Decentralized security provider Silence Laboratories raises S$2.4mil in seed funding

Business Announcement

SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN

 

IMAGE: LEFT TO RIGHT: CO-FOUNDERS PROF TONY QUEK , CTO DR ANDREI BYTES AND CEO DR JAY PRAKASH. view more 

CREDIT: SUTD

Silence Laboratories, a cybersecurity firm headquartered in Singapore, has closed a US$1.7 million (about S$2.4m) round in seed funding, led by pi Ventures. The round also included participation from imToken ventures and prominent angels like Daniel Ari Friedman, Mahin Gupta, CK Vishwakarma, Priyeshu Garg, Ashish Tiwari, and others. The start-up company plans to use this funding to further widen its product offerings towards decentralised security and enrich the technology stack, strengthen its team and scale its go-to-market operations to help enterprises adopt state-of-the art authentication and authorisation techniques.

The founders, Jay Prakash and Andrei Bytes earned their doctorate degrees at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), where the company was incubated. Silence Laboratories (SL) is on a mission to provide business friendly solutions for distributed digital signing and authentication through a unique fusion of multi-party computation (MPC) based cryptographic algorithms with threshold signature schemes (TSS), and intelligent multi-modal signal processing. SL offers a secure technology stack that provides its customers with a layered system of proofs: proof of proximity, co-location, legitimate possession, liveliness via activity, unique identity, and many others.

The security concerns are growing for digital wallets, institutional asset management agencies and online exchanges and have amounted to loss of billions of dollars. Silence Laboratories identified various common key vulnerabilities in digital wallets and exchanges, as well as flaws in management of private keys that put the financial assets at risk. They also demonstrated how some of the most used authentication solutions, Push-based Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) which are provided to industries by leading Identity and Access Management providers are prone to several attack vectors and can be abused for phishing. To protect businesses from these risks, the team offers their flagship products: Silent Auth (MFA) and Silent Shard (key and access management) that have their roots in multiple patents. (See brief video blog for how Silent Auth works: https://silencelaboratories.medium.com/2fa-has-a-new-name-silent-auth-df308f8e943f)

Silence Laboratories’ vision is to enable a secure, developer-centric cryptographic infrastructure that enterprises can rely on to adopt best in class key and access management technology, reduce implementation costs and focus on their core business.

To develop Silent Shard and Silent Auth, SL has been working closely with several leading industry players, in particular in the Web3 ecosystem. The solutions are designed to support varied demands of authentication and authorisation with a very high degree of contextualisation, be it for digital asset custodians with high risks, non-custodial digital wallets, semi-custodial phone based wallets, exchanges with high expectations on usability, mobility providers, sensitive government or medical institutions or cloud service providers.

“Among others, SL’s team integrated Silent Shard with MetaMask’s Snaps which in itself is a great example of how MetaMask has opened the wallet design ecosystem. The Snap based designs will help to enhance wallet security and set benchmarks for MPC based wallets," said Jay Prakash, CEO and Co-Founder of Silence Laboratories.

“Account takeover due to single point of failure of the private keys and absence of necessary forms of MFAs is on unparallel rise and have been affecting enterprises in both Web2 and Web3 businesses. Hence, we are witnessing a growing push towards the need of distributed authentication protocols and signature schemes to address multiple recent attacks across different wallets and chains. Silence Laboratories is at the forefront of this revolution,” he added.

“Our solutions are targeted against the critical attack vectors prevalent in the industry today,” said Andrei Bytes, CTO and Co-Founder of Silence Laboratories. “In our pursuit to facilitate the smooth adoption of our technology, and promptly react to needs of the businesses, we recently joined premier global alliances such MPC Alliance and Decentralised Identity Foundation.

“Issues with private key management have led to loss of billions of dollars in 2022 alone. The holy trifecta of ironclad security, great user experience and developer-friendliness for Web3 is yet to be cracked and we believe the team at Silence Laboratories is best placed to solve this. Jay and Andrei bring complementary skill sets with PhDs in signal processing and security respectively and their early traction is testament to their innovative solution. We’ve been extremely impressed by the team at Silence Laboratories and are excited to back them in these times of constant hacks,” said Shubham Sandeep, MD pi Ventures. 

Silence Laboratories is also working on setting up its Applied Cryptography R&D centre in South Asia, with local and international collaborations in the field. The centre will attract some of the best talents globally to contribute in solving niche problems in usable security and MPC algorithms and form a backbone for upcoming businesses and products. Silence Laboratories is proudly supported by the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) through its Venture, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (VIE) Office and the ARISE programme throughout its commercialisation and funding.

