Press releases

Arctic sea-ice has melted by about 4.7 million square km this September according to researchers from the Alfred-Wegener-Institute, the University of Bremen, and Universität Hamburg. This means that the surface is somewhat larger than it was last year; nonetheless, it remains average for the last 10...

On Friday 1 September the French Minister for Higher Education, Research and Innovation Frédérique Vidal visited Universität Hamburg. She was particularly interested in the University's research on climate. Only recently in Paris, Vidal and her German counterpart Johanna Wanka agreed on closer...

The Center for Continuing Education (ZfW) at Universität Hamburg will hold an information session about the Open Study Program on 6 and 7 September. The Program allows people of all ages to attend lectures and seminars offered by the University. Open Study students are free to choose from more than...

Even old trees absorb large amounts of carbon, removing CO2 (carbon dioxide) from the atmosphere. This was recently proven for the first time using trees from the rainforests in Surinam, as Professor Michael Köhl from Universität Hamburg’s Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN)...

On behalf of the Ministry for Environment and Energy (BUE) of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (FHH), researchers from the Center of Natural History (CeNak) at Universität Hamburg analyzed the prevalence of selected animal groups in wetland areas of Duvenwischen in the suburb of Volksdorf...

A behemoth moves house: starting today, everything in the Philturm, from its lecture halls to its libraries, will be moved to temporary quarters in Überseering 35 in City Nord. Once the tallest building (52 m) on the Von-Melle-Campus has been cleared, movers will face their next logistical...

From 24–28 July 2017 leading international researchers in the field of string mathematics will be convening at Universität Hamburg for the StringMath 2017 conference to address current developments in the field. Conference organizers are expecting over 200 participants from the fields of physics...

The new research building for the Center for Hybrid Nanostructures (CHyN) at Universität Hamburg opened its doors in a festive ceremony on the Bahrenfeld Research Campus on 19 July 2017. This marks the addition of a key research area in structural research and a so-called "clean room" on premises...

What looks like modern art to the connoisseur is a treasure trove of climate research information to the geologist. Pigmented lacquer film faithfully documents geological deposits in loose sediments. The University's lacquer film collection containing 600 samples is Germany's largest and is now set...

The Center for Hybrid Nanostructure (CHyN) opened its doors on Wednesday, 19 July 2017. This marks the beginning of the Center's work in its new research building on the Bahrenfeld research campus, right next door to DESY. [Read on in German]

Transistors are electrical components that direct electronic signals and enable us to process information. Millions of them are built into every single computer chip, and they are usually made out of the semiconductor material silicon. Dr. Christian Klinke's research group at the Institute of...

Salt marshes are habitats for highly specialized plants and animals and they protect coastal regions from storm floods. They also store atmospheric carbon long term, thereby contributing to climate protection. Yet rising temperatures in the wake of climate change can upset the entire system. What do...

Today, silicon detectors with high local resolution are used in most experiments on particle acceleration that involve the analysis of elementary building blocks of material and the characteristics of fundamental forces. Prof. Dr. Robert Klanner from the Department of Physics at Universität Hamburg...

Today, 29 June 2017, the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) ceremoniously opened the doors of its new building. The CSSB's research focuses on the decoding of the structures,dynamics, and mechanisms of the infection processes of pathogens. The CSSB scientists will use their findings to...

The choir and symphony orchestra of University Music cordially invite the public to its summer concerts on 2 and 8 July 2017. [Read on in German]

A new junior research group at Universität Hamburg will be investigating biological risks and their effects on society. The interdisciplinary group (INFABRI) will be looking at ways to better predict the consequences of biological hazards. The first project, "Biological Hazards: Analysis and...

This year Prof. Dr. Nora Markard and her team at the Refugee Law Clinic and Prof. Dr. Martina Neuburger and her working group Geographies of Global Inequalities will receive the Equal Opportunity Award of Universität Hamburg for their outstanding committment to equal opportunity for refugees in...

Society’s new approach to sustainability is the focus of a public symposium in economics and the social sciences at Universität Hamburg. Eight researchers will be giving lectures and presentations to provide insight into their projects. Topics include the future of sustainability and the societal...

During his visit to Hamburg on 19 June 2017 to mark the 10th anniversary of the European Research Council (ERC), the ERC president Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon (Brussels) will be visiting the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at Universität Hamburg. The Centre is home to five...

The Academic Senate of Universität Hamburg has elected Prof. Dr. Susanne Rupp, vice president for studies and teaching to a second, three-year term of office in its regular meeting on 15 June 2017. [Read on in German . . .]

Nano-crystals created in wet chemicals, meaning in a solution, can already be found in the latest TV screens or in image-making diagnostic procedures in medicine. A research group headed by PD Dr. Christian Klinke from the Institute of Physical Chemistry at Universität Hamburg has now demonstrated a...

Artefacts known as "Benin Bronzes" are among the most extraordinary from pre-colonial Africa. The bronzes have been dispersed around the world since 1897. A research team headed by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Zimmerer, professor of African history in the History Department at Universität Hamburg, will now...

