Giovanni Galizia is exactly the type of researcher of which German science policy-makers dream. He is young, gifted, committed — and about to return to his native Germany after a successful stay abroad. Until recently Galizia combined working in California with leading an independent research group funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and the Free University of Berlin.

Since the 42-year-old researcher started thinking about science, he says, he has been inspired by the big questions: how the world works, what nature is all about, and how its phenomena are connected. He didn't have a preference for one specific subject area initially, although in time he gravitated towards a career in biology and mathematics, and then began to focus on the neurobiology of odour processing in insect brains. (see CV)

The basic architecture of the olfactory system is similar in most animals, explains Galizia, and he hopes that he will decode the neural connectivity in insects and then be able to extrapolate that knowledge to other species. By combining single-cell analysis with studies of entire cell populations, he intends to understand a model neural network in detail. But he doesn't know how long this will take. “There is still a hard nut to crack, because the necessary technological approaches have not yet been developed,” he explains.

Galizia's interest in science extends beyond the lab and into process and policy. As speaker and head of the scientific policy committee at the Young Academy — a German joint academic project to establish the promotion of young scholars — for five years, he promoted issues of concern to young scientists. He plans to draw on his US experience to promote ideas that could improve Germany's university system. He says that US universities look at other systems around the world in order to adopt the best available models and solutions, a practice he believes should be more widely used at German universities.

With career uncertainty and the absence of a tenure-track system, young scientists in Germany are put in an environment that is not optimal for focusing solely on their research, says Galizia. Therefore, he adds, it is essential to create conditions that will make research careers more predictable and attractive to those who have proved their talent for science.

“The widespread feeling here is that whether or not you make it in science is a question of chance,” he says. “What's really lacking is a sense of trust in the system.”