Research and Study at the University of Excellence in Bonn

University of Bonn physicist Rudolf Clausius (1822-1888), famous for postulating the second law of thermodynamics and introducing the concept of entropy—a vital theorem of the natural sciences—was born in January 200 years ago. Surprisingly little is known about the life of this extraordinarily talented scientist, comparable in stature to Helmholtz, despite his great achievements in the field of physics, and the fact that he remained fully active in research on up into his later years. The last installment of the lecture series entitled “The Motive Force of Heat” was devoted to shedding more light on his research work for the lay public in an experiential way.

Smartphones, tablets and wearables that measure step counts or calorie consumption, for example, have become an integral part of many people's everyday lives. All these devices are part of the Internet of Things - a socio-technological reality that is increasingly becoming the focus of legislation. In a new project, researchers from the Universities of Bonn, Osnabrück, Stirling and Warwick (both UK) investigate how consumers can be better protected when using smart devices. The project, which has been described by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as "world leading", is scheduled to run for three years and has a total funding volume of around 650,000 euros.

The Mathematics Department of the University of Bonn has awarded the Hausdorff Memorial Prize to former doctoral student Florian Schweiger for the best PhD thesis in mathematics in the past academic year. The honor, which took place virtually, was held by the chair of the Department, Prof. Dr. Anton Bovier, subsequent to the Hausdorff Colloquium.

Watch our latest video on the “Resources of Power” Exhibition to find out how objects talk about dependency and slavery. Researchers at the 'Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies' (BCDSS), the only Excellence Cluster in the field of humanities and social sciences at Bonn University, are keen to show the impact that material culture had and still has.