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For media enquiries, please contact:
Deborah Quek
Office of Marketing & Communications
Singapore University of Technology & Design
M: +65 9796 4221
Email: deborahquek@sutd.edu.sg

 

About Silence Laboratories:

Silence Laboratories enable enterprises to adopt multi-party computation and multi-factor authentication through a unique fusion of cryptography and signal processing IPs. Their mission is to build a developer focused cryptographic stack, motivated to democratising non-trivial libraries, which would facilitate a plethora of new applications and business cases by other enterprises.
Learn more about their work: https://silencelaboratories.com

About pi Ventures:

pi Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund pioneering AI and deep tech investments in India. The fund backs disruptive tech ventures solving global problems thus creating 10x differentiated businesses. The VC fund portfolio includes world leading technology companies like Wysa, Pixis, Locus, Agnikul and Niramai among others.

For more information, visit http://www.piventures.in/

About the Singapore University of Technology and Design

The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) is one of the first universities in the world to incorporate the art and science of design and technology into a truly holistic interdisciplinary education and research experience that culminates in real-world design innovations. SUTD seeks to advance knowledge and nurture technically-grounded leaders and innovators to serve societal needs. SUTD also topped a list of emerging engineering schools in the world in a study commissioned by MIT.

A research-intensive university, SUTD is distinguished by its unique East and West academic programmes that incorporate design thinking, human-centred innovation, entrepreneurship, coupled with local and international industry collaborations. SUTD’s key focus areas are Healthcare, Cities and Aviation, with Artificial Intelligence/Data Science and Digital Manufacturing capabilities across all of them. Multiple post-graduate opportunities are available. Skill-based professional education and training courses are also available at SUTD Academy. www.sutd.edu.sg

Additional Materials

According to IBM, the average cost of a financial services data breach is $5.85 million. In 2028, the information security market worldwide is forecast to reach $366.1 billion.

Silence Laboratories, headquartered and incorporated in Singapore, currently employs a lean engineering and business team in APAC, Europe and USA. 

How SL Started and the Team: SL comes from multiple years of research and development conducted by the core team and partners with incredible industry and academic pedigree. While CEO Jay Prakash, IIT BHU (Varanasi), India and SUTD, Singapore alumnus holds PhD in design of authentication protocols, the CTO Andrei Bytes has deep expertise in application and critical infrastructure security (area of PhD) with SUTD, Singapore. SL advisor Professor Tony Quek from SUTD, with a PhD in Computer Science from MIT, USA, is a globally renowned expert in wireless networks design and algorithms who leads the scientific strategies at SL.

Findings suggest new omicron BA.2.75 is as susceptible to antibodies as the currently dominant variant

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET

In a recent study, researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, and others, have characterised the new omicron variant BA.2.75, comparing its ability to evade antibodies against current and previous variants. The study, published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, suggests that BA.2.75 is not more resistant to antibodies than the currently dominating BA.5, which is positive news. 

In May 2022, a new variant of omicron, BA.2.75, was detected, which is driving a wave of infections in India, and has spread internationally. In the last few weeks, BA.2.75 has also been detected in Sweden.

”Identifying how vulnerable the population is, right now, to emerging variants is crucial,” says Daniel Sheward, researcher at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, and the study's first author. “By producing a pseudovirus for BA.2.75, we were able to test its sensitivity to antibodies present in blood donors.”

Tests were carried out using 40 random blood samples taken in Stockholm, both before and after the first omicron wave.

”Our study shows that omicron BA.2.75 has approximately the same level of resistance to antibodies as the dominant variant BA.5, which is reassuring news if we were to suffer a BA.2.75 wave in Sweden”, says Ben Murrell, assistant professor at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, and the study's senior author.

The researchers from Karolinska Institutet, University of Cape Town, South Africa, ETH Zürich, Switzerland, Karolinska University Hospital, and Imperial College London, Great Britain, have also investigated whether antiviral monoclonal antibodies, which are used clinically to treat already infected patients, lose their effect against omicron BA.2.75, compared to BA.5. Here, too, the researchers found no alarming differences. 

Ben Murrell's lab will continue to monitor new mutations that are arising in omicron sublineages that may undermine vaccines.

The study was funded by the SciLifeLab's Pandemic Laboratory Preparedness program, the Erling Persson Foundation, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Daniel J. Sheward, Gunilla B. Karlsson Hedestam and Ben Murrell have intellectual property rights associated with antibodies that neutralise omicron variants.

Publication: "Evasion of neutralising antibodies by Omicron sublineage BA.2.75". Daniel J. Sheward, Changil Kim, Julian Fischbach, Sandra Muschiol, Roy A. Ehling, Niklas K. Björkström, Gunilla B. Karlsson Hedestam, Sai T. Reddy, Jan Albert, Thomas P. Peacock, Ben Murrell. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, online September 1 2022, doi:10.1101/2022.07.19.500716.

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JOURNAL

The Lancet Infectious Diseases

DOI

10.1101/2022.07.19.500716. 

