SNSF Ambizione grants are aimed at early-career postdoctoral researchers who wish to conduct their first independent project in Switzerland. The Swiss National Science Foundation yearly awards these projects to the most promising researchers after a competitive two-step evaluation procedure, which includes an interview in front of the evaluators.
For the 2023 call, the SNSF has selected 97 projects from a total of 435 submitted proposals. Among them, we are happy to announce that 3 researchers will conduct their Ambizione project at USI: Franziska Zeuner (Istituto ricerche solari Aldo e Cele Daccò), Martin Gjoreski (Computer Systems Institute, Faculty of Informatics), William Davis (Institute of Urban and Landscape Studies, Academy of Architecture).
Thanks to their Ambizione grant, they will be able to carry out their 4-years projects autonomously and to manage their own small research team, acquiring further project management skills. These projects thus represent an important step forward in their career.
Meet the Ambizione awardee
Franziska Zeuner (Istituto ricerche solari Aldo e Cele Daccò)
What is your project about?
My project is in the field of astrophysics and daytime astronomy with the title “En route to 3D Hanle diagnostics in stellar atmospheres: the observational perspective”. I am focusing on the Sun, which harbors a surprisingly high number of open questions. One fascinating aspect of the Sun which is fundamental to understand solar activity and therefore its impact on Earth is the solar magnetic field. Newly operational large solar telescopes allow us to study the physics of our central star in unprecedented detail. However, one aspect which is very difficult to study are magnetic fields on the Sun’s surface which are smaller than the resolution of even the largest solar telescopes. Magnetic fields can leave traces in the light that reaches us, but if they are too small, they can “hide” from detection with conventional techniques.