Press Releases 2018

17 December 2018|Press release

National funding for large core facilities— €900,000 for innovative light microscope

Photo: CSSB

Researchers at Universität Hamburg have successfully applied for funding in the large core facilities initiative “Neuartige, experimentelle Lichtmikroscope für die Forschung” spearheaded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). This means €900,000 for an innovative light microscope. The microscope...

10 December 2018|Press release

€3.6 million for the HALOS life sciences project

Photo: pixabay/Pexels

The European Territorial Cooperation INTERREG has awarded €3.6 million to the German-Scandinavian research project “Hanseatic League of Science (HALOS).” In addition to Universität Hamburg, academic and corporate partners from German, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark are taking part in HALOS.

7 December 2018|Press release

ERC Consolidator Grant for Hamburg physicist

Photo: Carina Häusler

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a €2 million Consolidator Grant to Prof. Dr. Dorota Koziej from the Department of Physics at Universität Hamburg. In her project “A Platform to LINk Between CHemistry and PhysIcs of Colloidal Nanomaterials (LINCHPIN)”, Koziej will make radiation...

15 November 2018|Press release

Our stellar neighbourhood expands

Artistic illustration of a sunset on Barnard's star b

Photo: ESO/Martin Kornmesser

Astronomers from the Observatory of the University of Hamburg were involved in the discovery of a new planet. As part of an international research team led by the Institut de Ciències de l'Espai (ICE, CSIC), they have found a planet in orbit of Barnard's star. Barnard's star is a so-called red dwarf...

25 October 2018|Press release

The formation of large meteorite craters is unraveled

Photo: UHH/MIN/Fuchs

About 66 million years ago, a meteorite hit the Earth of the Yucatan Peninsula in what is now Mexico. This event triggered a mass extinction that eradicated approximately 75 percent of all species and ended the era of dinosaurs. Like Prof. Dr. Ulrich Riller of the Institute of Geology of the...

23 October 2018|Press release

70.000 historische astronomische Fotoplatten digitalisiert

Die Sternwarte der Universität Hamburg hat einen astronomischen Schatz gehoben: In Kooperation mit dem Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik in Potsdam (AIP), der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg und der Universität Tartu in Estland haben Projektleiter Dr. Detlef Groote und sein Team insgesamt 70.000...

23 October 2018|Press release

6.1 million € for the investigation of signalling molecules in plants

Photo: pixabay.com

Prof. Dr. Julia Kehr from the Department of Biology at Universität Hamburg successfully acquired an ERC Synergy Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) this year. In the project “Plant Mobile RNAs: Function, Transport and Features” (PLAMORF) Prof. Kehr will spend six years together with Dr...

12 October 2018|Press release

Disrupting crystalline order to restore superfluidity

Photo: UHH/Mathey group

When we put water in a freezer, water molecules crystallize and form ice. This change from one phase of matter to another is called a phase transition. While this transition, and countless others that occur in nature, typically takes place at the same fixed conditions, such as the freezing point...

27 September 2018|Press release

Four out of four! Outstanding success for Universität Hamburg

Photo: UHH/Schell

The German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat, WR), and the Joint Science Conference in Bonn have just announced that Universität Hamburg has been granted 4 clusters of excellence. An outstanding success for the...

14 August 2018|Press release

Europas größte politikwissenschaftliche Konferenz tagt an der Universität Hamburg

Vom 23. bis 26. August 2018 findet die „General Conference“ des „European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)“ zum ersten Mal in Hamburg statt. Die General Conference des ECPR ist die größte politikwissenschaftliche Fachkonferenz in Europa. Rund 2.500 Teilnehmende werden an der Universität...

31 July 2018|Press release

ERC Starting Grant for Hamburg physicist

Photo: Studioline Photography

Dr. Christof Weitenberg, scientist at the Institute of Laser Physics, Hamburg, has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant worth around 1.5 million euros by the European Research Council. In a new research project entitled “Engineering and Exploring Anyonic Quantum Gases,” ANYON for short, he plans to...

4 July 2018|Press release

New DFG Center for Advanced Studies to research sustainability

DFG Center for Advanced Studies to look at how modern societies change when they follow different sustainability goals.

Photo: Anna Jiménez Calaf

The German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) has granted funding for a new Center for Advanced Study at Universität Hamburg entitled The Futures of Sustainability: Modernization, Transformation, Control. Researchers want to understand how modern societies change when they...

