I hold a Master’s degree in Digital Humanities and Digital Knowledge and a Bachelor’s in European Art History. My work combines art history with digital methods, focusing on the analysis and visualization of archival data. I have experience developing accessible tools for researchers with varying technical skills, with interests in data visualization, digital storytelling, and user experience design. Currently, I focus on applying digital tools in the Digital Humanities to enhance the resources of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz.

I am a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz. I study the link between brain size change and cognition and behavioral flexibility in the common shrew, one of the few mammals which experience the Dehnel phenomenon, a programmed and reversible shrinkage of body and brain size. My interest in Open Science is driven by the troubling frequency of questionable findings and retractions in recent studies. I advocate for reforming academic incentives, believing that promoting transparency in research will lead to more genuine scientific reliability.

I am a researcher with a keen interest in elucidating the genetic mechanisms underlying the changes that occur with advancing age. I am currently pursuing my Ph.D. in Biology, with a particular emphasis on elucidating the intricate mechanisms underlying the ageing process at the cellular and molecular levels, examining the impact of these processes on human health, under the guidance of Joris Deelen. I make use of the state-of-the-art resources available at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing. My current research employs genetic and molecular biology techniques. Furthermore, I intend to incorporate bioinformatics techniques. My objective is to extend healthy lifespans and improve quality of life in our later years. I am eager to collaborate with other researchers, industry professionals, and organisations dedicated to the understanding of ageing biology and its impact on human health. I have seven years of experience in industrial research during which I have made a contribution to the development of new indigenous technologies for the production and utilisation of enzymes in the industry. 

Has studied law in Germany and Spain; completed both German state examinations; carried out a doctorate in comparative law during a research fellowship at the MPI in Hamburg; then worked for a couple of years in a publishing house; ultimately returned to the MPI in Hamburg for setting up its new unit “Editorial Services Department”.

Aliakbar Akbaritabar (Ali) is a computational social scientist with a background in sociology. He joined MPI for Demographic Research from the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW) and the German Competence Network for Bibliometrics, where he worked as a postdoctoral research scientist. Ali holds a PhD in economic sociology and labor studies from the University of Milan and a PhD in sociology (social welfare) from the Allameh Tabataba’i University of Tehran. His work focuses on themes related (but not limited) to the science of science, scholarly migration, social networks, collaboration networks, and computational social science. He looks forward to collaborating on research ideas close to these themes, using computational tools and techniques to answer social scientific questions. He is https://bsky.app/profile/akbaritabar.bsky.social on BlueSky and @akbaritabar on Twitter.

My main goal is to explore linguistic diversity, especially the variations of word meanings across languages. I integrate findings from linguistics and psychology in my research and adopt a computational approach. I received my doctorate with highest honours (summa cum laude) from Friedrich Schiller University Jena in March 2024 and I am working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. A major academic career achievement so far is developing a cross-linguistic database, which contains rich information on word properties across 39 languages (https://norare.clld.org). In addition, I have investigated the relationship between word meanings in the semantic domain of the human body, exploring the intricate interplay between language, culture and cognition. The key results of these investigations are reported in a study on body-object colexifications published in Linguistic Typology and a study on body part vocabularies published in Scientific Reports.

I am a PhD candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, studying the dynamics of bacterial translation traits. My research focuses on programmed ribosomal frameshifting (PRF) in release factor 2 (RF2) and the evolutionary absence of ANN-type tRNAs, by using approaches of experimental evolution, molecular genetics, and phylogenetic analysis. Through these systems, I investigate how traits are maintained, lost, or avoided under certain evolutionary circumstances, and how neutral processes and compensatory evolution contribute to it as well. I aim to expand my research toward the evolution of translation fidelity, fitness landscapes, and evolutionary constraints, while continuing to explore the philosophical aspect of my research as well.

My research is focused on the low-energy regimes of String Theories called supergravities, with particular emphasis on their underlying duality symmetries. I enjoy disseminating physics to the public, both in an accessible and accurate form, in the attempt to help filling the communication gap between science and society. I am a reviewer for the AuthentiSci platform, providing feedback on the validity of science-related media.