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Sep-2022

Doctoral thesis studied factors supporting dual careers of young athletes

Reports and Proceedings

ESTONIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

 

IMAGE: THESIS AUTHOR KRISTEL KIENS view more 

CREDIT: TALLINN UNIVERSITY

Stemming from holistic ecological approach, to better understand and support student-athletes development, a variety of factors and their interactions need to be considered (including both individual and environmental factors in and outside of sports). Because of this, Kristel Kiens' doctoral thesis focused on analysing the unique dual-career environment in the Estonian context, both in terms of structure (i.e. key components and their inter-relationships) and success factors (preconditions, processes, philosophy, development and competencies of student athletes). In addition, Kiens investigated the systematic application process of sports psychology and its effectiveness both at the group level, in the form of a mental skills development programme and at the level of individual cooperation.

Based on her research, the main success factors of supporting dual career development were the environment’s philosophy focused on long-term holistic development, open communication, mutual feedback and being demanding when it comes to effort and task-focused attention. Inconsistencies between the common philosophy and the behaviours of the people working with student-athletes could hinder improvement. On the applied side of sports psychology, season-long mental skills development program based on acceptance- and mindfulness approaches had some positive effects on student-athletes holistic skillset and knowledgebase. Key aspects, which need to be considered when working with adolescents, emerged from her dissertation were: flexibility, encouragement of autonomy, playfulness, involvement, reinforcing their skills, patience and, as a practitioner, the supervision and support of colleagues.

The doctoral thesis contributed to enhancing the international knowledge base in terms of dual career development support and context-based applied sport psychology. The doctoral thesis could also be an inspiration for creating change in sports in Estonia, both in terms of the philosophy and improving various development environments, as well as systematically applying sports psychology.

Kristel Kiens defended her doctoral thesis „Applying sport psychology in Estonia: holistic ecological perspective in understanding dual career development and applying acceptance-based approaches when working with student-athletes” on 31 August in Tallinn University School of Natural Sciences and Health. Supervisors were Tallinn University professor Eve Kikas and associate professor at South Denmark University Carsten Hvid Larsen. Opponents were associate professor at Norwegian University of Science and Technol Stig Arve Saether and professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Vana Hutter.

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

Disclaim

Variation matters: Genetic effects in interacting species jointly determine ecological outcomes

Utah State University geneticist Zach Gompert is lead author of NSF-funded study published in PNAS

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: ZACH GOMPERT, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN USU'S DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY CENTER, IS LEAD AUTHOR OF A PAPER INVESTIGATING GENETIC EFFECTS IN INTERACTING SPECIES IN THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. view more 

CREDIT: M. MUFFOLETTO/USU

LOGAN, UTAH, USA - The greatest diversity of life is not counted in the number of species, says Utah State University evolutionary geneticist Zachariah Gompert, but in the diversity of interactions among them.

“It’s often unclear if the outcome of an interaction, such as whether a microbe can infect a host, is the same for all members of a species or depends on the genetic makeup of the specific individuals involved,” says Gompert, associate professor in USU’s Department of Biology and Ecology Center.

For example, he says, one might ponder why a particular butterfly either can or can’t feed on a particular plant.

“Is that affected by the specific genetic makeup of the butterfly or is it the specific genetic makeup of the individual plant?” Gompert asks. “Or is it affected by genetic interactions between the butterfly and plant species?”

Gompert and colleagues from University of Nevada, Rice University, University of Wyoming, University of Tennessee, Texas State University and Michigan State University address this knowledge gap through a series of experiments using a recent host-range expansion of alfalfa by the Melissa blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa). The team reports its findings in the Aug. 29, 2022 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

“We show that genetic differences among Melissa blue caterpillars and alfalfa plants account for nearly half of the variability in caterpillar growth and survival,” says Gompert, a 2019 NSF CAREER Award recipient. “Our results suggest individual variation matters, and the outcome of this plant-insect interaction is affected by many genes with mostly independent — or additive — effects. Moreover, genetic differences among alfalfa plants have consistent effects on caterpillar growth in multiple butterfly populations and species, making such effects predictable.”

Collecting extensive data over several years at field plots in Utah and Nevada, the team’s results support the hypothesis that both plant and insect genotypes matter, and about equally so for caterpillar growth and survival.

Beyond issues specific to insects and their host plants, genetic variation within species could also be important for other host-parasite interactions, Gompert says. “Including, for example, susceptibility to parasitic diseases in humans and other animals being a function of both genetic variation in hosts and among pathogen strains. But the generality of this hypothesis remains to be tested.”

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2206052119 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Additive genetic effects in interacting species jointly determine the outcome of caterpillar herbivory

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-Aug-2022

British Ecological Society announces 2022 award winners

Grant and Award Announcement

BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY

LONG READ

 

IMAGE: BES AWARDS 2022 COLLAGE. TOP ROW (L-R) ANNE MAGURRAN, MARGARET PALMER, RICHARD HOBBS, KATE JONES, KATHLEEN TRESEDER. BOTTOM ROW (L-R) PERPETRA AKITE, CHRIS CLEMENTS, YVONNE BUCKLEY, LYNN DICKS, BES REED ECOLOGICAL NETWORK. view more 

CREDIT: BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Today, the British Ecological Society (BES) announces the winners of its annual awards and prizes, recognising ten distinguished ecologists and groups whose work has benefited the scientific community and society in general.