Researchers from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) have once again been able to prove the existence of gravitational waves, thereby fortifying this new area of astronomy. In the newest issue of Physical Review Letters, the researchers also write that the first clues have emerged as to how...

The heads of leading universities from around the world will be discussing differentiation in the higher education landscape at the Hamburg Transnational University Leaders Council from 7–9 June 2017 in Hamburg. Among other topics, the roughly 50 university presidents will also be addressing the...

Universität Hamburg has been granted an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship. The renowned research prize has been awarded to the lawyer Prof. Dr. Anne van Aaken. Van Aaken currently teaches and conducts research at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland). The prize is worth €3.5 million. Van...

Supporting young researchers, encouraging innovation, and advancing interdisciplinary cooperation with non-university institutions: those are the goals of the Innovative Training Networks (ITN), announced by the European Commission. A total of four projects involving Universität Hamburg—two under...

Pop art, drawings by indigenous Australians, or psychedelic visions? Take a second look: the exhibition Art & Science will be showing images from the micro-world of basic natural science research conducted in the Cluster of Excellence The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI). [Read on in...

As part of the Theater of the World festival, the first-ever Hamburg Harbor Conference will also be taking place. On six nights from 26 Mai to 2 June respectively, four academics from Hamburg's universities and research institutions will be discussing their work on harbor cities. [Read on in German]...

Roughly 50 university presidents from universities around the world will gather from 7–9 June 2017 for the second Hamburg Transnational University Leaders Council. At the invitation of the German Rectors' Conference, the Körber Foundation, and Universität Hamburg, they will discuss differentiation...

Hamburg is teeming with petrified sponges, snails, mollusks, and squid but who would think of a trip to the mall as a dip in the primordial sea? Samantha Brose, a student of geology and paleontology at Universität Hamburg, is researching the marble in the Bergedorf City Center and Rahlstedt Center...

Considered the father of nuclear chemistry, Otto Hahn nonetheless became one of the most vehement critics of nuclear armament. Journalist Dietrich Hahn will talk about his grandfather in an open colloquium hosted by the Department of Physics and the Verein der Freunde und Förderer der Physik at...

Hamburg is green—but green enough? What about species diversity in the city? How are climate change and urbanization changing city life? The Day of Urban Nature, The GEO-Tag der Natur e.V. and CeNak will be cooperating for the first time to host Hamburg's largest nature event (16–18 June 2017)...

Historical documents, artworks, and collective knowledge are crucial to a society's historical consciousness and identity. Political conflicts and social collapse often lead to the destruction of cultural heritage, e.g., the desecration of holy World Heritage Sites and writings in Timbuktu (Mali) in...

An international research group under the aegis of developmental biologist Prof. Dr. Arp Schnittger from the Biocenter Klein Flottbek at Universität Hamburg has discovered the mechanism that activates the reproductive process in flowering plants. The scientists investigated the female resproductive...

The Zoological Museum of the Center of Natural History (CeNak) today opens its newly designed foyer in the Bundesstraße building as a "window on the city." The exhibition has access for the disabled, is multimedial, and looks towards the future. The exhibition MenschenZeit—NaturWelt (The Human...

On Thursday, 27 April, inquiring minds can slake their thirst for knowledge at the third annual Science on Tap. Hamburg researchers will be talking about their current work in about 45 pubs throughout Hamburg, giving half-hour talks and entertaining insights into their research. What does the dark...

Hamburg universities support the international March for Science on 22 April and join the protest against "post-factual" politics and hostility to science. The LHK (state-based university conference) has noted with great concern a trend that goes beyond the most recent political developments in the...

The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) has commissioned Prof. Dr. Ralf Thiel, Heike Zidowitz, and their research team in the ichthyology section of the Center for Natural History (CeNak) at Universität Hamburg to investigate the situation of sharks, skate, and chimaeras in the German...

In a co-financing scheme, the German Research Foundation (DFG) has granted Universität Hamburg €15.6 million to establish a cryo-electron microscope facility in the new building of the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB).

Barrier-free, modern, interactive—the new entry hall at the Zoological Museum of the Center for Natural History (CeNak) at Universität Hamburg gives a foretaste of what natural history museums might look like in the 21st century. The new exhibition "MenschenZeit—Naturwelt" ("The Human Era and the...

From 8 to 11 Juni 2017 Performance Studies at Universität Hamburg in cooperation with the performing arts center Kampnagel will host the international conference Performance Studies international. The conference will take place as part of the Theater der Welt festival. Members of the media and the...

Digitization has immense effects on how we perceive, remember, and use our cultural heritage in the public sphere. Do we share digitized cultural treasures on the Internet and, if so, how? During the conference Sharing is Caring – Hamburg Extension from 20 to 21 April 2017, international experts...

Professor Dr. Dieter Lenzen, president of Universität Hamburg, has been elected to chair of the Landeshochschulekonferenz (LHK). In line with a rotation principle, he will succeed Dr.-Ing.Walter Pelka from the HafenCity University.

