News — University of Bonn

Bonn Most Successful University in Excellence Strategy

The Excellence Commission, made up of the Committee of Experts and the science ministers at federal and state level, announced earlier today that the University of Bonn has been awarded funding from the federal and state governments for a further seven years (2027–2033). With its eight Clusters of Excellence, the University of Bonn will thus retain its crown as the most successful University of Excellence in the contest as it enters the new funding period. The University will now take additional strategic steps to establish itself in the leading pack of the world’s best universities over the long term, says Rector Professor Michael Hoch.

University of Bonn Boosting Gender Equality Through Research and Engagement

The winners of this year’s Gender Studies Prize and Maria von Linden Gender Equality Prize were honored at a ceremony last Friday, June 19, 2026. With these annual accolades, the University of Bonn Gender Equality Office recognizes outstanding final and doctoral theses on gender studies and exemplary commitment to gender equality.

An Ongoing Commitment to Excellence in Learning

Around 120 staff and students at the University of Bonn came together on June 15 to reflect on the quality management system used in teaching and learning and develop it further to best meet prevailing needs, focusing on innovative concepts for evaluation and the continuous improvement of the work being done by the evaluation project groups.

Making a Second Home in Bonn

Whether it is cooking dinner together, having someone to spend Christmas with or enjoying a spontaneous trip to the opera, many international students find that it is precisely these encounters that can make the place where they are studying—somewhere a long way from where they came from—really feel like home. The University of Bonn’s “iStudy Family and Friends” program matches international students with local people for exactly this purpose. As many as 125 students from over 40 countries have already signed up since the 2025/26 winter semester, with 35 of them successfully making initial contact with 33 mentors. Additional hosts are now being sought so that even more students can find their special connection.

Collision in space is not evidence of dark matter after all?

When the map needs an update

Every time we move through a familiar environment, the hippocampus consults an internal map, a detailed spatial representation that is built up through repeated experience. But what happens when something unexpected occurs on a well-known route? Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn were able to demonstrate in a mouse model that the brain does not redraw its maps from scratch. Instead, it annotates them: preserving the underlying spatial layout while overlaying new information on top of the existing map. Their findings have now been published in the journal PNAS.

University of Bonn Students Triumph with Autonomous Racecar

Das studentische KI- und Robotikprojekt der Universität Bonn LamarRacing hat bei der RoboRacer Competition im Rahmen der IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2026 in Wien eine Auszeichnung gewonnen. Im Zeitfahrwettbewerb erzielte das Bonner Team LamarRacing die beste Leistung des gesamten Teilnehmerfelds und gewann mit deutlichem Vorsprung die Time-Trial-Wertung. Für diese Leistung erhielt das Team die Auszeichnung „Best Performance Overall“. Im anschließenden 1-gegen-1-Rennformat erreichte LamarRacing den vierten Platz.