One of the most rewarding experiences as a mentor is to see young scientists reach key milestones in their own careers. My doctoral advisor, Norbert Peters, once told me that one of his most important metrics was: “How many of my PhD students and postdocs have become professors?”

A major milestone on this path is an ERC Starting Grant. Congratulations to Arne Scholtissek for being awarded the ERC Starting Grant “Protocol for data-driven Manifold generation, validation, and utilization in high-fidelity combustion simulations – ProtoMan”.

I have worked with Arne since his bachelor studies at TU Bergakademie Freiberg and have seen him steadily build up his scientific independence.

Scientific independence – a key metric for young researchers

In appointment and promotion committees, mobility – the number of universities at which someone has worked – is often used as a proxy for independence, international experience, and the strength of a researcher’s network. This is, of course, important. However, just as important is an environment that allows a young scientist to grow into an independent researcher.

Arne is a perfect example. There is no doubt about his independence, his international collaborations, and his excellent network – even though he completed his PhD at TU Darmstadt and stayed here afterwards.

On a personal note, I am especially pleased that Arne is further developing a topic that has fascinated me since my own PhD days with Norbert Peters in Aachen: the physically consistent description of chemically reacting flows and the reduction of complex models to low-dimensional manifolds. He continues to push the boundaries of this field.