This year, honorary membership, the highest honour given by the society, has been awarded to three distinguished ecologists based in three different continents: Anne Magurran, Margaret Palmer and Richard Hobbs, representing the global membership of the BES.

The BES REED Ecological Network are named this year’s Equality and Diversity Champions. Established in 2020 by a small group of early career ecologists from under-represented and marginalised ethnicities, the network has gone from strength to strength and now deliver highly successful workshops on allyship.

The 2022 BES award winners are as follows:

Honorary Membership: Anne Magurran, University of St Andrews; Margaret Palmer, The University of Maryland; Richard Hobbs, The University of Western Australia.

Honorary membership is the highest honour we can give and it recognises an exceptional contribution at international level to the generation, communication and promotion of ecological knowledge and solutions.

Anne Magurran

Anne Magurran is a world leader in measuring biodiversity and has studied fish communities throughout her career to explore this topic, as well as the evolution of biodiversity, and the role of predation in the evolution of social behaviour.

Anne is a professor at the University of St Andrews, where she is the university's most cited female scientist. Globally, she is the second most cited female ecologist and evolutionary biologist. Anne is also an international counsellor and advisor on issues of conservation related to biodiversity and engaged in the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and in the World Economic Forum in 2018.

On being made an honorary member, Anne said: “The BES was the first society I joined, and helped set me on the path to a career in ecology, so I feel very privileged to be awarded Honorary Membership.

“I hope colleagues and friends around the world will feel part of the award, recognise the importance of their own contributions to ecology, and will be inspired to continue asking important and interesting ecological questions.”

Margaret Palmer

Margaret Palmer is a Professor at the University of Maryland and an international leader in restoration ecology.

Margaret is known for her work at the interface of science and policy. She co-designed and now directs a national synthesis centre (SESYNC) that has championed new approaches to fostering research collaborations between social and natural scientists on problems at the interface of people and the environment.

On being made an honorary member, Margaret said: “This is a great honour, and it rightly belongs to the very smart students, collaborators, and intellectual communities that have surrounded me throughout my career.

“Perhaps the most rewarding path in my career has included brainstorming with and learning from international communities of environmental, social, and legal scholars to advance the sustainability of coupled human-natural systems, and this honour is certainly theirs as well.”

Richard Hobbs

Richard Hobbs is a Professor at the University of Western Australia where he heads up the Ecosystem Restoration and Intervention Ecology Research Group. Throughout his career, Richard  has made outstanding contributions to the science of ecology, conservation and restoration.

Richard is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies.

On being made an honorary member, Richard said: “I joined the BES during the first year of my PhD in 1977 and attended the winter meeting in Lancaster that year. My first paper was published in Journal of Ecology. Later, I contributed regular essays to the Bulletin from Australia, under the title “From our Southern Correspondent."

“So, the BES has been an important part of my life throughout my career. I’m incredibly honoured to be given this award, and humbled to be joining such an amazing group of ecologists. It’s particularly rewarding for me to be recognised by the society with which I ‘grew up’ professionally.”

 

Marsh Award for Ecology: Kate Jones, University College London

This prize is awarded for an outstanding current research record which is having a significant impact on the development of the science of ecology or its application. It is provided by the Marsh Charitable Trust and administered by the British Ecological Society.

Kate Jones is Professor of Ecology and Biodiversity at University College London (UCL), and the Director of the People and Nature Lab in UCL's new campus in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Over the course of Kate’s career she has made key advances in modelling and forecasting zoonotic disease outbreaks in humans, breaking down traditional barriers between ecology, climate change and public health to inform global policy.

Kate said: “I’m absolutely delighted to receive this award. Healthy ecosystems are critical for all human endeavours, and ecology is moving centre stage as the foundation to address the pressing issues of our time such as pandemics, climate change, and food security. Over the course of my career, I have seen the BES grow into such a brilliant, vibrant, and inclusive society which I am so proud to be part of. This honour from BES means the world to me.

 

Marsh Award for Climate Change Research: Kathleen Treseder, University of California, Irvine

This prize is awarded for an outstanding contribution to climate change research. It is provided by the Marsh Charitable Trust and administered by the British Ecological Society.

Kathleen Treseder is Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. Over her career she has made many significant contributions to our understanding of how soil fungi mediate ecosystem responses to climate change. Her overarching goal is to improve predictions of future trajectories of global change, by incorporating feedbacks governed by fungi.

On receiving the award, Kathleen said: “I am surprised and grateful to win this award. My lab's mission is to improve predictions of future climate change so we can help society mitigate and adapt to it. I see this award as a sign that we have indeed helped.”

 

Marsh Award for Ecologists in Africa: Perpetra Akite, Makerere University

This prize aims to celebrate the significant scientific achievements of African ecologists and raise their profile in the UK. It is provided by the Marsh Charitable Trust and administered by the British Ecological Society.

