and WIS, Prisco will also develop theoretical methods to study non-perturbative phenomena, building on his graduate work at the interface between classical and quantum physics using the mathematical theory of resurgence. The interplay of quantum and classical effects is central to the theory of the Sauter-Schwinger effect, the creation of electron-positron pairs in intense electric fields. The focus will be on the discovery of novel signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model, which may evade detection in conventional experiments, but can be picked up by experiments operating in the high-intensity, large-multiplicity regime of quantum field theory.

In collaboration with Sarah Kang from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and Yohai Kaspi from the Weizmann Institute, Moritz investigate the impact of land-sea contrasts on the evolution of surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.

Over recent decades, the surface of the Eastern Pacific has experienced a cooling trend, contrary to the overall warming of the Earth. While some reasons for this phenomenon are understood, critical questions remain unanswered. For instance, will this cooling trend persist, or will the Eastern Pacific begin to warm - and if so, when? This question is crucial not only for local climates but also for global climate change, as the Pacific Ocean's surface temperatures play a vital role in regulating the Earth's climate.
To explore these hypotheses, Moritz conduct simulations using a global climate model developed by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, where he also completed his PhD.

As of November 2025, Moritz Günther leads the “Large-Scale Coupled Dynamics” group in the Climate Dynamics department at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. His research explores how large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, such as the Hadley and Walker circulations, respond to global warming, focusing on the coupling between land, ocean, atmosphere, and cryosphere. Moritz completed his PhD at MPI-M in 2024 with distinction and recently received the Ines Biasoni Prize for his outstanding dissertation.

Proposal Topic: Characterizing the Effect of Submarine Groundwater Discharge on Oceanic Nitrogen and Carbon Budgets

PhD Institution: Columbia University

Host and Institution in MPG: Alfredo Martinez Garcia, Max Planck for Chemistry

Host at WIS: Yael Kiro

Francesca Zaffalon completed her PhD at KU Leuven. Her current research centers around the topic of positive geometries, an area of mathematics that provides a novel framework for the description of physical phenomena. In particular, her research aims to deepen the understanding of the amplituhedron - a mathematical object capturing scattering amplitudes, key quantities in theoretical particle physics. As part of the MPG-Weizmann Joint Postdoctoral Program, she will work with Bernd Sturmfels at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig and with Ran Tessler at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Proposal Topic: Laser-Induced Vibrational Emission Spectroscopy of Complex Molecular Ions

PhD Institution: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune India

Host and Institution in MPG: Prof. Klaus Blaum / Dr. Holger Kreckel,  Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik Heidelberg (MPIK)

Host at WIS: Prof. Daniel Zajfman/ Dr. Oded Heber

I have joined the MPI-WIS fellowship program after completing my PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science. My research focuses on unveiling the impact of land cover change in Africa on the land-atmosphere interactions. As part of this collaborative project, I am hosted by Professor Dan Yakir from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the Weizmann Institute, where I conduct fieldwork and perform data analysis using a unique mobile laboratory. Additionally, I am hosted by Dr. Sung-Ching Lee at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, focusing on validating remote sensing data by integrating it with the field-based observations.