4 July 2018|Press release

Hamburg scientists combine experimental expertise

Ultracold atoms are ionized by an ultrashort laser pulse. Because the atomic motion is almost stopped at temperatures of 100 nK, losses due to ionization can be directly imaged and measured.

Photo: UHH/Wessels

Two separate research fields have been united in Hamburg for the very first time. Ultrashort laser pulses enable us to observe and manipulate matter on very short time scales, whereas ultracold atoms permit experiments with high precision and controllability. In the cluster of excellence “The...

26 June 2018|Press release

35 years of marine conservation: the lack of a strategy increases the need for protected areas

Photo: UHH/CEN/K. Jantke

Although more than 16 percent of all national waters are now protected, many ecoregions and countries are not included. The current reserve system is just as expensive as it is inefficient, as Dr. Kerstin Jantke and her team show in a study recently released by Universität Hamburg’s Center for Earth...

18 April 2018|Press release

Possible for the first time: reliable three-month forecasts for European winters

Photo: Dave Haas, CCO

Thanks to a novel method, the quality of seasonal forecasts for the winter in many parts of Europe can now be significantly improved. To date, reliable forecasts could mostly be made for the Tropics. A team led by Dr. Mikhail Dobrynin and Prof. Johanna Baehr from Universität Hamburg’s Center for...

11 April 2018|Press release

Physics professor at Universität Hamburg recognized by European Research Council (ERC) for third time

Photo: Private

For the third consecutive year the ERC has granted Prof. Roland Wiesendanger, head of the Scanning Probe Methods Group in the Department of Physics at Universität Hamburg, a €2.5 million ERC Advanced Grant.

10 April 2018|Press release

270,000 dollars for research on plant growth

Photo: UHH/Kostika Sofroni

The research group led by biologist Prof. Arp Schnittger from Universität Hamburg has received the 2018 HFSP Research Grant together with international partners from France, Chile, and the USA. The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) is an international research funding agency in the life sciences...

26 March 2018|Press release

New DFG center for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences for Universität Hamburg

Photo: pixabay.com/travelspot

Gravitational force, life force, work force, buying force, creative force, the force of art—our concepts of force are not restricted to the natural sciences, but are also central to a number of cultural spheres, not least aesthetics. The new DFG-funded Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities and...

19 March 2018|Press release

Thawing permafrost produces more methane than expected

Photo: UHH/Dingler

In a seven-year laboratory study, Dr. Christian Knoblauch from Universität Hamburg’s Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) and an international team have shown, for the first time, that significantly more methane is produced by thawing permafrost than previously thought. The...

16 March 2018|Press release

Konferenz zu Digitalen Medien

Die Auswirkungen von Social Media Shitstorms oder der Einfluss von Digital-Kiosken auf Verlagsangebote sind Themen der Konferenz „science@OMR“, die am 22. März 2018 an der Universität Hamburg in Kooperation mit der Online Marketing Rockstars Konferenz (OMR) 2018 stattfindet. Im Zentrum stehen neue...

27 February 2018|Press release

Infotage zu Weiterbildung und Kontaktstudium an der Universität Hamburg am 8. und 9. März 2018

Das Zentrum für Weiterbildung informiert am 8. und 9. März über die berufsbezogenen Kurse und Studiengänge sowie das Kontaktstudium für ältere Erwachsene der Universität Hamburg. Das Zentrum entwickelt berufsbegleitende Weiterbildungen für Berufstätige und Hochschulabsolventen in Kooperation mit den...

8 February 2018|Press release

Plastic-eating bacteria more diverse and numerous than previously thought

Photo: Pixabay.com

We only recycle a small amount of plastics such as PET (polyethylene terephthalate), used to make bottles and packaging. Most ends up in the environment, where it takes a very long time to decompose. According to the German Environment Agency (UBA), it takes up to 450 years for a plastic bottle to...

7 February 2018|Press release

Wind data for urban planning

Photo: 123rf madrabothair

Extreme gusts of wind of more than 40 km per hour are common on Hamburg’s footpaths. Measurements undertaken by Professor Felix Ament and Dr. Sarah Wiesner from the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) at Universität Hamburg demonstrate this. Their current measuring campaign has...

29 January 2018|Press release

Anneliese Maier Research Award: Sociolinguist Prof. Dr. Ingrid Piller to research at Universität Hamburg

Photo: Marcin Debski

Third Anneliese Maier Research Award for Universität Hamburg: the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has awarded an Anneliese Maier Research Award worth 250,000 euros to Prof. Dr. Ingrid Piller. The sociolinguist researches at Australia’s Macquarie University in the field of intercultural...