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18 March 2026|Research

Doing the Research: Climate Policy – Does It Live Up to Its Name?

Dr. Anne Gerstenberg

Photo: privat

The University of Hamburg is the scientific home to more than 6,200 researchers. Every 2 weeks, we offer a glimpse into their work as part of the “Research and Understanding” series in the Hamburger Abendblatt. In this edition, Dr. Anne Gerstenberg explains why the general public also has a role to...
4 March 2026|Research

Doing the Research: Why Do Some Trees Keep Their Dead Leaves?

Dr. Thea Lautenschläger

Photo: University of Hamburg / Esfandiari

Many of you have probably seen this before, when walking through a bare deciduous forest in winter, suddenly there’s a tree with brown leaves clinging to it. This botanical phenomenon is called marcescence: Dead plant parts, such as leaves or flowers, do not fall off immediately but remain on the...

2 March 2026|Research

Welcome aboard: Prof. Dr. Stefanie Burkhardt strengthens the Humanities.

Photograph of Prof. Dr. Stefanie Burkhardt

Photo: Private

Every year, the University of Hamburg welcomes numerous new researchers. This series introduces them and their areas of research. This time: Religious Studies researcher, Prof. Dr. Stefanie Burkhardt.
26 February 2026|Research

Titles, Theses, Doctorates: How did comics get into schools?

Anna Strunk

Photo: private

Comics as an educational media in the classroom are nothing special these days. This was not always the case: in the 1950s, they had a bad reputation and their use in the classroom was unimaginable. As part of her doctorate at the Faculty of Education, Anna Strunk is researching how comics...
19 February 2026|Research

Doing the Research: Low German through the ages

Prof. Dr. Ingrid Schröder

Photo: UHH / Esfandiari

The University of Hamburg is the scientific home to over 6,200 researchers. Every 2 weeks, we offer a glimpse into their work in the Hamburger Abendblatt. In this edition of the column, Prof. Dr. Ingrid Schröder explains how the perception of Low German has changed over the past centuries.
5 February 2026|Research

Doing the Research: The Accelerator Ring Doesn’t Fit in the Lab

Prof. Dr. Florian Grüner

Photo: University of Hamburg / Feuerböther

The University of Hamburg is the scientific home to over 6,200 researchers. Every 2 weeks, we offer a glimpse into their work in the Hamburger Abendblatt. In this issue, Prof. Dr. Florian Grüner explains how we can follow the dynamics of T-cells in real time.
28 January 2026|Research

The Importance of Internet Memes from the Linguistic Perspective

Ein Meme über Memes

Photo: Adobe Stock/TShirt Empire

Memes have become an integral part of communication, primarily in social media. But how exactly does the interplay of text and image create meaning? Prof. Dr. Stefan Hinterwimmer’ project Visual and Non-Visual Expression of Perspective, Part 2 investigates this with funding from the German Research...
27 January 2026|Research

“Angola’s Green Jewel Is Vanishing Before Our Eyes”

View of the Serra do Pingano

Photo: Barbara Ditsch

Dr. Thea Lautenschläger, scientific director of the the University of Hamburg’s Loki Schmidt Garden, and Dr. Manfred Finckh from the Institute of Plant Science and Microbiology have now published a study in Nature Ecology and Evolution revealing the dramatic loss of a special forest region in South...
21 January 2026|Research

Take a break! How we learn and remember

Network of nerve cells highlighted in red against a blue background

Photo: Adobe Stock/solvod

Our brain is inconceivably complex and it changes every moment of our lives. In the Faculty of Psychology and Human Movement Science, Prof. Dr. Nicolas Schuck looks at what happens neurally when we experience things and remember. In the interview below, the professor of cognitive neurosciences with...
14 January 2026|Research

Welcome aboard: Prof. Dr. Nagy strengthens Education.