Perpetra is one of Uganda’s leading entomologists and experts in butterflies. She has made important advances in improving knowledge around insects in Uganda, contributing to assessing and mapping key ecologically sensitive species in the country. She even has a moth named after her.

Perpetra is also passionate about passing on her knowledge to younger generations and takes part in a great deal of outreach activities at both school and university level. Her goal is to encourage more young people – especially African girls - to begin a career in science.

Perpetra said: “I am so honoured to receive the award, and feel very proud to represent women in ecology from Uganda. This award is simply the right landmark at this point of my ecological career, and I am deeply grateful to the BES for this recognition.

“Ecological excellence is not just about filling up library shelves, but being able to share that information with others. This award will provide me with a platform for relatable professional anchoring and mentorship for the coming generations of female ecologists, who can easily relate to a local achiever while in pursuit of their own ecological careers.”

 

Founders’ Prize: Chris Clements, University of Bristol

This Prize commemorates the enthusiasm and vision of the Society’s founders. It is awarded to an outstanding early career ecologist who is starting to make a significant contribution to the science of ecology.

Chris Clements works on the interface between experimental ecology and conservation biology, with his research focusing on developing and testing early warning signals of population collapse, with a view to predicting regime shifts prior to their occurrence. To do this he and his group synthesise information from mathematical models, small-scale experimental systems, and long-term wild population data.

On receiving the award, Chris said: “I am honestly still overwhelmed by it. The BES is such an institution that it’s hard to express how honoured I feel. Receiving this has really motivated me to continue to do the research I love, as well as making me very thankful to all the people who have helped get me here – fantastic supervisors, collaborators, and now my own students and lab group members.

“The BES has been central to all of this – I’ve been attending the annual meetings since I was a student, and they’ve significantly shaped my research, network of collaborators, and the opportunities I’ve had.”

 

BES Award: Yvonne Buckley, Trinity College Dublin

This Award is made in recognition of exceptional service to the Society.

Yvonne Buckley is Professor of Zoology at Trinity College Dublin and has spent time in Ireland, the UK and Australia throughout her research career. Yvonne is a population ecologist who applies fundamental ecology to pressing challenges for the environment and society.

Yvonne said: “The ecological community of the BES is full of people I look up to and admire so I am absolutely delighted to be recognised in this way. I have had many opportunities throughout my career to work with amazing people. These connections and collaborations have been crucial to the work I’ve done, so I’d like this award to reflect their achievements too.”

 

Ecological Engagement Award: Lynn Dicks, Cambridge University

This Award recognises an ecologist who has bridged the gap between ecology and other groups.

Lynn Dicks is a Lecturer in Animal Ecology at the University of Cambridge. A key part of Lynn’s work focusses on how farmers can benefit from ecosystem services. Lynn and members of the Cambridge Agroecology group work with farmers to co-design research projects and gather data on how they manage their systems with the overall goal of understanding how we can reduce impacts on wildlife in realistic commercial contexts.

On receiving the award, Lynn said: “It feels fantastic to get this recognition for my efforts, over many years, to engage a range of stakeholders in conversations about how and why we should care for biodiversity.

“I owe this award to the many people who’ve taken time out of their busy working lives in NGOs, government departments and businesses, to join these conversations. Ecological research in real working landscapes, linked to real-world policies, simply wouldn’t be possible without their engagement, so thank you to all of them!”

 

Equality and Diversity Champion: BES REED Ecological Network

This annual award recognises an individual or group who have campaigned to highlight the importance of equality and diversity and worked to make a difference or served as an inspiration to others. It honours and celebrates those who have made significant, innovative and cumulatively outstanding contributions to enhancing the practice of equality and diversity in the ecological community.

The REED (Racial and Ethnic Equality and Diversity) ecological network was initially founded by Reuben Fakoya Brooks and then established by a small group of early career ecologists under-represented and marginalised ethnicities in 2020. The network seeks to drive positive change for a more inclusive and representative community of ecologists.

The group have developed a highly successful workshop on allyship that challenges what it means to be an effective ally, focussing on individual and organisational learning.

On receiving the award, Reuben Fakoya Brooks, founder and Chair of the REED ecological network said: “I was extremely taken aback when I had received the notification that I had won the award, but in all honestly I felt rewarded for getting up and taking the first step of a staircase that had not yet been scaled! There is still much, much, much more to be done and I feel like we as a network are just at the beginning.

“Like many awards, they often highlight the individual without giving true representation to the team behind the person. I’m receiving this reward as the Vice-chair Bushra Schuitemaker, as the committee and as all the network members. We are all equally pleased about being rewarded with such a notable accolade!”