I am a PhD student working at the Max-Planck Institute for Human Brain and Cognitive Sciences in Leipzig, Germany. The goal of my PhD project is to disentangle the neural correlates and mechanicsms of conscious somatosensory perception. I started to get interested in Open Science topics when I joined the local OS initiative. Together we aim to improve the visibility and implementation of Open Science practices at our institute.

I am a PhD student in the Department of Neurology at the MPI CBS in Leipzig, where I investigate how the human brain controls movement of the upper limbs, with a special focus on motor imagery, the internal simulation of movement which holds great promise for the field of neurorehabilitation. My work combines electrophysiological and neuroimaging methods, as well as robotic devices such as the Kinarm. I care deeply about Open Science and advocate for open access to publications and data, transparent workflows and collaboration within the research community, as well as for creating meaningful dialogues between science and society, convinced that Open Science does not only foster reproducibility but also has the potential to accelerate translation of neuroscience into real-world applications.

I am the project lead of the Formal Methods for Lifespan Psychology group at MPIB. I love thinking about how to improve science. In pursuit of this objective, I leverage a diverse range of interdisciplinary tools, modeling across different statistical approaches, focusing on rigor (e.g., as prescribed by software engineering) and transparency (e.g., as prescribed by Open Science), the thorough analyses of meta-science, and profound perspectives offered by the philosophy of science.

I joined the evolutionary pathogenomics department at the MPI for Infectionbiology in August 2024 to work on a longitudinal microbiome study. More specifically, I investigate the evolution of commensal bacteria within the microbiome of infants and their families. I am very interested in the accessibility of science, both to the general public and scientists around the world. 

In line with the principles of Open Science, my research emphasizes the openness of knowledge and the co-creation of inclusive, community-based narratives. By weaving together multimedia storytelling and video communication, I look to contribute to citizen science by building collaborative spaces where legal historical knowledge can be developed alongside Indigenous communities.

After working in different publishing houses, Kerstin Willburth joined the MPI for Legal History and Legal Theory in 2022 as a publication manager in the editorial department. Since 04/2025, she has been developing an open access digital publications infrastructure for the institute.

I am a PhD candidate interested in extreme events and their interaction with ocean biogeochemistry. My research focuses on marine heatwaves, low pH levels, and low oxygen extremes. Currently, I am using climate models to investigate how these extreme events are influenced by variations in atmospheric CO2 levels and the carbon fluxes among the atmosphere, ocean, and land. I am working in the Ocean Biogeochemistry group at the MPI for Meteorology, located in Hamburg.

I studied biochemistry and di my PhD with focus on Wnt signaling. As a PostDoc I explored mechanism of tumor invasion and metastasis. Since 2009, I am a project group leader at the MPI of molecular physiology, Department of Chemical Biology. My group develops and employs phenotypic assays to identify bioactive small molecules. Our aim is to identify modulators of various processes that contribute to tumorigenesis. My current research focuses on the use of morphological profiling to assess bioactivity of small molecules. Since 2022, I am Ombudsperson at the institute.

Group Leader at the Max-Planck-Institute for Plasmaphysics with research interests in active learning, Bayesian experimental design, molecular dynamics and inverse problems.

I’m a postdoctoral researcher at the MPI for Psycholinguistics, where I focus on individual differences in language production and comprehension. My work centers around the development of a battery of linguistic and cognitive tasks for English speakers, which will also be made available as a tool to other researchers. I’m particularly interested in investigating the different pathways individuals may take to understand language and how these covary with other cognitive abilities or processing styles. Additional research interests of mine include probabilistic language processing and usage-based linguistics, and I take a special interest in statistical methods. Before coming to the MPI, I received my Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg in Germany. My undergraduate studies were at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

How do we articulate a thought into a sequence of spoken sounds? My research aims to bring together neurocognitive computational models of lexical access and speech motor control, examining the issues that arise at their interface. By integrating these frameworks into a model of lexical generation, we can uncover several key questions at their intersection.  These include: (i) Identifying elements of linguistic planning that are relevant for—and cascade to—motor planning, and understanding their hierarchical relationship. (ii) Determining critical features of the different levels of self-monitoring, the conditions under which they occur, and the interplay between mechanisms of motor control and self-monitoring. I employ theoretical computational work simulates how elements of phonological planning are carried forward from linguistic planning to motor control.