Prof. Dr. Gabriel Nagy

Photo: private

Every year, the University of Hamburg welcomes numerous new researchers. This series introduces them and their areas of research. This time: educational scientist Prof. Dr. Gabriel Nagy.
1 December 2025|Research

Funding for Long-Term Research Project on Middle Low German Grammar

Excerpt of Hamburg shipping laws, 1201

Photo: Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel

Middle Low German text culture is an integral part of northern Europe’s cultural heritage. A new long-term research project on Middle Low German grammar will deepen our understanding of the linguistic structures of Middle Low German. The goal for the next 18 years is to establish a multidimensional...
12 November 2025|Research

€2 Million for Research on Migratory Bird Navigation

White stork in flight

Photo: Adobe Stock

An important, still unanswered question in quantum biology is how biomagnetic perception, which migratory animals use for navigation, works. A research team headed by Prof. Dr. Michael Thorwart at the University of Hamburg believes that the retinal molecule in the eyes of migratory birds and insects...
8 October 2025|Research

Welcome aboard: Prof. Dr. Simone Rödder strengthens the Department of Social Sciences.

Prof. Dr. Simone Rödder

Photo: LIB/Pour

Every year, the University of Hamburg welcomes numerous new researchers. This series introduces them and their areas of research. This time: sociologist Prof. Dr. Simone Rödder
1 October 2025|Research

New platform makes it easier to access services from Hamburg foundations.

A person works on a laptop with the new foundation platform on the screen

Photo: Hamburg/Canva Foundation Office

On 1 October, a new platform went online that provides more transparency and guidance through Hamburg’s diverse foundation landscape. For the first time, users can quickly and intuitively search through the funding opportunities and programs offered by more than 200 foundations. The database is...
25 September 2025|Research

Long-Term Study in the Elbe Estuary: Fish Population Down by 90 Percent

A cutter on the Elbe

Photo: University of Hamburg / Thiel

In the last 4 decades, fish fauna in the Elbe estuary has changed dramatically according a project jointly conducted by the University of Hamburg and the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB). Among other things, the project’s researchers examine how environmental factors...
15 September 2025|Research

Sustainability Reports: AI analyzes topics and supply chains

Sustainability topics in the Lufthansa annual report for 2024, depicted in a “topic model.”

Photo: UHH/Cordes

When corporations address sustainability they do it for marketing purposes and often in standardized ways. Hannes Cordes, who is working for the professorship for logistics and supply chain management headed by Prof. Dr. Guido Voigt, is looking at how corporate sustainability reports can be used to...
5 September 2025|Research

Welcome aboard: Prof. Dr. Mira Sack strengthens Education.

Prof. Dr. Mira Sack

Photo: Claudia Bickel

Every year, the University of Hamburg welcomes numerous new researchers. This series introduces them and their areas of research. This time: theater educator Prof. Dr. Mira Sack
1 September 2025|Research

When Tom Aces a Quiz—Researching Spontaneous Judgments

Symbolic illustration on forming judgments, with colorful, stylized overlapping human heads

Photo: iStock/wildpixel

Even when we just read about someone’ behavior, we often judge within seconds. What mechanisms are at play and which information influences our value judgments? This is what Prof. Dr. Juliane Degner and Jana Mangels (Social Psychology) want to find out.
27 August 2025|Research

Once upon a time—a project examining links between fairy tales and economic growth

Illustration of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf

Photo: iStock/ZU_09

Values and norms have been passed on in legends and fairy tales for centuries. A research team led by Prof. Dr. Stefan Voigt from the Faculty of Law used artificial intelligence to investigate if this is still a growth factor in today’s economies.
17 July 2025|Research

Social norms, law, and justice—normative conflicts and how they arise

Prof. Dr. Jonas Bens during his research in Tanzania.

Photo: UHH/Bens

Many legal issues, for example the question of property, are regulated differently in different societies. Prof. Dr. Jonas Bens, Heisenberg Professor of Anthropology at the Department of Studies in Culture and Arts at the University of Hamburg, is investigating the conflicts that arise from such...
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