 

Awards presentation

The winners will be presented with their prizes during a ceremony held at the BES Annual Meeting which runs from 18 – 21 December in Edinburgh. The meeting will bring together over 1000 ecologists (in person and online) to discuss the latest advances in ecological research across the whole discipline.

https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/events/bes-annual-meeting-2022/

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Conservation schemes for farmland birds in Europe - closing conference of the Birds@Farmland initiative

Meeting Announcement

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

 

IMAGE: CLOSING CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS@FARMLAND INITIATIVE view more 

CREDIT: BIRDS@FARMLAND. PHOTO CREDIT: BILDAGENTUR ZOONAR GMBH

The Birds@Farmland Initiative developed 22 conservation schemes for birds inhabiting European farmland. These conservation schemes – among others – introduce bird-friendly management of rice fields in Bulgaria, Portugal and Spain, aim at creating grassy field margins in Italian arable land, Corncrake habitat in France, Grey Partridge habitat in Germany, and habitat for a number of species, including Turtle Dove, in Austria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. They also contribute to combating abandonment of cultivated pastures in Finland. In total the Initiative developed farmland bird conservation schemes for 10 European countries in cooperation with national and regional public authorities, NGOs, farmers’ unions, farm advisory services, hunting associations and other relevant actors. (1)

During the fully online conference, the European Commission and the consortium implementing the initiative (2) will inform on the conservation schemes developed by the initiative as well as priority agricultural systems and flagship species identified for the conservation of farmland birds in Europe, and their practical applications in the years ahead. There will also be opportunity to learn from and discuss a number of case studies illustrating key lessons learned in developing conservation schemes that are effective for birds and attractive to farmers. Ultimately, the success of conservation schemes depends on the availability of funding as well as the acceptance of the schemes by farmers. The conference will thus present an overview of the measures benefiting farmland birds in the national CAP Strategic Plans. It will also explore potential funding sources beyond the CAP and suitable measures to enhance the uptake of conservation schemes by farmers and landowners. Finally, the European Commission will inform about the ‘Task Force for the Recovery of Birds’ which aims at addressing conservation and management challenges for birds in the EU.

The conference will take place on Tuesday, 11 October 2022 | 09:30 - 15:45 (online). We invite representatives of competent authorities, as well as NGOs, Farm advisory services, farming, hunting, and landowners associations, and other relevant actors to participate in the workshop. Please note that participation is limited. Therefore participation is only granted upon receipt of confirmation on the side of the organisers, which will be sent to you in due time before the conference.

Please use this link to register until 16 September 2022. The personal data collected through this registration will be processed in line with the Environment Agency Austria’s Privacy Policy and Additional Privacy Information.

(1) The ten countries targeted by the Birds@Farmland Initiative are: Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, and Portugal.

(2) The consortium consists of Environment Agency Austria (lead) and Pensoft Publishers.

How artificial intelligence can explain its decisions

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RUHR-UNIVERSITY BOCHUM

 

IMAGE: THEY'VE BROUGHT TOGETHER THE SEEMINGLY INCOMPATIBLE INDUCTIVE APPROACH OF MACHINE LEARNING WITH DEDUCTIVE LOGIC: STEPHANIE SCHÖRNER, AXEL MOSIG AND DAVID SCHUHMACHER (LEFT TO RIGHT). view more 

CREDIT: RUB, MARQUARD

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be trained to recognise whether a tissue image contains a tumour. However, exactly how it makes its decision has remained a mystery until now. A team from the Research Center for Protein Diagnostics (PRODI) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum is developing a new approach that will render an AI’s decision transparent and thus trustworthy. The researchers led by Professor Axel Mosig describe the approach in the journal Medical Image Analysis, published online on 24 August 2022.

For the study, bioinformatics scientist Axel Mosig cooperated with Professor Andrea Tannapfel, head of the Institute of Pathology, oncologist Professor Anke Reinacher-Schick from the Ruhr-Universität’s St. Josef Hospital, and biophysicist and PRODI founding director Professor Klaus Gerwert. The group developed a neural network, i.e. an AI, that can classify whether a tissue sample contains tumour or not. To this end, they fed the AI a large number of microscopic tissue images, some of which contained tumours, while others were tumour-free.

“Neural networks are initially a black box: it’s unclear which identifying features a network learns from the training data,” explains Axel Mosig. Unlike human experts, they lack the ability to explain their decisions. “However, for medical applications in particular, it’s important that the AI is capable of explanation and thus trustworthy,” adds bioinformatics scientist David Schuhmacher, who collaborated on the study.

AI is based on falsifiable hypotheses

The Bochum team’s explainable AI is therefore based on the only kind of meaningful statements known to science: on falsifiable hypotheses. If a hypothesis is false, this fact must be demonstrable through an experiment. Artificial intelligence usually follows the principle of inductive reasoning: using concrete observations, i.e. the training data, the AI creates a general model on the basis of which it evaluates all further observations.

The underlying problem had been described by philosopher David Hume 250 years ago and can be easily illustrated: No matter how many white swans we observe, we could never conclude from this data that all swans are white and that no black swans exist whatsoever. Science therefore makes use of so-called deductive logic. In this approach, a general hypothesis is the starting point. For example, the hypothesis that all swans are white is falsified when a black swan is spotted.

