33-year old zoologistTrevor McIntyre has a scholarship from the Humboldt Foundation at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven.

The behavioral scientist Sarah Benhaiem, 28, from France works at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wild Animal Research in Berlin, where she investigates the social behavior of hyenas.

Marga Lensen from the Netherlands is a junior professor of chemistry at the Technical University of Berlin. Her speciality is developing nanopatterned biomaterials.

Jacek Stankiewics grew up in a mining town. Through a vacation job the South African got involved in an earthquake research project, which brought him to the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam.

Her workplace is most people's idea of a vacation paradise: the beaches of the Bahamas or the Galapagos Islands. Claire Reymond investigates the sand on the sea floor for the remains of microorganisms.

British scientist Patricia Schady works at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching. Her specialist area is gamma ray bursts. They mark the death of a star and the creation of a black hole.

Ulf Andersson Ørom pursues his research in Berlin at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics. The 33-year-old Dane heads a team there looking at genes that are key to development.

Nagaraju Krishnappa works at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau. His specialty is the Sun's magnetic field.

Ilenia Battiato comes from Italy and is conducting research at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen. Trained as a physicist, she researches how fluids move in the earth's subsurface.

When she was 14, Mary Williams already knew she wanted to be an astronomer. Now, at 34, she's a researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam. She's trying to find out how galaxies develop.

From Bombay to Bremen: Dr. Mehul Bhatt is a long way from home, but is in any case involved in virtual worlds. He specializes in spatial cognition.