Rima-Maria Rahal is a psychologist working at the intersection of psychology, law and economics. Her interests lie in understanding decision processes in social contexts via process tracing. She is a Steering Group member of the German Reproducibility Network and an alumna of the Wikimedia Open Science Fellowship. Rima works on promoting Open practices in a systematic manner, taking policy perspectives and educational resources into account.

I am a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy, advised by Dr. Marcel Böhme. My research aims are to enhance software quality and reliability by combining automated reasoning with scalable testing techniques. I focus on building tools that provide timely, data-driven insights to support developers throughout the software lifecycle. I am dedicated to open science, with ongoing service on artifact evaluation committees for several top-tier conferences and recognition through two Distinguished Artifact Reviewer awards. As a Google Summer of Code alumnus, I bring a strong open-source background to academic research, emphasizing reproducibility, transparency, and community-driven tool development.

I did my undergrad at the University of Cambridge. My Master’s project was in quantum dissipative dynamics in the Althorpe group. I worked with path integrals and fundamental path integrals. I got a PhD offer to stay in Cambridge for one year with prof Stuart Althorpe and then move to MPI FKF in Stuttgart to continue working with prof Ali Alavi. My work is a method and code development for treating spin-phonon coupled systems materials where electronic/magnetic interactions influence the motion of the atoms and vice-versa.

My research focuses on the dispositional and social factors that influence selectivity in prosocial behaviour. Particularly, I’m interested in why some individuals are more selective than others in who they are prosocial towards, and whether such individual differences can be explained by personality traits. With this, I am also working on adapting well-established measures of prosocial behavior to capture inter-individual variance in selective prosociality.

Sera Wiechert is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, where she works with Jean-Louis van Gelder and Willem Frankenhuis on the Short-Term Mindsets project. Her research bridges psychology and criminology, focusing on how short-term thinking shapes crime-related decision-making and behavior. She completed her PhD in legal psychology at the University of Amsterdam, where she investigated the robustness of memory phenomena such as false memories and memory suppression. Alongside her substantive research, Sera has a strong interest in meta-science and open research practices. During her PhD, she conducted empirical work evaluating the quality and implementation of open science practices within psychological subfields. She has also contributed to replication efforts and methodological discussions around transparency and rigor. Her view of open science emphasizes not just openness, but thoughtful application and field-specific relevance. As Open Science Ambassador at MPI-CSL, she looks forward to supporting colleagues in adopting reproducible and responsible research practices.

My current research focuses on the bottom-up assembly and optimization of intricate metabolic and genetic pathways, aiming to construct life-like systems.

My research focuses on improving Rubisco’s catalytic efficiency through allosteric shift via protein-protein interactions. By investigating both natural binders and novel synthetic binders that target the large subunit, my study aims to induce beneficial allosteric shifts, potentially revolutionizing our approach to improving Rubisco’s efficiency without altering the enzyme’s catalytic center.

My work as head librarian with regard to Open Science consists of informing scientists about Open Access, copyright and OA publishing.

Kathirvel Alagesan is a research Leader in (Glyco)proteomics and head of the Proteomics Research Platform at the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens (MPUSP), headed by Prof. Emmanuelle Charpentier. His key area of research is glycodynamics especially in understanding the functional role of protein glycosylation and its changes during host-pathogen interaction. Kathir did his Doctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces Germany in the lab of Prof. Daniel Kolarich and Prof. Peter Seeberger. Before moving back to Berlin in 2020 Kathir was a research fellow at the Institute for Glycomics Griffith University Australia under the mentorship of Prof. Daniel Kolarich, Prof. Nicki Packer and Prof. Mark von Itzstein.