CAPTION

A neural network is initially trained with many data sets in order to be able to distinguish tumour-containing from tumour-free tissue images (input from the top in the diagram). It is then presented with a new tissue image from an experiment (input from the left). Via inductive reasoning, the neural network generates the classification “tumour-containing” or “tumour-free” for the respective image. At the same time, it creates an activation map of the tissue image. The activation map has emerged from the inductive learning process and is initially unrelated to reality. The correlation is established by the falsifiable hypothesis that areas with high activation correspond exactly to the tumour regions in the sample. This hypothesis can be tested with further experiments. This means that the approach follows deductive logic.

CREDIT

PRODI

Activation map shows where the tumour is detected

“At first glance, inductive AI and the deductive scientific method seem almost incompatible,” says Stephanie Schörner, a physicist who likewise contributed to the study. But the researchers found a way. Their novel neural network not only provides a classification of whether a tissue sample contains a tumour or is tumour-free, it also generates an activation map of the microscopic tissue image.

The activation map is based on a falsifiable hypothesis, namely that the activation derived from the neural network corresponds exactly to the tumour regions in the sample. Site-specific molecular methods can be used to test this hypothesis.

“Thanks to the interdisciplinary structures at PRODI, we have the best prerequisites for incorporating the hypothesis-based approach into the development of trustworthy biomarker AI in the future, for example to be able to distinguish between certain therapy-relevant tumour subtypes,” concludes Axel Mosig.

CAPTION

The neural network derives an activation map (on the right) from the microscopic image of a tissue sample (on the left). A hypothesis establishes the correlation between the intensity of activation that was determined solely by calculation and the identification of tumour regions that can be verified in experiments.

CREDIT

PRODI

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JOURNAL

Medical Image Analysis

DOI

10.1016/j.media.2022.102594 

ARTICLE TITLE

A framework for falsifiable explanations of machine learning models with an application in computational pathology

Albert Einstein’s doctoral certificate returns to UZH

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH

 

IMAGE: MICHAEL SCHAEPMAN, PRESIDENT UZH AND VIDAR HELGESEN, DIRECTOR NOBEL FOUNDATION (ON THE LEFT). view more 

CREDIT: FRANK BRÜDERLI

After traveling the world, Albert Einstein’s doctoral certificate has now returned to where it was issued, the University of Zurich. In 1905, the 26-year-old Albert Einstein submitted his doctoral thesis “Eine neue Bestimmung der Moleküldimensionen” (A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions) to UZH. One year later, in January 1906, the mathematics and natural science section of the Faculty of Philosophy awarded him the title Doctor of Philosophy.

Found in the attic

Handed over to Einstein in 1906, the certificate later reappeared in a house at Huttenstrasse 62 in Zurich, where the physicist had lived with his first wife, Milena Marić. It was found there in the attic in 1948 by a young student from the canton of Schwyz, who happened upon the document as well as an honorary doctoral certificate from the University of Geneva. The owner of the house let him keep the two documents. Following extensive clarifications, the authenticity of the document was confirmed by the Vice Consul of the United States of America in Lima in 1957.

From New York to Zurich

Many years later, the holder of Einstein’s diploma, who had since become an engineer, decided to part with the document. It was sold at an auction in Lucerne in 2009, only to re-surface in New York 13 years later. In the spring of 2022, an Einstein expert informed the University of Zurich that the doctoral certificate was up for sale again. The idea that this important piece of contemporary history should return to the place where it had been produced was met with enthusiasm at UZH. “Making the doctoral certificate of our alumnus Albert Einstein available to our students and the broad public was a unique opportunity,” says Michael Schaepman, President of UZH. The University of Zurich was able to acquire the original certificate thanks to a donation given to the UZH Foundation.

The display case containing the doctoral certificate was unveiled today at an event organized by the Swedish Embassy in Switzerland in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s Nobel Prize. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921, which he received a year later.

Quantum materials: entanglement of many atoms discovered for the first time

New fur for the quantum cat

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT DRESDEN

 

IMAGE: SCHROEDINGER’S CAT WITH QUANTUM FUR: IN THE MATERIAL LIHOF4, PHYSICISTS FROM THE UNIVERSITIES OF DRESDEN AND MUNICH HAVE DISCOVERED A NEW QUANTUM PHASE TRANSITION AT WHICH THE DOMAINS BEHAVE IN A QUANTUM MECHANICAL FASHION. view more 

CREDIT: C. HOHMANN, MCQST

In physics, Schroedinger’s cat is an allegory for two of the most awe-inspiring effects of quantum mechanics: entanglement and superposition. Researchers from Dresden and Munich have now observed these behaviors on a much larger scale than that of the smallest of particles. Until now, materials that display properties like, e.g., magnetism have been known to have so-called domains – islands in which the materials properties are homogeneously either of one or a different kind (imagine them being either black or white, for example). Looking at lithium holmium fluoride (LiHoF4), the physicists have now discovered a completely new phase transition, at which the domains surprisingly exhibit quantum mechanical features, resulting in their properties becoming entangled (being black and white at the same time). “Our quantum cat now has a new fur because we’ve discovered a new quantum phase transition in LiHoF4 which has not previously been known to exist,” comments Matthias Vojta, Chair of Theoretical Solid State Physics at TUD.