A yellow slug in the middle of the Red Light District! For the past eighty years, researchers have been unable to prove the existence of yellow slugs in Hamburg. In the current Red List of Endangered Species for Hamburg's land snails, the yellow slug has been deemed extinct or lost. Now the slug has...

An ornate stool from Cameroon, a wooden figure of a man from Tanzania, or an Herero necklace from Namibia: these were the kind of objects that found their way into the collections of the Übersee-Museum during Germany's colonial era.

In May 2016 following four years of negotiations, the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (DS-GVO) came into force. From 2018 onwards, it will regulate all data protection within the European Union as the regulation will apply directly to all EU member states. This means that some states will...

In the summer semester Universität Hamburg is once again offering a comprehensive program of public lectures. With a great variety of topics covered in around 300 individual lectures, the General Lecture Series takes listeners on a journey through current questions in science, research, and society...

Outstanding research is the name of the game in the first phase of the Federal and State Excellence Initiative (the successor to the Excellence Initiative). The first hurdle in this important competition has been cleared: on 3 April 2017, grant proposals for the funding of clusters of excellence...

The Biocenter Klein Flottbek at Universität Hamburg presents a new scientific outreach event in Loki Schmidt House—Museum for Useful Plants: Science Sundays. Come along and find out all about current research on plants at the Biocenter as well as the work of the Museum.

The talkshow Wahnsinn trifft Method ("madness meets method") jointly hosted by Universität Hamburg and Thalia Theater is set to continue on Thursday, 23 March. The evening is dedicated to yarn, a topic the audience can wrap itself in.

A research team headed by Prof. Dr. Ralf Thiel from the Center of Natural History at Universität Hamburg has confirmed that, for the first time, Kessler's goby fish (Ponticola kessleri) have been found in the Elbe. This is the northernmost sighting thus far. The researchers have published their...

The Center for Continuing Studies at Universität Hamburg will be providing information about its Open Study Program (KSE) for people of all ages who wish to take courses at the University. Individual, non-binding counseling is available on 9 and 10 March 2017 from 10 am to 4 pm.

Digital store apps can negatively affect subscriptions for publishers offering their goods on the Internet. This is the finding of a new study conducted at Universität Hamburg and Groningen University. The research project "Competing with Free: Flatrates in the Publishing Industry" looked for the...

The collection at Loki Schmidt House has grown in size by more than 100 drawings and aquarelles by artist Elfi Eckhoff from her series "Plants and Animals of the Bible." The latest special exhibition provides insight into these works. Interested members of the public and the media are warmly invited...

In 2017, the amended Renewable Energy Act (EEG) went into effect. The EEG is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect the climate. Prof. Dr. Grischa Perino and Dr. Johannes Jarke from the Department of Socioeconomics at Universität Hamburg investigated just how effectively this...

For the tenth year, the Department of Mathematics at Universität Hamburg invites female upper-level high school pupils to a math day on Saturday, 18 February 2017 from 1 to 6 pm at the Gemomatikum, Lecture Hall 4, Bundesstraße 55. Participants will discover aspects of math rarely encountered at...

For Universität Hamburg and HafenCity University students who prefer to work in the wee hours, it's once again time to get cracking, keep your nose to the grindstone—and finish! There are various types of writing help available at the 6th Long Night of Postponed Papers.

On 8 February, a transport rocket will head off to the ISS space station. On board: samples from a research group under the aegis of Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Betzel from Universität Hamburg. The group will analyze what happens to the samples at zero gravity.

The old build at Moorweidenstrasse 18 (opposite the Grand Elysée Hotel) is one of Hamburg-Rotherbaum's architectural pearls. Following extensive restoration financed by University funds, the building is now home to Business Administration.

Two projects at Universität Hamburg have been awarded 450,000 and 225,000 euros respectively as part of the call for funding applications in the area of interactions between qualitative-hermaneutic processes and the digital humanities / mixed methods in the humanities.

Hardwood alluvial forests play a major role in the natural flood areas of river landscapes (flood retention). In order to better understand the ecology and the spatial and temporal manifestations of alluvial forest activity, researchers will investigate alluvial forest biodiverstiy on the Elbe, a...

The University orchestra and choir as well as the alumni choir cordially invite the public to its winter concert on Sunday, 5 February 2017 at 8 pm (introduction at 7 pm) in the large auditiorium of the Laeiszhalle.

An overall joyous result for the humanities and the social sciences at Universität Hamburg: the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat), the most important academic-political advisory body for the German federal and state governments, has confirmed in its report—published...

We warmly invite the press to join us at this year's award ceremony for the Deutschlandstipendien at Universität Hamburg.

In preparation for the 100th anniversary of Universität Hamburg in 2019, the Center for the History of Universität Hamburg has developed a databank listing professors at Hamburger Universität from its founding in 1919 to today. The public is cordially invited to the official release of this catalog...

Dr. Patrick Benjamin Koch from the Institute of Jewish Philosophy and Religion at Universität Hamburg has been accepted to the Emmy Noether Program run by the DFG. He will receive €1.1 million to establish a young researchers group on the topic of Jewish moralistic literature of the early modern...