The newly funded Cluster of Excellence NaviSense for the Sensory Basis, Mechanisms, and Impacts of Animal Navigation is a highly collaborative, interdisciplinary research project hosted at the University of Oldenburg and involving national and international partner institutions. As a diverse and international team of scientists from biology, physics, chemistry, computer sciences and social sciences we provide a thorough, interdisciplinary understanding of the senses and mechanisms used by animals to navigate, and how these mechanisms can inspire technology and impact society, ecology, and biodiversity.
NaviSense performs research in the areas of
(1) animal navigation mechanisms and their underlying senses,
(2) quantum effects at ambient temperature in model systems and biology,
(3) ecological and conservation related consequences of animal navigation, and
(4) links biological and technical systems through models, algorithms, and devices.
The acquired knowledge can help to solve major societal questions related e.g. to the biodiversity crisis, GPS independent navigation, and quantum sensing at ambient temperature. For more information see https://navisense.org/.
The Quantum Biology and Computational Physics research group is part of the Cluster of Excellence NaviSense and covers a broad range of questions on theory of biomolecules and smart inorganic materials. The main research areas of the group, include quantum chemistry and molecular simulations. The group utilizes and develops theoretical and computational methods including
(1) classical and quantum molecular dynamics;
(2) multiscale techniques;
(3) Monte-Carlo based methods;
(4) free energy methods;
(5) global optimization methods;
(6) linear scaling methods.
Of particular interest are those biological processes that trigger energy conversion into forms that are usable for chemical transformations and are quantum mechanical in nature. Such processes involve chemical reactions, light absorption, formation of excited electronic states, transfer of excitation energy, and transfer of electrons and protons in chemical processes.
For further information, take a look at the official vacancy .