Phase transitions and entanglement

We can easily observe the spontaneously changing properties of a substance if we look at water: at 100 degrees Celsius it evaporates into a gas, at zero degrees Celsius it freezes into ice. In both cases, these new states of matter form as a consequence of a phase transition where the water molecules rearrange themselves, thus changing the characteristics of the matter. Properties like magnetism or superconductivity emerge as a result of electrons undergoing phase transitions in crystals. For phase transitions at temperatures approaching the absolute zero at -273.15 degrees Celsius, quantum mechanical effects such as entanglement come into play, and one speaks of quantum phase transitions. “Even though there are more than 30 years of extensive research dedicated to phase transitions in quantum materials, we had previously assumed that the phenomenon of entanglement played a role only on a microscopic scale, where it involves only a few atoms at a time,” explains Christian Pfleiderer, Professor of Topology of Correlated Systems at the TUM.

Quantum entanglement is one of the most astonishing phenomena of physics, where the entangled quantum particles exist in a shared superposition state that allows for usually mutually exclusive properties (e.g., black and white) to occur simultaneously. As a rule, the laws of quantum mechanics only apply to microscopic particles. The research teams from Munich and Dresden have now succeeded in observing effects of quantum entanglement on a much larger scale, that of thousands of atoms. For this, they have chosen to work with the well-known compound LiHoF4.

Spherical samples enable precision measurements

At very low temperatures, LiHoF4 acts as a ferromagnet where all magnetic moments spontaneously point in the same direction. If you then apply a magnetic field exactly vertically to the preferred magnetic direction, the magnetic moments will change direction, which is known as fluctuations. The higher the magnetic field strength, the stronger these fluctuations become, until, eventually, the ferromagnetism disappears completely at a quantum phase transition. This leads to the entanglement of neighboring magnetic moments. “If you hold up a LiHoF4 sample to a very strong magnet, it suddenly ceases to be spontaneously magnetic. This has been known for 25 years,” summarizes Vojta.

What is new is what happens when you change the direction of the magnetic field. “We discovered that the quantum phase transition continues to occur, whereas it had previously been believed that even the smallest tilt of the magnetic field would immediately suppress it,” explains Pfleiderer. Under these conditions, however, it is not individual magnetic moments but rather extensive magnetic areas, so-called ferromagnetic domains, that undergo these quantum phase transitions. The domains constitute entire islands of magnetic moments pointing in the same direction. “We have used spherical samples for our precision measurements. That is what enabled us to precisely study the behavior upon small changes in the direction of the magnetic field,” adds Andreas Wendl, who conducted the experiments as part of his doctoral dissertation.

From fundamental physics to applications

“We have discovered an entirely new type of quantum phase transitions where entanglement takes place on the scale of many thousands of atoms instead of just in the microcosm of only a few,” explains Vojta. “If you imagine the magnetic domains as a black-and-white pattern, the new phase transition leads to either the white or the black areas becoming infinitesimally small, i.e., creating a quantum pattern, bevor dissolving completely.” A newly developed theoretical model successfully explains the data obtained from the experiments. “For our analysis, we generalized existing microscopic models and also took into account the feedback of the large ferromagnetic domains to the microscopic properties,” elaborates Heike Eisenlohr, who performed the calculations as part of her PhD thesis.

The discovery of the new quantum phase transitions is important as a foundation and general frame of reference for the research of quantum phenomena in materials, as well as for new applications. “Quantum entanglement is applied and used in technologies like quantum sensors and quantum computers, amongst other things,” says Vojta. Pfleiderer adds: “Our work is in the area of fundamental research, which, however, can have a direct impact on the development of practical applications, if you use the materials properties in a controlled way.”

Publikation:
Emergence of mesoscale quantum phase transitions in a ferromagnet
Andreas Wendl, Heike Eisenlohr, Felix Rucker, Christopher Duvinage, Markus Kleinhans, Matthias Vojta & Christian Pfleiderer,
Nature 609, 65–70 (2022)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04995-5

More information:
The research has been financially supported by the Excellence Strategy of the German Federal and State Governments within the Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter (ct.qmat) and the Cluster of Excellence Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST). In addition, the work has been supported by the European Research Council (ERC) via the Advanced Grant ExQuiSid and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the Collaborative Research Centers (SFB) 1143 und  TRR80.

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JOURNAL

Nature

ARTICLE TITLE

Emergence of mesoscale quantum phase transitions in a ferromagnet