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We are pleased to announce that, as of first October, the management of STRUCTURES is shared by Christine Menn and Sara Konrad, who jointly lead the STRUCTURES Project Management Office.
The STRUCTURES Project Management Office supports the cluster's members in realizing their research projects and in their day-to-day work, coordinating finances, reporting, events and programmes as well as outreach. As managing directors, Christine Menn and Sara Konrad lead the office's team and work closely with the cluster's spokespersons and the steering committee. They are responsible for budget planning and personnel matters, and they steer the cluster's programmes, from the STRUCTURES College with its international guest and travel programmes to early-career support and measures for diversity and family-friendliness, such as the Parent-Child Offices. They coordinate the meetings of the cluster's bodies as well as the STRUCTURES Jour Fixe, and oversee reporting to the DFG and Heidelberg University. Together, they are the first point of contact for all members of STRUCTURES, including in confidential matters, and coordinate the cluster's cooperation with its partner institutions and the university administration.
Dr. Sara Konrad joins STRUCTURES from the Institute for Theoretical Physics (ITP) at Heidelberg University. During her PhD in cosmological structure formation, she participated in the planning phase of STRUCTURES and continued as a postdoctoral researcher and member of STRUCTURES' Young Researchers Convent (YRC). She already knows the office well: alongside her research, she previously worked as a Managing Scientist in the STRUCTURES office, taking care of the website development, supporting the YRC's networking, the mentoring and the STRUCTURES College programmes. She has also been a member of the STRUCTURES Outreach Committee since 2022. Having experienced the cluster from both sides, as a researcher and as a member of the administration, she brings a first-hand understanding of what scientists need to do their best work.
"My mission is to support all our members in doing excellent research by creating the conditions in which they can thrive, collaborate and pursue their ideas with enthusiasm. And I want them to know: I've got their backs," says Sara Konrad.
Christine Menn, Managing Director since the beginning of 2026, has been part of the Project Management Office since the start of the cluster. She has thus helped shape the office from its very beginnings and was closely involved in coordinating the STRUCTURES College's guest, travel and mentoring programmes, as well as its events such as the Jour Fixe. Christine Menn has worked in research management for many years: before joining STRUCTURES, she was part of the management office of CellNetworks, a former Cluster of Excellence at Heidelberg University in the life sciences.
We warmly welcome Sara Konrad to the management team!
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