As part of this year’s International Days, four highly talented early-career researchers from the University of Bonn who demonstrated superlative academic ability in their final theses were presented with the traditional state awards at a special ceremony. Meanwhile, an international early-career researcher was recognized for his outstanding academic performance and extraordinary social engagement with the Prize of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

From 29 October to 1 November, the city of Bonn will once again host the high-profile “International Security Forum Bonn” (ISFB), bringing together internationally renowned experts and practitioners from the fields of security, strategy, and foreign policy to discuss the future of transatlantic relations and key global challenges.This year’s main themes are the transformation of European security dynamics and space policy. 

The new “Diversity Strategy of the University of Bonn (2025–2030)” makes it clear what the University of Bonn is planning to achieve over the next few years in terms of diversity. Specifically, it is aiming to foster an inclusive University culture that rejects discrimination and welcomes a wide range of viewpoints. The strategy was formulated together with representatives from all status groups.

As far as particles of light are concerned, the collective is more important than the individual. When they get to decide between two states, they will favor the one that many of their fellow particles have already adopted. However, this collectivist tendency does not kick in until enough photons have assembled in the same place. These findings, revealed by University of Bonn physicists in a recent study, could aid the development of ultra-powerful laser sources, among other things. They have now been published in the journal “Physical Review Letters.”

The University Medal is the highest honor that the University of Bonn can bestow on its members and its wider community, meaning that it is only ever awarded to people who have rendered truly special service to the University. The medal is presented by the Rectorate and the Senate, which counts representatives of all the University’s status groups among its members. This year, this unique accolade was conferred on to four exceptional individuals during the ceremonial opening of the academic year 2025/26.

Will it be possible to treat severe kidney inflammation with fewer drugs in the future? A new study by the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn, and the University of Hamburg gives cause for hope. The researchers show that even low, repeated doses of steroids could be enough to stop inflammation in particularly aggressive crescentic glomerulonephritis (cGN). The findings, which have now been published in Science Translational Medicine, could fundamentally change the treatment of many patients – and significantly reduce side effects.

Language models are now also being used in the natural sciences. In chemistry, they are employed, for instance, to predict new biologically active compounds. Chemical language models (CLMs) must be extensively trained. However, they do not necessarily acquire knowledge of biochemical relationships during training. Instead, they draw conclusions based on similarities and statistical correlations, as a recent study by the University of Bonn demonstrates. The results have now been published in the journal Patterns.

An international research project has been launched involving Dr. Eva Marie Lehner and Julia Schmidt of the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn. The project aim is to study how bureaucratic classifications of people influenced social orders in southern Africa during the colonial period. The collaborative project titled “Economies of Trust: Digital Infrastructure on the Urban Poor in the Cape Colony” is receiving €253,000 of funding from the Gerda Henkel Foundation. A further subproject at the BCDSS is devoted to studying the social networks of single women.