The University of Bonn has once again appointed an outstanding Schlegel professor, who is financed by Excellence funds. The jurist Shu-Perng Hwang from Taiwan will open up new fields of research and provide important impulses. The scholar investigates the tensions among national, supra- and international legal systems. In her theoretical approach, she places a high value on individual freedom.
In severe epilepsies, surgical intervention is often the only remedy - usually with great success. While neuropsychological performance can recover in the long term after successful surgery, on rare occasions, unexpected declines in cognitive performance occur. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now been able to show which patients are at particularly high risk for this. Their findings have been published in the journal "Annals of Neurology." They may help identify affected individuals for whom surgery should be avoided. Instead, new treatment prospects are emerging for these patients.
Freshly appointed to the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Bonn and immediately successful in acquiring one of the highest-ranking top grants of the European Union: Ethicist and Theologian Prof. Dr. Matthias Braun receives a coveted Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). This is associated with funding of 1.5 million euros for the next five years. The researcher and his team are studying the ethical and societal impact of digital twins in healthcare.
Antibiotics are major weapons in the fight against bacterial infections. However, antibiotics are increasingly losing efficacy due to the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is a most serious threat, that besides limiting our option to treat bacterial infections, also restricts modern medical therapies and treatments, such as chemotherapy, transplantation and surgery.
With a varied program of events lasting nearly two weeks, the International Days 2022 were all about the University of Bonn’s international links and initiatives, including everything from academic panel discussions and workshops to research policy formats and cultural happenings. This year’s International Days opened with the state awards—including the Queen’s Prize, set up by the recently departed Queen Elizabeth II—being presented to outstanding early-career researchers by representatives from the British, Spanish and French Embassies.
The World Reputation Ranking, published by the prestigious magazine “Times Higher Education” (THE), has named the University of Bonn as one of the top 100 universities in the world. Its position in the group ranked 91st–100th marks a very strong performance by the University, which has also come an outstanding sixth within Germany.
From the CRISPR Cas9 gene scissors to artificial intelligence and reprogrammed cells: New technologies are always associated with ethical questions for research and application, to which there are no easy answers. irecs, the new collaborative project funded by the European Union, aims to strengthen principles of research ethics in as many disciplines as possible. Under the leadership of the University of Bonn, 17 partner organizations from Germany and abroad have joined forces to drive the project forward. The EU is funding the project with a total of 4.5 million euros over the next three years.
How can we use biotechnology to create a sustainable future in an ethical way? This question is addressed in teaching materials for schoolchildren produced by the Smithsonian Science Education Center in the USA. Agricultural economist Prof. Dr. Matin Qaim from the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn is involved with the chapter on "Biotechnology and Food Systems".