On July 4th and 5th the INSPIRE group had an internal group workshop in the picturesque village of Sörgenloch close to Mainz. In the nice atmosphere of Schloss Sörgenloch the INSPIRE group focused on team building processes and internal working strategies. The group also used the occasion to welcome Ulrike Ritzmann, as well as Bertrand Dupé and Marie Böttcher, who will join the group in October 2016. After a very successful first day, the group enjoyed the food and a variety of local wines served on the Schloss Sörgenloch terrace in the evening. On the second day of the workshop the group worked on presentation techniques and communication skills under the guidance of two coaches from an improvisational theater. We thank the participants for two beautiful and very successful days in Sörgenloch.

This year, the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla celebrated its 50th anniversary. As part of the festivities, the 19th Catédra Europa took place from March 14th - 18th. The large scale event provides a platform for scientific and cultural encounters between Colombian and European Academia. Jairo Sinova was invited to introduce his visions for new interdisciplinary approaches to scientific work, which he likes to compare to a scientific tango. Accordingly, his lecture was entitled "El tango de la fisica".

View the video of the lecture.

Read the news article in El Heraldo from March 17th.

Read the news article in El Heraldo from March 18th.

On December 14th, the SPICE team and INSPIRE group had their Christmas party at the cosy tavern "Beichtstuhl" in the Mainz old town. In a cheerful atmosphere, the group members and their plus ones enjoyed the traditional food and wine of the region, looking back at an eventful year 2015 for both the INSPIRE group and the SPICE Center.

On the December 03^rd and 4^th, the SPICE team and Inspire group had an internal group seminar in the picturesque city of Bamberg in Franconia. Under the title “New Directions in the Spin Phenomena," the participants explored innovative approaches to interdisciplinary in Spintronics Research. After a nice train journey through the Bavarian landscape, SPICE-Director Jairo Sinova opened the seminar in the beautiful Barock Hotel close to the Bamberg cathedral. In the afternoon, the group had a guided tour through the old part of town followed by a visit of the famous Bamberg Christmas Market. After some Glühwein the group enjoyed traditional Bavarian food in the nice atmosphere of a quaint old town restaurant. Friday started with two workshops – one for the administrative staff led by SPICE  project manager Valerie Rung and one for the scientific staff managed by our visiting postdoc Kei Yamamoto. We thank the participants for two beautiful and successful days in Bamberg.

Thanks to an initiative of Denise  and the help of our universally talented student assistant and Bavaria enthusiast Alex, SPICE and the INSPIRE group hosted their own Oktoberfest and likely the first Oktoberfest in the history of Spintronics. From the traditional Oktoberfest-Bier, an especially tasty brew that is only available during the Oktoberfest season to the appropriate Bavarian music and Weißwurst (white sausage), all the essentials had been organised. Thus it is not surprising that, even if neither binge drinking nor any dancing on the tables were observed (as customary at the original event), the ambiance was great. In the midst of a public which was just as international as the one in Munich, our guest Barry Zink had the opportunity to experience some German local colour.

From February 26-28, Jairo Sinova took part in the Humboldt-Kolloquium Research Excellence in a Globalised World - Experiences and Challenges from a Brasilian-German Perspective in Sao Paulo. He delivered the keynote lecture Spintronics Research à la Humboldt: globally connecting nature, cultures, and people. In his lecture he outlined the interdisciplinarity of Spintronics research, its connection to the Humboldt spirit of doing research, and its connection to the new center SPICE, that he is starting here in Mainz with the help of his Humboldt Foundation Professorship award and the support of JGU.

The Humboldt-Kolloquium gathered many former and future Humboldtians, dignitaries from many other German agencies present in Latin America, such as the DAAD (Dr. Martina Schulze), DFG (Der. Dietrich Halm), and the Max Planck Society (Dr. Andreas Trepte),  as well as the German ambassador in Brazil (Dirk Brengelmann), the president of CAPES (Dr. Jorge Almeida Guimaraes), the president of the Universität of Bayreuth (Prof. Dr. Stefan Leibe),  the director of the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut Berlin (Dr. Barbara Göbel), and a member of the German Bundestag (Dr. Gesine Lötzsch).